[Discussion] What if Nintendo allowed the fan game community to sell their games?

Before I start this is not a discussion of why this will never happen, this is your predictions of what would happen if this were allowed, metaphorically.
How do you think it'd change the way the community reacts? Would it die off due to everyone being selfish, or would it bring huge popularity from people wanting to make money?
Would people still make free games? Would you quality of the games drop from people trying making a quick buck? or would it increase due to people putting more effort in?

Share your opinions below, keep in mind this is all metaphorical and would never happen.

I actually am against the general community being able to sell their games, as there would be a lot of really terrible games advertised falsely which would drown out high quality material.

What I would support is Nintendo keeping track of certain fan projects and if they seem like they will be high quality (like many of the games here) then Nintendo supports them with things like money or a small team of developers. That way people don't make money off of really bad games through misleading advertising, and those who put effort into and really care about their projects get rewarded. And of course Nintendo then gets to sell the finished product giving credit and some of the profits to the original creator(s).

Finally, the word you were looking for was hypothetically, not metaphorically. Unless things are different in England!

I don't see the point of it really. But I guess for some, it might push them to focus a bit more. I could see it upping the drive of some individuals.

But once again, I don't see the point of selling it.

Unless you know how to make games for a couple of years, I don't recommend you to start with Nintendo.
It seriously is a whole different story than RPG Maker XP or GameMaker, it's mostly figuring it out yourself in C++ (or a modified Unity for Wii U).

Not only that, you should keep the following in mind: Age Ratings, DevKits, DevTeams, you easily waste over 10000 Euros, before you write your first line of Code.
On the Wii U and 3DS, you are required to ask at least $ 0,10 USD per game.
The real hell begins at Lot Checking (Nintendo's Guidelines, if at least one thing fails on it, your game won't pass), because if your game doesn't pass it, it'll cost you a handful of money, so you have to make sure you pass at the first try, which is free.

Some questions answered in advance:
Fan Projects are considered Copyrighted, so Nintendo doesn't allow that.
Mii Characters, Mario Characters, Zelda Characters, etc. can only be used with Nintendo's permissions.
Individuals don't get in neither, you must have a registered company, and a secure business location (a separate room in your house with a lockable door is fine enough).

Source: I'm an authorised 3DS and Wii U Developer.

MKGirlism said:

Source: I'm an authorised 3DS and Wii U Developer.

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Anyone can say that their a authorised developer.

But, anyway, I wouldn't see the point in selling a fan game, chances are a whole load of stuff in-game has infricted copyright, so you'd have to ask for copyright, and pay nessecary fees for it as well, and chances are you'd lose rather than gain money.

It's indeed a bit hard to give the ultimate proof, because the NDA doesn't allow sharing confidential information.
But if you need basic proof, check out this Thread:
http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=308918

Thanks for the response but that wasn't really what I was getting at.
I was more aiming at if all of this were possible and easy, how would it effect the fan game community.

Well, my point was based on how it actually works.
You can't assume anything that's not even possible, right?

But to answer your question anyway, I guess people should have mixed feelings about it.
Some people should be amazed, but after a while, it becomes so normal, that everyone will start to go like "Meh".

This is what you might have seen with Android and iOS, people used to be unique when making an iOS or Android App, but since everyone can do it without any other requirement but having enough money, it became a usual thing to do.
When looking at the Tokyo Games Show list, most games were Smartphone or Tablet games, and I was almost gasping.
When this happened 6 years ago, I was rather amazed, only because it was new, and nobody did that yet.

ЩѻƦḽᶑʂḽдƴƹƦ™ said:

I don't see the point of it really. But I guess for some, it might push them to focus a bit more. I could see it upping the drive of some individuals.

But once again, I don't see the point of selling it.

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I know it's old, but I could see the point in a few projects, such as games that deviate a lot from the pokemon formula (anything that pretty much isn't POKEMON [whatever colour/stone/mineral/planet/whatever] VERSION), or a game that provides some unique feature. Ninty's pretty closed though so I would doubt they'd even take it into consideration, regardless of the tools you used for it.

You shouldn't count on being able to use the Tools you like, as you can only use Tools Nintendo supports, which are not allowed to be publicly available.
That's why you can't get, for example, Unity for Wii U, FMOD for 3DS/Wii U, or IncrediBuild for Wii U and/or 3DS, without being Licensed.

Besides, you must use Versions of the SDK they want you to use, because otherwise, they won't accept it.
But Nintendo is also willing to provide exceptions in many cases.
For example, if you use Unity for Wii U, and it's not allowed for submission, but the Release Date is nearing, you can submit it for a pre-check, after getting permission.

I think it would be a way for the community to really connect with Nintendo / GameFreak.

The only way i could see it working well is if Nintendo played some of the custom games out there and thought they were good enough to approve them, and only then could the creators actually sell them. Before even getting to the selling stage, I would say the approved games would have to undergo testing by proper devs to check for any glaring or gamebreaking glitches.

This idea of Nintendo approved content would definitely reduce the likelihood of a lot of junk games being released for a quick buck, which would almost certainly happen if creators were given free will.

That won't work, really.
It's easily stated, but it doesn't mean it's the reality.

Nintendo could play games and establish a Publishing Contract with you, but only if:
1. You're a licensee, and...
2. Your game contains no Copyright at all (Custom Pokémon games are considered Copyrighted).

Nintendo won't waste any time with these games unless it's to sue...
The only other reason is to see what the public want to see in their games...
I can't imagine Nintendo actually caring about our games otherwise, they're too busy to be playing these games, or to "playtest" as someone mentioned earlier, and 9 times out of 10, the games are pretty much a failure to even be considered a money making investment, not to mention they'd have to give you money for the rights, and, money for using any material created by you or anyone else on this community or any other.

Nintendo won't allow it.

The only way to make money selling your games, are to friends, family or colleagues... The only other way to make money in such a franchise, is to make items or special Pokémon by PayPal, but then you'd either need 2 things, online features, or, dedication to your game... The latter is impossible in this world... The former would make your game an MMO, and since many get shut down for the reason that is, it's a Pokémon MMO, you won't get far.

If Nintendo would allow the sale of your games, this would remove all the crappy ones from many websites at least and ones you need to buy would be downloaded more than likely... However, I've seen ideas of many members here and what they produce (if anything at all), and I wouldn't buy any of them... And the ones I might have... Are available free to download because of beta's and alpha's, so it becomes irrelevant again.

If you want to sell your game, I suggest only to your friends, family and colleagues, to avoid the likelihood of being sued... And even that I wouldn't bother doing... However there's nothing against selling your games through PM's and PayPal anyway lmao, but can you produce something worth selling?

Maybe my opinions are wrong, maybe they're right, who knows, but that's what I feel.

It really wouldn't make that much of a difference. Most people in this section, wouldn't really be that motivated to try and learn Ruby, or any other languages just to meet the demands of what's suppose to be a hobby. Likewise, the hacking section, which although is a step up in motivation, aren't committed enough to use a base other than Pokemon Firered. Not to mention the kind of in-game text butchering I've seen in a couple of those hacks.

Well dosen't Nintendo support the fan games, like a small convention or something?
Now if we were able to sell them.. I think it would hurt the community. It would be more work to make them, worry about sales, it wouldn't be a hobby anymore.

Nintendo is no evil company, remember?
They won't sue you for making a Fan Game, I'm sure they actually are able to enjoy them, but not support them.

Take some fan Sonic games, SEGA sees them, gets amazed, tells this to the Press, but does it mean they will establish a Publishing Contract with the maker(s)? Nope.

MKGirlism said:

Nintendo is no evil company, remember?
They won't sue you for making a Fan Game, I'm sure they actually are able to enjoy them, but not support them.

Take some fan Sonic games, SEGA sees them, gets amazed, tells this to the Press, but does it mean they will establish a Publishing Contract with the maker(s)? Nope.

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And Megaman X Street Fighter? A fangame that became official with Capcom funding the release?

Capcom is very more aware (and ahead) of fan comunities than Nintendo. But, at least, Nintendo surprises me making a worldwire release of Pokémon XY.

I think we have strayed off topic. The question was whether it would affect the community, not what the process would be like. Although, if we want to change it to that, I don't mind.

FL . said:

And Megaman X Street Fighter? A fangame that became official with Capcom funding the release?

Capcom is very more aware (and ahead) of fan comunities than Nintendo. But, at least, Nintendo surprises me making a worldwire release of Pokémon XY.

Click to expand...

I wasn't aware of that one, although I know Capcom is indeed more Community-friendly than the other AAA companies.

I guess this can be closed because it doesn't relate to the topic any more.
Thanks for everyone's opinions though, it was good to hear what you all thought about.