Nintendo Cracking Down: Should we be worried?

[Raviel the Phantom]

I found this article with some troubling news about a fan-game that, while I never played through, was always interested in starting.

http://www.thisisinsider.com/pokemon-uranium-fan-game-shut-down-by-nintendo-2016-8?utm_content=buffer8b673&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

What do you guys think? Should Reborn be concerned?

[dead account]

As I've said before, Nintendo is not "cracking down" on fan games. AM2R and Pokemon Uranium just happened to get a lot of attention and Nintendo pretty much had to do something because a. copyright law is a bitch and b. this is happening while they're trying to maintain hype for Sun and Moon.

If Nintendo was really cracking down on fan games, you'd have been hearing about a lot more projects getting shut down as well as them releasing a statement or something outright condemning fan games.

And in Uraniums' case, Nintendo's lawyers just issued several takedown notices of links. Then the Uranium devs themselves took down the rest of the official links on their site out of respect for Nintendo's apparent wishes. But of course the words "shut down" will get you more clicks than "the devs took down their own links" or something like that, so that's what every gaming news site is saying.

So, no, as long as Reborn doesn't get too much attention when it eventually fully releases, it should be fine.

Also, I'm sure if you ask around, someone might have a link to download Uranium.

[Tartar]

The thing about Pokémon Uranium was that it got around 1,5 million downloads in a very short timespan. An enormous number of downloads, considering that's 20% of the sales of Pokémon ORAS, and it would likely have reached 2-3 million download had the original links still been up. These incredible download numbers are far bigger than anything Reborn has ever achieved, which has around 65k users on its forums as of this moment, which implies that the game probably hasn't been downloaded more than 100k times over the 5 years of its development.

[dead account]

How many people signed up for the forum is not really indicative of how many people actually downloaded the game. I'm sure most people who stumble across Reborn download the game and ignore the forum.

Hell, at one point the site was lagging like hell because someone posted something about Reborn on 9gag and that caused a lot of people coming in to download the game and only a handful of people actually joined the forum afterwards.

[Tartar]

Okay, my estimate may have been a bit low. But the main point was that Reborn has so far gotten very little publicity and not garnered very much attention or trafic when compared to the release of Pokémon Uranium.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

I wish people and sites would stop saying they were "shut down" because whenever I hear misinformation like that I have the urge to correct it and it's kind of exhausting > . < Luckily Breakfast already did that in this thread.

[Azeria]

I wish people and sites would stop saying they were "shut down" because whenever I hear misinformation like that I have the urge to correct it and it's kind of exhausting > . < Luckily Breakfast already did that in this thread.

This. This so much.

[Cepheus]

As I've said before, Nintendo is not "cracking down" on fan games. AM2R and Pokemon Uranium just happened to get a lot of attention and Nintendo pretty much had to do something because a. copyright law is a bitch and b. this is happening while they're trying to maintain hype for Sun and Moon.

You know one thing is bothering me ... "They are trying to maintain hype for Sun and Moon".

If 1.5 Million People download a fan game, with all new Pokemon - isn't that an indication for hype?

maybe these people always wanted to try a Pokemon game, to see if they would like the concept and don't own a 3DS maybe because of money-reasons - without using Emulators illegally (or not having the knowledge of Emulators) - like a 11 year old, who doesn't have the money, or their parents don't have the money to buy it for them.

and then they are getting "blocked" by Nintendo because - "BUY OUR GAME FOR WHICH YOU HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER FEW MONTHS! OH, AND YOU NEED THIS HANDHELD!"

and since there are no official links anymore - they might think it's impossible to get it anymore - because maybe they are kids, and don't have the knowledge of how the internet works, or their parents handle all their download stuff.

In the end, it is always only about the money, but they never realize that they never lose any money through fan games, they might even get more fans that would buy their game and make even more money... but whatever... Copyright law is a bitch...

and with AM2R is the one thing where it only is about copyright - because, what has Nintendo done with the Metroid Series? - the lackluster multiplayer Federation Force, nobody asked for.

AM2R is a perfect example of what people expect of Metroid game.

We want to explore an open world and not be confined a mission-style gameplay... that is something for Star Fox.

I finished it in ~7hours 100% completely blind, since I never played the original Metroid 2.

Nintendo has done nothing big with Metroid since the Wii with MP3 and Other M (I still like Other M - FIGHT ME!) so Metroid completeley missed the Wii U cycle, just like F-Zero... which also missed the Wii Cycle - GOD DAMNIT NINTENDO!

give us a new F-Zero or I'll make my own! (after I learn Game-development, programming, 3D-modelling, animation and/or spriting)

and now I got carried away... *sigh*

All I wanted to say is - Fan games make the HYPE for coming official games only stronger, because you can bridge the waiting time while actually playing

I've NEVER seen anyone who played a fangame say: "I don't need the upcoming game anymore, because I have <Fangame>."

[dead account]

You know one thing is bothering me ... "They are trying to maintain hype for Sun and Moon".

If 1.5 Million People download a fan game, with all new Pokemon - isn't that an indication for hype?

maybe these people always wanted to try a Pokemon game, to see if they would like the concept and don't own a 3DS maybe because of money-reasons - without using Emulators illegally (or not having the knowledge of Emulators) - like a 11 year old, who doesn't have the money, or their parents don't have the money to buy it for them.

and then they are getting "blocked" by Nintendo because - "BUY OUR GAME FOR WHICH YOU HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER FEW MONTHS! OH, AND YOU NEED THIS HANDHELD!"

and since there are no official links anymore - they might think it's impossible to get it anymore - because maybe they are kids, and don't have the knowledge of how the internet works, or their parents handle all their download stuff.

In the end, it is always only about the money, but they never realize that they never lose any money through fan games, they might even get more fans that would buy their game and make even more money... but whatever... Copyright law is a bitch...

and with AM2R is the one thing where it only is about copyright - because, what has Nintendo done with the Metroid Series? - the lackluster multiplayer Federation Force, nobody asked for.

AM2R is a perfect example of what people expect of Metroid game.

We want to explore an open world and not be confined a mission-style gameplay... that is something for Star Fox.

I finished it in ~7hours 100% completely blind, since I never played the original Metroid 2.

Nintendo has done nothing big with Metroid since the Wii with MP3 and Other M (I still like Other M - FIGHT ME!) so Metroid completeley missed the Wii U cycle, just like F-Zero... which also missed the Wii Cycle - GOD DAMNIT NINTENDO!

give us a new F-Zero or I'll make my own! (after I learn Game-development, programming, 3D-modelling, animation and/or spriting)

and now I got carried away... *sigh*

All I wanted to say is - Fan games make the HYPE for coming official games only stronger, because you can bridge the waiting time while actually playing

I've NEVER seen anyone who played a fangame say: "I don't need the upcoming game anymore, because I have <Fangame>."

I won't argue against your point. It's pretty valid. Problem is what I said is likely very similar to Nintendo's (and/or their lawyer's) thought process. Wouldn't surprise me if they somehow equate a download for Uranium to a lost sale in some manner. This wouldn't be the first time Nintendo showed just how out of touch with their fanbase and and/or gaming in general they are nowadays.

Though tbh. In the case of Pokemon, I guess I'll have to say I'm the exception to your whole having never seen anyone say : "I don't need the upcoming game anymore, because I have <Fangame>." thing. The fact that there are plenty of fangames that I consider better than anything Game Freak seems willing to put out, combined with my utter disappointment with gen 6 and with some of what I've seen from Sun and Moon so far. I don't need or want to buy another subpar game from Game Freak, because I can just wait around for updates to fangames like Reborn, Rejuvenation, Insurgence and Phoenix Rising. And I'm pretty sure I'll get far more enjoyment from each of those than what Sun and Moon could ever offer me.

[Tartar]

Just pointing out that if you were disappointed in XY and ORAS, then you'd probably not have bothered with Sun and Moon even if you hadn't discovered the Fangame scene.

[Froiky]

That is concerning. I've been waiting so long for Reborn to update and would hate it if Nintendo tried to take it down as well. If they don't like these games going up then Nintendo should at least hire these talented people rather than snub their creativity and passion.

[NickCrash]

We've already explained in full detail how losing hype during a promotional period for a new official game can have a negative effect on sales. For a more mature audience, well-thought and executed fangames are enough, as they can quench their competitive battling thirst in online emulators such as Pokemon Online and Showdown.

Uranium just happened to finish a bit late (imo) because it happened to coincide with the marketing and promotion of S&M. If they re-upload the game some months after S&M's debut in stores, they will be perfectly fine. I'm sure that Ame will be aware of GF's moves when the development time for Reborn's final episode is about to finish, and wait for a period of zero hype for the official games to do it.