ROM Hacking, Patches, and the legal consequences

To be blunt we knew this could happen, but I'm just as floored as many others. Honestly i feel like maybe its time to halt outright announcing things to the masses until its time for release to minimize the chance of nintendont nuking it before completion. That said im not surprised that koolboyman was the one to get the first strike of the hammer. I say that because it was obvious that if nintendont were to nuke a hack it would be one from one of the bigger names in the community. That said kinda curious as to why they picked prism over something like prpb but it is a moot point. I doubt this will be the end of nintendont attacking its fanbase. Btw i say nintendont because they dont want us altering their ip in ways they believe will detract from the sales they have. That said i think we have a lot to worry about now.

Mr.Mako has a point. I feel that the reason something like this happened was because the promotional material was released on a site that is popular, along with Nintendo having a fear that these hacks and fangames might detract sales from their official games. Also, looking at the logo of Pokemon Prism, it has notable similarity to the logos of Pokemon Sun & Moon. There's also one of 7th Gen's new legendary Pokemon Necrozma who seems to be based on a prism (its ability is also called Prism Armor) and might indicate that Prism is what the rumoured Sun & Moon sequel might actually be called.

It's definitely a reason why I think fear will be running rampant around the ROM hack community.

Hikamaru said:

Mr.Mako has a point. I feel that the reason something like this happened was because the promotional material was released on a site that is popular, along with Nintendo having a fear that these hacks and fangames might detract sales from their official games. Also, looking at the logo of Pokemon Prism, it has notable similarity to the logos of Pokemon Sun & Moon. There's also one of 7th Gen's new legendary Pokemon Necrozma who seems to be based on a prism (its ability is also called Prism Armor) and might indicate that Prism is what the rumoured Sun & Moon sequel might actually be called.

It's definitely a reason why I think fear will be running rampant around the ROM hack community.

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I don't think Necrozma has anything to do with it. Besides, lots of other POkemon exist which have some object or artibute you could link to a prism.

I think here's it's just a case of Nintendo protecting its IP (and yes, to protect against a possible detraction of sales) from a rom hack (which are all illegal with copyright usage) which got particularly popular. I think also that only the popular ones will really be targeted still.

I guess they gotta protect their brand, but I do wish they would be less aggressive about it. Also, they C&D prism but still leave the endless app store Pok?mon knockoffs? That just seems a little horrible of them, C&D on the fan games but letting the infinite cheap knockoffs go unscathed?

You do have a point, since I feel IP protection would make more sense as the logical reason. I think this serves as a message that promoting a hack and seeing it get popular will cause the creator of said hack to be at risk of their creations getting nuked.

I haven't posted on this site in years and I just wanted to say that I'm absolutely floored. I've been following Prism ever since I first opened an account here.

Koolboyman, if you're reading this, I'm so sorry.

Absolutely pathetic behaviour by Ninty. It's a non profit hack of a game that's 17 years old. Grow up Nintendo.

I didn't really know much about this rom hack project, but I really enjoy seeing the progress of it and the result is pretty amazing.

Pretty terrible of Nintendo to do such a thing sadly.

Nintendo are 100% within their rights and not exercising that right actively harms their legal integrity. Yes, it sucks, no, they aren't machiavellian suits plotting ways to make their fanbase hate them.

As for the future of ROM Hacking, I think it's going to continue as business as usual, honestly. We've, or at least I have, always operated under the knowledge that it can all go away with the snap of a lawyer's fingers, but I don't ROM hack to get a release, I do it because it's fun. It's not like there aren't still ways to release ROM hacks, it's just that they aren't sustainable at such massive levels of popularity. Not to "victim blame" but I'd argue this was a predictable outcome when you partner with something as huge as tpp to promote your hack. Probably not KBM's wisest idea, but of course I'm still very sympathetic that it actually happened and sad that I'll likely not get to play Prism.

Should've just stayed low and under the radar. :S

Ant there I was wondering if I was gonna buy Sun&Moon. Not a chance now.

This is why we use Patches, to avoid all this legal nonsense. When you go on making trailers and other things on social media which promotes your game using copyright characters and a copyright franchise, the least you can expect is this result. Like him, I too think that the fact that he promoted his game using the Pokemon franchise's name is what brought upon it's downfall.

I think taking down his website and the video would do well enough. He can still release his game in the form of a patch, as that would be entirely his work by definition.

Pardon my french, but you gotta be f'ing kidding me! I was really looking forward to playing this finally, damn you Nintendo. Such a shame they took almost 2 decades before they finally bothered to strike.

Incineroar said:

He was releasing a patch, just in a custom format. They're still requiring its takedown. The game cannot legally be given to the public.

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I don't think they have legal ability to issue the takedown of a patch, as they own neither the technique or data contained.

This is really disheartening but I understand Nintendo's stance on where they stand. I'd say I hope they go back on it, but that probably won't happen. I was really looking forward to playing Prism this Christmas...

FBI said:

I don't think they have legal ability to issue the takedown of a patch, as they own neither the technique or data contained.

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they do have the legal ability, the c&d objected to the distributing of a game using the pokemon brand, not the data

it doesn't really matter anyway since most hackers aren't crazy enough to fight nintendo's lawyers in court over something as frivolous as a fangame

I don't know, there's nothing left to be said, it's a real shame and while Nintendo is at its damn well right, this doesn't feel fair at all. Just like what Hands said up there, Prism was a Non-Profitable project for an almost 2 decades old game that in no way could harm Nintendo, it was such an awful move of them.
Leaving this whole incident aside though, can anyone actually guess a fraction of the sadness that KBM must be experiencing right now? All those years of unpaid work for nothing.. this is just.. agh, awful.

DoesntKnowHowToPlay said:

they do have the legal ability, the c&d objected to the distributing of a game using the pokemon brand, not the data

it doesn't really matter anyway since most hackers aren't crazy enough to fight nintendo's lawyers in court over something as frivolous as a fangame

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I see. Rather than the game itself, they're tackling the brand name route. So keeping things under the radar is the only way to get around that (lol).

I don't see ROM hacking dieing out because of this though.

In the end, Prism just got too popular too fast. If the recent trailer didn't put it into the limelight, it probably wouldn't have been as likely to be taken down. The worst part about this is how it hurts everybody. It hurts the fanbase because they are being punished for paying tribute for the games they love, it hurts the developer because all those years of working on big scale projects like these were pretty much wasted, and it even hurts Nintendo's credibility as a business. They can potentially lose fans for doing something like this. Ik it's important to protect their IPs, but still. I can't quite understand why they keep going for the fan games that don't even profit, when there are online app games that DO profit from from this, and yet Nintendo hasn't made an attempt at those. (From what I hear at least.) The fact that they seem to be the only company doing this sure doesn't help them either. In the end, the company's gotta do what they gotta do. We can't exactly stop them from protecting what is their's in the first place. :/

Aren't rom hacks legal since they're just mods of a game?