PokéCommunity Daily: Nintendo solicits Pokémon Uranium creators to takedown download links

[El Héroe Oscuro]

Nintendo of America takes action against the fangame Pokémon Uranium.

Click to read the full article here.

 

[TBM_Christopher]

Well, that's life. It's a shame that NoA had to issue such notice on a project that had been going on for so long, but the saying goes "The instant you stop defending your IP is the instant it's no longer yours."

 

[Jefries]

Well when it got finished I didn't download it luckily a friend gave me a download. Now I have yet to play the game but I think that it would have been nice if they didn't have to take action on the game. Now on the other side they had the right to do it since it was technically their property.

 

[Desert Stream~]

I honestly think it would be better if Nintendo itself did it, since then it would be their right to take it down. They have every right to do it, but if it were my decision I would have left it alone tbh.
But 9 years development? that must have hurt :p

 

[esperance]

...the ROM hack showcases over a hundred new Pokémon...

correction: Uranium is not a ROM hack.

 

[TheVoyager]

It's really not gone, as you can easily find torrents and copies of the game. Only the official link has been removed. There's no getting rid of it now that it's finished.

 

[Mewtwolover]

Am I the only one who thinks that the article is a bit ambiguous? It says that Nintendo of America takes action against the fangame Pokémon Uranium but Pokémon Uranium developers state that they haven't received a Cease & Desist or been contacted by Nintendo or the Pokemon Company.

It's really not gone, as you can easily find torrents and copies of the game. Only the official link has been removed. There's no getting rid of it now that it's finished.

This is good thing and maybe it should be mentioned in the article.

 

[Gigadweeb]

if they're not making money from it, who the fuck cares? people aren't going to play Uranium, or any other fangame for that matter, without being a fan of the game first.

 

[Caaethil]

if they're not making money from it, who the **** cares? people aren't going to play Uranium, or any other fangame for that matter, without being a fan of the game first.

Nintendo has to protect their IP or else they lose it. They probably don't care. They did it because it was getting a little too big, and I highly doubt they care that it's still floating around and people are playing it.

As for what I think - it's a shame but Nintendo has to protect their IP. This is the risk all ROM hackers and game devs have to take when they start infringing. They should all get ready for it as soon as the game gets a substantial following.

 

[El Héroe Oscuro]

correction: Uranium is not a ROM hack.

Haha that's funny you mentioned that, the other writers and I were contemplating whether it was a ROM hack or not and we had concluded that it was a fan game. I must have just overlooked it when I was replacing all of the "ROM hack" words in the article - whoops! :P

 

[Derxwna Kapsyla]

Another thing is; According to their post, they haven't been directly contacted by Nintendo. All they said was, they've been notified of takedown requests by lawyers representing Nintendo. As it stands, that's just takedown requests. They have not been ordered to stop development, so it's not like the game has stopped development.

And like mentioned earlier in the thread, making a Pokemon fangame- actually, this extends beyond Pokemon, as even other fangames aren't exempt; One must understand, when making a fangame of a franchise, popular or not, they undertake a great risk: the developers will find it, and they could shut it down prematurely. Whether you've put 9 months or 9 years into it, that's something you need to remember. While it is a shame that it has happened, I'm sure the Uranium devs knew this when they started, and were prepared for the risk.

 

[loinv74]

this hack is so good, their fakemon is very good and the story is quite interesting

 

[Psychic]

I hate to say it, but when I first heard about Uranium launching, I figured they would likely face this situation eventually. Nintendo usually goes after Pokemon fan games, and this was no exception. I hope the creators are able to avoid any legal issues since they took action somewhat preemptively, but I just keep thinking back to the guys who got sued over their Pokemon PAX party last year, and how they still had to pay even though they cancelled the party.

Sorry to hear this happened after so many years of hard work, and I hope things don't escalate.

~Psychic

 

[Lusus]

if they're not making money from it, who the **** cares? people aren't going to play Uranium, or any other fangame for that matter, without being a fan of the game first.

The fact that it is free yet really popular and (supposedly, I haven't played it) as good as an official Pokemon game is actually a fairly big problem, since you have to buy the official games, and if you don't have it you also have to buy the console. So this could be a free alternative to playing a modern Pokemon game for people who don't have or don't want to spend money. Shutting down popular fan games is basically a way to keep the attention to the official games.

 

[mej71]

The fact that it is free yet really popular and (supposedly, I haven't played it) as good as an official Pokemon game is actually a fairly big problem, since you have to buy the official games, and if you don't have it you also have to buy the console. So this could be a free alternative to playing a modern Pokemon game for people who don't have or don't want to spend money. Shutting down popular fan games is basically a way to keep the attention to the official games.

Fangames can't really compete with official games though. They're still mostly 4th gen/3rd gen style graphics, whereas new games are 3D with very clean and pretty graphics, not to mention how much better the battle system looks.
Fangames are an alternative to playing older games, which they don't distribute anymore, and most people play illegal copies on emulators anyway instead of old outdated game systems.
If anything, fangames keep people's interest in the official games more, since there's only so much post game content if you don't like competitive battling.

 

[Crizzle]

You know your game is good when you make Nintendo a little nervous. Congrats to that guys who made Uranium. From what I've seen/played, it's excellent.

 

[Dionysus-Lion]

This is a real shame IMHO. I've heard so many good things about this game, and surely, surely it isn't enough of a dent on Nintendo's IP to warrant takedown notices.

 

[Mewtwolover]

I hope the creators are able to avoid any legal issues since they took action somewhat preemptively, but I just keep thinking back to the guys who got sued over their Pokemon PAX party last year, and how they still had to pay even though they cancelled the party.

That party case was more serious than Pokémon Uranium because they had sold tickets to that party and therefore made money by using Pokémon without permission. Pokémon Uranium is free game so the creators will avoid legal issues.

 

[Melody]

This merely reeks of a lawyer trying to prove themself worthy of their retainer. In no way do I sense that NOA really cares. I highly doubt that the creators of this game ever turned a profit.

The fandom can and should raise an outcry against NOA for this. If we shame them now; they will keep their lawyers on a better leash, and avoid offending fans like this.

That said; they can't and won't be able to stop the game from being distributed. It's already out there. I think anyone who has a copy of the game can and should share it with others and upload it to as many websites as they can. I would hope PC staff also would comply with this; and not delete links to it. However I do understand if they choose not to do so; their policy seems to be not to piss off Nintendo. That's their decision. Still I think all fans can and should keep uploading this fan-game and I hope the developers don't give up on it. I hope that perhaps they can prove to NOA that this is a fan game that benefits them none to quash or quell. I hope the fans themselves rise up and say "This isn't acceptable Nintendo; don't be a dick because the law says you have to be, do something more than send takedowns." Maybe Nintendo Of America can and should contact the developers and try to work out some sort of compromise.

I get that IP has to be defended. But there's a right way to do it. And then there's a wrong way.

 

[Rot8er_ConeX]

It's interesting that you bring up Nintendo of America. From what I understand, the reason Nintendo seems the most aggressively protective of their copyrights out of the big three game companies is because unlike the other two, their headquarters is in Japan, which has different copyright laws than America. In certain areas - particularly parodies and spin-off works, the latter of which Uranium technically falls into - they're stricter than ours.

That said, since the DCMA didn't come directly from Nintendo - from any country at all - or TPCi, I will agree with you that it is a case of lawyers trying to please their retainers by doing something before they're told to.

I will also agree with you that the best thing we can do in this situation, in terms of protesting, is pass Uranium basically from hand to hand, let it saturate the internet, and let it not die. When Sun & Moon come out, and the day-one sales are higher than ever, let it send the message that fangames do not hurt the official games, but in fact help them retain the hype for longer.

(it should be noted that when I was much younger, I was adamantly against fanmade games. But I feel like in the past few years, the quality of fanmade spin-offs has gotten better and better. Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii, Pokemon Insurgence, Uranium, etc. The technology has gotten to the point where if you have an idea you can make it happen even if you're not a professional. Does that mean that professional game designers are obsolete? No. It just means we're closing the gap rapidly.)