It's unfortunate that copyright trolls can take down years of volunteer work so easily," PokéCommunity poster 00.Archer wrote on the forum. It doesn't need to be a bigger deal than it should be." But not everyone is taking that advice. Marin asks that PokéCommunity members "please don't freak out about the claim, and there's no reason to get angry with Nintendo or anyone else involved. The title was later locked out of consideration at The Game Awards after initially being listed among the nominees in the Best Fan Creation category. "We sincerely apologise that we have to do this, but there is no going around it." Advertisementįurther Reading Nintendo’s DMCA-backed quest against online fan gamesPokémon Essentials was used to build Pokémon Uranium, a fan game that received a reported 1.5 million downloads before being shut down by Nintendo. Earlier this week, however, PokéCommunity forum moderator Marin announced that "the Pokémon Essentials wikia and all downloads for it have been taken down due to a copyright claim by Nintendo of America." That means "we will not allow Pokémon Essentials or any of its assets to be hosted or distributed on PokéCommunity," the announcement reads.
#What are pokemon game maker websites mod#
As a free mod for the paid RPG Maker software, Pokémon Essentials offers all the graphics, music, maps, and tilesets a fan game maker needs to craft their own Poké-adventure.įans of the tool congregated around the PokeCommunity forums and a dedicated Pokémon Essentials wiki to download files, share creations, and discuss the scene. Since 2007, Pokémon Essentials has been a crucial part of the Pokémon fan game community. Now the company is taking aim at one of the tools used to build some of those fan games.
The episode has reignited online discussion about fair use, and the relationship between Nintendo and its fanbase.Further Reading Mod that adds online play to Super Mario 64 draws Nintendo’s ireNintendo has a long history of using legal action to take down fan games based on its popular copyrighted franchises. Beyond paying $24.99 for the required version of RPG Maker, users could download Pokémon Essential for free, and the makers did not profit from the tool. User MegaManTrigger also noted that while Pokémon Essentials was 11-years-old, the fan games it produced (such as Pokémon Uranium) "ended up getting released in 2016," thus making it a more current problem for Nintendo.įans are surprised about the takedown due to the age of the site, the relative insignificance of the kit relative to Nintendo's size, and the fact the tool was free to use. Many, however, have acknowledged Nintendo's right to protect its intellectual property. Others also queried the effectiveness of the copyright takedown, highlighting the creation kit can be easily re-distributed on file sharing sites once Nintendo stops looking. Several have expressed confusion as to why Nintendo would target an 11-year old creation kit, while user Becks questioned why Nintendo "acts like fan game devs are going to ruin their brands". "This isn't hurting anyone, especially them," user Hydrus fumed. On ResetEra, fans are currently railing against Nintendo. Despite the bad news, Marin urged Pokémon fans not to "freak out about the claim," adding "there's no reason to get angry with Nintendo or anyone else involved". According to The Verge, the last known proprieter of the Pokémon Essentials, Maruno, has confirmed the downloads have been deleted, while the Fandom that hosted the wiki page has also stated Nintendo took action against it. Apparently, Pokémon Essentials will no longer be "hosted or distributed on PokéCommunity".
#What are pokemon game maker websites software#
Photo credit: Atheerios, ResetEra.Ī member from forum PokéCommunity, Marin, announced they could no longer host the software on the community forums, stating " the Pokémon Essentials wikia and all downloads for it have been taken down due to a copyright claim by Nintendo of America". The RPG Maker was used to make a number of fan games. It was perhaps something of an inevitability, therefore, that Nintendo would target the root of the problem. It was founded in 2007, and was used to create popular fan game Pokémon Uranium, which was shut down two years ago following a reported copyright notice from Nintendo. According to Kotaku, the site used "full tilesets, maps, music, and sprites" from the official games, as well as all the classic mechanics required to catch and collect Pokémon. The kit in question, a role-playing game maker, allowed users to design their own Pokémon adventures. Now, Nintendo has gone after a new target: 11-year old fan game creator, Pokémon Essentials.
In the last few months alone, it filed several lawsuits against emulation sites, and is believed to have indirectly pressured ROM site EmuParadise into shutting down.
Nintendo has gained a bit of a reputation for its strict copyright policy.