Well i’ve come to learn about this just now

[kwatar]

Honestly, I wonder if fuss about Palworld is to blame for this. Palworld doesn't seem like it actually committed any IP infringements but all these people were upset that it was somewhat similar that they reported it to oblivion, even though there was nothing really Nintendo/The Pokemon Company could do. But hey, Pokemon Essentials was something they could take down that might, in their eyes, lead to another situation akin to Palworld.

 

[catchneko]

I'll be honest it's unlikely that Palworld had anything to do with it. Even less likely that Nintendo struck Relic Castle just because they didn't want another Palworld.
I've heard it was an AI algorithm that issued the DMCA takedown, though I still don't have a source for this besides a Reddit comment and things people said in a Discord server, which really is not a reliable source of information.
I'm banned from Relic Castle's Discord server (for being rude to people and complaining a lot, so I deserved it 😓), otherwise I'd just ask them myself.

 

[Thuxo]

I'm not saying that it's good that Nintendo takes down fangames, or that it's bad that Sega doesn't. Honestly I think it's terrible that Nintendo is so ruthless with taking down everything their fans make. I'd love for them to be like Sega and support fan content.

The video that ThomasWinwood posted above is a great watch to explain it, and I'm mostly just paraphrasing some of the points in that video, but:

"Copyright law basically forces them to be highly defensive of their IP because they stand to lose a lot if the value of the brands that hold up their entire company weaken" is the *reason* they do it, and in their position is basically their only option. Pokémon is literally THE most profitable multimedia franchise of all time, and Nintendo is desperate to hold onto the exclusive rights to it, which means they immediately stamp out anything they see as threatening/competition, no matter how small, because they can't afford any damage to the value of their brand, which as a media company, is extremely valuable to them.
And Pokémon is the most profitable media franchise in the world *in spite* of everything they supposedly do wrong, even with the fans declaring every new game since... probably at least Diamond/Pearl to be the worst, most unforgivable games ever how could you do this to us wtf game freak i'm never ever ever ever buying another pokemon game ever again until the next one comes out, until the kids who grew up with those games get older and suddenly they're amazing underrated gems (The fanbase's general opinions of Generation 5 now vs back in like 2012 are VERY different), even with all the "wasted potential" the games have, it's outperformed *everything*. Nintendo doesn't view the community relations and free advertising to be worth the potential damage to their gold mine of a brand, and they don't have the resources to manage their fanbase. They've arguably pissed off the community plenty, and they still succeed despite that, so it's not really worth it to "love their fans" to them.

This was a bit of a ramble but tl;dr it's basically copyright law and capitalism's fault for making it more profitable for Nintendo to nuke fangames from existence and it's not just a simple case of "they want to be mean because they feel like it".

I'm conflicted. I watched the linked video and it was pretty informative, but I'm of the mind that Nintendo has been accumulating damage with each new generation. Like I was probably the biggest Pokemon fanboy you could possibly imagine and just lost faith in their ability to ever make another good Pokemon game after continuing to give too many chances. Sun and Moon were so good... and then Ultra Sun and Moon were the biggest cash grab I've ever seen. Then it just got worse with Sword and Shield where I didn't even made the smaller pokedex, but was incredibly annoyed that the main story was only 10 hours long. And then... I didn't bother buying the diamond and pearl remakes due to them actually removing content and being lazily outsourced ... and finaly while Legends of Arceus was at least somewhat interesting I'm not really sure it's enough given that after the galar anime finished I was super hyped and decided to give the main games one final chance... Violet I couldn't get more than 2/3 hours into and probably will never play more.

The way I see it, Nintendo hasn't suffered any permanent damage yet, because they established an awesome brand on kids who didn't have higher standard and didn't really know better. They ignored the games actual gameplay and replaced it in their minds with the boundless potential of the anime. And that's why Pokemon has been able to survive as a franchise and do so well despite its flaws (not to say there aren't a lot of other things going for them, but... it's why they get away with making relatively crappy products). I just feel like while it is true that some people will continue to buy Pokemon games no matter how poorly they are made by GameFreak, I feel like accumulated resentment will just lead to a huge mass exodus of fans at some point in one generation which a large decline in purchases that is pretty much impossible for Nintendo to poll or predict in advance as at some point deluded fans... will stop being deluded as better games will be made by creators that actually care more about producing good content instead of churning out the same thing yearly.

It's sad for me to say this as I think Pokemon has insane potential as a franchise ... or would if Nintendo's legal structure was set up differently and didn't have to be massively overprotective of their works. But as things stand, their reluctance to get super creative with it in a meaningful way or create high quality products that they actually spend proper development time and energy on sorta convinces me that it'll never really get any better. Many fan games are already way better than any of the official games and they're scared of that, which is exactly why they shut down relic castle. It's a shame because I love the potential of the series, but in practice just can't enjoy the main games anymore, and... I feel like the damage has been done and the overall decline in the franchise inevitable.

Maybe, I'm wrong, but I don't think they're untouchable by any means. I think it's going to collapse in on itself soon enough because they're simultaneously being too greedy and conservative at the same time instead of focusing on their actual community. A bit sad, but hopefully someday the situation is better or a combination of other franchises that are inspired by everything Pokemon did right grow and replace what the series is today. Because fan games certainly thoroughly convinced me that Pokemon can be infinitely better than it is currently and it's honestly sad that they're so scared of competition that they can't help but take it down and lower the overall quality of what people can actually consume.