Nintendo takes down Pokemon Fankit

If you ever played or downloaded an unofficial Pokémon game on your computer, it was most likely built with Pokémon Essential. It is an RPG Maker XP using Pokémon assets from previous generations.

Pokémon Essentials provides full tilesets, maps, music, and sprites that players can drag and drop onto a canvas. All the classic mechanics necessary to collect and battle Pokémon come packed-in, too. While the tool has a learning curve, for the most part, fans are able to focus more on the plot of their games. Accordingly, some cool recent projects I’ve spotted include narrative concepts like telling battle stories around a camp fire, and staging an attack against the notorious Silph Co. corporation – Kotaku

Voluntary Twitch, the creative director behind Pokémon Uranium stated Pokémon Essential and was essential to its 9-year development. Uranium was downloaded over 1 million times before receiving a Cease and Desist by Nintendo two years ago.

Today, Marin, from the PokeCommunity forums, stated that Nintendo of America has forced them to take down the Wikia and all associated downloads for Pokemon Essential. Any mods that used Essential must be taken down. Although Marin asked the community not to be angry with Nintendo, many fans have clamored against the company. On the gaming forum, ResetEra, fans are angry over Nintendo’s decision to take down Essential.

Some users are commenting that the IP and assets are originally Nintendo’s content and they have the right to take it down. This isn’t the first time Nintendo has taken down fanmade content. They have taken down the fan remake of Super Mario 64, Super Metroid and most recent, ROM sites that host many of their games.

Nintendo and many gaming companies have the right to take down fanmade games but this has led to many fans criticizing their practices. Often the fan games are free and don’t take money or time from the companies themselves. Some companies are more supportive and allow fan content to be created such as Capcom with Megaman X Street Fighter. It is a difficult issue for any company.

Do you think gaming companies should be more lenient on fan developers making free games using their IP?

Sources:

PokeCommunity

Eurogamer

ResetEra

Kotaku – Pokemon Essential Write Up

Polygon – Uranium taken down