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The creators of hit Pokémon fan-game, Pokémon Uranium, have pulled the links to the game, making it hard to find. Although not prompted by Nintendo sending a cease and desist, with 1.5 million downloads under their belt, it seems like they aren't planning to wait to receive it.
After nine years of work, the two main developers of Pokémon Uranium unleashed the finished version to the world just one week ago, with nearly 200 new Pokémon, new quests and gyms to take over and a new rival. Since then it has amassed over 1.5 million downloads from all over the world and a heap of praise from fans and press alike.
So many people downloaded the game in fact that it crashed the official servers. While backups were provided by others, a number of those sites have received cease and desist letters from Nintendo. The creators of Uranium haven't, but they want to respect the wishes of Nintendo to halt any official future distribution of the stand alone title.
Pokémon Uranium introduces the new Nuclear type Pokémon
“We have been notified of multiple takedown notices from lawyers representing Nintendo of America,” the developers' statement reads. “While we have not personally been contacted, it's clear what [Nintendo's] wishes are and we respect those wishes deeply.”
“Therefore, we will no longer provide official download links for the game.”
They did clarify that they would continue to update the game through the official patcher and provide support for those who have already downloaded it. They also admitted to having no connection to fans who re-upload the game files to their own hosts, but warned that certain download links may be nefarious, so urged caution when using them.
Later in a follow up address, they clarified that Nintendo had not sent any sort of notification their way, they just wanted to “respect their copyright.” They also said that for the most part, nothing would change, as the download links on the main site had been broken for a few days any way.
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KitGuru Says: This seems like a surprisingly relaxed response for a pair who have been working on a game for nine years, only to halt official distribution. However these developers seem quite savvy and know that those who want to download Uranium will find a way to do so, but this way they can avoid having to deal with lawyers.
i feel lucky that i have the instalation file now.
glad i downloaded it when it came out, figured this would happen. but i’m not clear about the ‘official updater’, is it built into the game? haven’t installed it yet so i’m not sure.
Such a shame, Pokémon Uranium was the best Pokémon game I’ve played in recent years….
What Nintendo should be doing is is hiring these as staff and then getting the rights to this game and distributing it officially even if ots for a couple of £
Savvy indeed. Release a game that clearly breach copyrights, distribute it to just enough people to keep it circling on the internet, then pull the download links and continue to support and update the game for anyone who gets their hands on it.