AM2R And Pokémon Uranium Nominations Revoked At 2016 Game Awards

This is beyond bad PR.

Sad to see that they won't get any official recognition. :/
They are fan art just as much as any video or drawing! Nintendo should be flattered.
It's not like the creators seek monetary gain by making the fan games.

Nintendo has threatened legal action in the case of both these games. Nominating them for an award following that move is blatant double standards.

Inevitable really,if Nintendo aren't going to allow them to exist it would be slightly embarrassing for them both to be up for nominatons and potentially winning and award at an event they're involved in.

Good on them I say, they are protecting brand identity and letting these be nominated for awards would set precedence for others to be able to do the same!

One is essentially a remaster of a game Nintendo is selling, and the other isn't even good. How either ended up in that category is amazingly bad.

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=kkN2pLd_qS0

Please Nintendo make this happen

@Moshugan
As much as I'd like to agree, this simply isn't true. If I made a 'fanart ford truck' that was, for all intents and purposes-- a ford truck, ford would have every right in the universe to encroach upon my creation and shut it down.

By this logic we could all just make 'fan art' of our country's respective currencies and distribute them. You have to draw the line somewhere. I understand how frustrating this is for fans, those games were amazing.

But here is the thing, if you're playing fan games for free, you might not be buying their games. INB4 MAYBAY THEY SHUD MAKE GEAMZ AS GUD AS THE FANS DEW.

After playing a lot of fan games, yes, sometimes fan games are better, but here is my question-- if they can make an amazing game themselves... why not create their own IP and SELL IT.

Become a company, work hard, create your own metroid inspired game-- and maybe, just maybe get noticed by Nintendo senpai and bam, you're on their pay roll and you're doing what you were before, except now its official.

Nintendo's devs are 'artists' themselves and have every right to protect their works. They have families and responsibilities to deal with too and they have to protect their livelyhood. No its not fair, but if life was fair everything would be free and none of us would have to work.

To be expected.

Salty Nintendo. Lol, they felt threatened!

@the-madprofessor No, AM2R is ESSENTIALLY a complete new game, based on Metroid 2.

@whodatninja No, it's not. It's reeeeeeally not.

As to be expected. I think AM2R was impressive but Pokemon uranium looked really bad and just reused old assets in an ugly way.

@AugustusOxy "Become a company, work hard, create your own metroid inspired game-- and maybe, just maybe get noticed by Nintendo senpai and bam, you're on their pay roll and you're doing what you were before, except now its official."

And we don't have to look all that far for actual example. Axiom Verge is even on Wii U.

All in all, I nominate this comment for the "This Guy Gets It" Award.

Geoff Keighley trying to get AM2R awarded onstage infront of nintendo execs, would've been hilarious lmao

Take out the Nintendo owned content and rerelease the games. This isn't rocket science. Nintendo's stance on these games has been known for a very long time.

Fangames do not impact the owners of the IP in any negative way. You have to think about who are the people who play these games:

1. People who are fans of the franchise in the first place and have an interest in keeping it alive.
2. People who want to play Nintendo games but have no interest in paying for Nintendo products.

If you remove their ability to play these games, the second group is not suddently going to pay for a 3DS and Nintendo games, they'll just move onto the next thing. It's the same argument that's always made against, for example, TV series' piracy, only much more valid since this isn't nearly as widespread.

As I always say when these articles pop up: Nintendo, be more like Sega in this aspect. These games are a way of celebrating your franchises and keeping your IPs on the public eye. If people put them out, embrace them instead of condemning them. If you don't want people making fangames, give them little reason to.

As a side-note, gotta love how these were pulled yet Brutal Doom 64, a mod for a total conversion of a N64 game made by Midway and owned by id Software, is nominated anyway.

@whodatninja No, it isn't a complete new game. It is Metroid 2 with a few extras added in. Who owns Metroid 2? Nintendo.

@MarcelRguez Theft is theft. Just because Sega allow it doesn't make it any less a theft of assets. Also, Sega are bad at keeping their own IPs in the public eye. At least in a positive light. Look at the quality of Sonic games. Along comes a fan made 3D Sonic game that looks good and they say "Ok, thats fine". It is why Sonic Team isn't working on Sonic Mayhem, but yet another 3D Sonic game that no one is really interested in. Sega's quality has gone down hill badly. As for their other IP. When was the last time you played a new Streets of Rage, Ecco The Dolphin, Eternal Champions, Golden Axe, Shenmue, Toejam and Earl, or Virtua Cop?

"omg stop wasting ur life and make your own IP it'll just get taken down"

The man spent 10 years alone working on this not accepting any donations. Like jeez ya think maybe the guy didn't want to make any money. Maybe the guy didn't want his own IP. Maybe he just wanted to remake a game from a neglected series. We got AM2R, its on the internet for everyone, and its awesome. Some people don't want a metroid-ish game, we want Metroid, and that's better than any clone. But I guess doing something just to make people happy isn't good enough unless your profiting off of it

@Trikeboy Theft implies that something is being taken away from the owner. If anything, you could argue that this is piracy. It is not, but you are welcome to try.

About Sega, I don't see the reason why you bring that up. I did specify be more like Sega in this aspect. What is true, however, is that if Nintendo lets their franchises fall into obscurity like Sega did, more fangames are going to be made, you can safely bet on that.

@Rocossa The people using that argument have it all figured out. Clever as they are, they can't grasp the concept of someone wanting to do a fangame instead of an original game.

@Rocossa No one runs a Nintendo IP into the ground but Nintendo! (since AM2R was supposed to be pretty good)

@AugustusOxy Well said

I think what people are forgetting here is that they used Nintendo's IPs without their permission... even if it wasn't for profit, Nintendo had every right to get them taken down... they were basically illegal... so it's understandable that they wouldn't be allowed into the game awards.
If they'd contacted Nintendo and gotten permission, then maybe there wouldn't have been a problem... but they didn't.
Maybe in the future they could get permission from Nintendo, at which point the games could be put back up, and they could be legally nominated in the game awards then.

Well the only games that should be up for nomination are those that the IP owners don't have an issue with.

@Rocossa it would've been glorious to see!

@the-madprofessor You are factually wrong, but whatever.

@Rocossa He spent 10 years of his life on it knowing full well that Nintendo shuts these games down. Maybe he is a fool. He could have used his talents making something else. What started as a simple remake could have evolved into his own creation, one that honored Metroid but wasn't a Metroid game. It has happened in the past with more than just video games. A fan creation based on someone else's identity takes on it's own identity. Axiom Verge and Fast Racing Neo are perfect examples of taking something done before and making it your own. And both are available on the Wii U.

@MarcelRguez "Theft implies that something is being taken away from the owner. " Like assets created by Nintendo and Gamefreak? Pokemon Uranium used original Pokemon and didn't even update them. They were a direct rip from official games. The same can be said for AM2R. The developer did make some of the sprites himself but the rest were, again, ripped from an official source. That is theft.

My point of bringing up Sega is because you did yourself. Sega IPs are fading away because Sega don't care. That is why they embrace fan made games.

@Trikeboy Like assets created by Nintendo and Gamefreak?
Has GameFreak lost the ability to use those assets? No?

The developer did make some of the sprites himself but the rest were, again, ripped from an official source
Has Nintendo lost the ability to use those sprites?

That is theft.
No, it's not. You're being obtuse for the sake of defending your lawful position. You're not doing your argument any favors.

Sega IPs are fading away because Sega don't care
Which is an entirely different conversation.

That is why they embrace fan made games
Funny you say that, since the one game they pulled was a remake of Streets of Rage of all things. It seems they've had a change of heart since then, and it's not like Streets of Rage was more alive then than now. Wonder why that might be, huh?

Bummer.

@AugustusOxy @3MonthBeef Okay, point taken. While I doubt that these fan games have any effect in the sales of official games, you are right in principle.

A shame really. AM2R was the best thing about Metroid´s 30th anniversary for me. It´s the closest thing to an actual Metroid game we´ve had in years.

I kind of understand why they would do that, they shut both games down, but to revoke a reward like this I feel is incredibly dumb of them, just because they don't like people making fan-games with their IPs.

Wonder if Geoff Keighley will mention/criticize Nintendo for this, like he did Konami for not allowing Hideo Kojima to receive the award for Phantom Pain last year... Probably not, as those are only fan-made games, but still, a shame.

I was surprised to see it nominated, but it's an award for Fan creation and AM2R deserves it; it's a solid passionately made complete remake by a fan. That said, it's a big fat no-no, too. I'm mixed on it. I had an awesome time revisiting all the 2D Metroid games all centered around playing through AM2R.

As far as arguments about allowing it or not, just imagine Metroid as a franchise by an independent developer and Nintendo coming along and remaking it using the same name and some of the assets and all the ideas and the layout, even. Just not right. There has to be a line drawn somewhere and it's easy to say, "it's just a fan" but it's not that simple.

All that said, Nintendo needs all the good PR it can get and my idea for a solution is some sort of official safe haven for fan remakes. A place where Nintendo can control the messaging around the games and use them to promote its own lineup.

My brain keeps reminding me that Nintendo may very well have been working on a Metroid 2 remake over the last year or so. After all, a 2D Metroid is a good way to keep Metroid alive and even more important now that (the actually decent) Federation Force exploded in their faces.

If that's the case, Nintendo would have been put into an awkward position by a fan. There's no way they could release that right now. So the choice would be to wait or rebuild the whole thing as something else.

You can argue Nintendo should have done it ages ago, but can anyone deny that even a fan-made game can have an effect on Nintendo directly?

I can't grasp how people with this much talent squander it on derivative works.
To be able to design and create a game in your spare time that people consider on par with major releases, only to slap another company's trademarked names all over it...
That must require an insane dearth of creativity...

@Cantisque It's clearly not a lack of creativity. It's fan passion.

@aaronsullivan My drawn line has always been money and truthfullness.

Sell a copy of a Van Gogh as an authentic Van Gogh, very bad.
Sell a copy of Van Gogh, bad.
Take a "paint and wine" class, give the copy of the Van Gogh to your mother-in-law, I'm fine with that.

I've also had a long history with cover bands in bars. I like hearing a guy on an acoustic guitar playing "Rocky Raccoon". I don't want to pay $50 to see "Hammer of the Gods" Led Zeppelin cover band.

So, my thoughts are - make it yourself, give it away for free, fine. Copy it, claim it as authentic, not fine - I don't like pirates.

I'm giving both these guys the benefit of the doubt as far as I can tell they aren't selling these as "real" Nintendo games. Heck, Metroid and Pokémon games aren't even on PC.

Go look at Android or iOS, know what you'll find, 800,000 Bejeweled clones, all with "candy" in the name. 800,000 endless runners.

These guys did use Pokémon and Metroid, so it's not clear cut, but you have to give people some freedom of expression. When I was a kid I drew Hulk and Spiderman comics. Should Marvel come to my house and confiscate them? What if I put them on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram? Fan art has probably been around since the days of hieroglyphics, little Egyptian kids trying to write stories about their weird animal head gods. Stories told around the papyrus fire. Not everybody is capable of original creation, there are only 7 stories in the world told over and over again. Green Arrow looks like Hawkeye, and Robin Hood. Legalos is Robin Hood.

So people copying things and giving them away for free, I'm OK with that, that's how people learn, it's part of the process. But don't claim a fake is real, and don't make money off of other people's work. Nintendo should be happy this stuff is out there, it's doing more marketing than they are for Metroid. Nobody does more marketing than Pokemon, but those S&M games already shipped 10 million copies, is anybody going to try and argue Uranium is costing them money?

It's not clear cut, but I'm almost always in favor of the little guy who's trying to do good over the big guy shutting him down. Just b/c the Internet makes it easy to give stuff anyway - Peter my classmate and I had to go over each others homes after school to swap comics we had made - doesn't mean you should do away with people trying to do things.

sour puss nintendo strikes again!

@3MonthBeef If it was a lack of creativity, he could have changed a few sprites to look slightly different, called the game something other than Metroid, and would have been able to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Also, people don't methodically update an older game from the ground up out of laziness. This is just as much a new game as Zero Mission was. A lot of effort was put in to make the game feel much more modern.

It was a passion project that, yes, also allowed him to develop his coding skills. Those two things aren't mutually exclusive.

@3MonthBeef That makes sense. Still a massive shame so many of these well-received projects just end up dead after receiving a cease-and-desist, rather than re-purposing their work to feature original characters and assets. It worked for Freedom Planet and it breaks my heart that we lose the opportunity for new franchises in this manner.

I find it hard to believe they would do the whole thing out of pure fan passion and have no interest in the technical aspect of it any more once they've been told to stop. But I guess there's always people who take these sorts of things to another level.

A message to fan-game creators:

Try going the Aciom Verge route and make your own game inspired by the one you love. Think about it, no chance of takedown and you can sell the game.

@rjejr 100% agree, analogies included. Hats off.

Jerk move, Nintendo.

@rjejr I think it gets a bit cloudy around the aspect of deprivation of capital. AM2R is essentially a free replacement for Metroid II which is on VC on 3DS.

Nintendos VC and remakes are very lucrative. Zero Mission sold about 1 million at £30. They probably don't want people harming that by giving remakes away for free.

What stupid, waste of a category, especially considering they have a merged mobile and handheld category.

I watched a Metroid 2 on GB play through to remind myself of something... It's a REALLY crappy game. It's almost completely empty. It desperately needed a remake, which Nintendo seems to have no intention of creating. Well, a fan did it for them in their spare time... How about that!

Well, controversial issues like this let you know who people really are. And what I see here is a lot of armchair vigilantes.

Nintendo is more heavy handed than a lot of other companies are with the law. Taking down a fan project (yeah right, this is the internet) that makes no money isn't "protecting their IP rights", it's just utilizing the fullest extent of the law to their own benefit: to levy absolute control over anything related to their business goals. There are several Super Metroid mods out there, like Hyper Metroid and Base Project, but I don't see Nintendo going after them. No, because they're not an imminent reminder (and potentially loss of business) that they haven't made a proper Metroid game in years.

So yeah, this might be a lawful action, but in proper DnD description, I would say Nintendo is "lawful evil" in this case.

As for Pokémon Uranium, it's creator is working on the new version of Pokémon Prism right now. Here's looking forward to it being an amazing improvement upon the original Pokémon Crystal mod! Nintendo will try to take that down too, no doubt, and for the same reason as above... Yet the original Pokemon Prism mod will remain unscathed. Again, for the same reason as above: absolute control over their current business goals.

@PlywoodStick It's up to Nintendo to decide if a game gets a remake, not a random person on the internet. There are plenty of games made 20-30 years ago that could be updated. Nintendo are Lawful Neutral. Nintendo's protection of their games has been well known for decades. The developer knew exactly how Nintendo would react and chose to make the game anyway. He is a very talented developer but he should have spent his energy making something new in a similar vein to Metroid.

@Dr_Lugae Is it, though? Who would buy Return of Samus in this day and age but completionists/fans of the original? And I'm saying that as a fan of the game.

True about the possibility of an official remake, but then again, one would think that Nintendo's own efforts would put any fangame to shame. That's an incentive to buy the official remake, even if a free one is already available.

However, they'd have to make a better game than A2MR, and while I'm not doubting their ability to do so, I don't think they consider it worth the effort.

@PlywoodStick Romhacks are a different beast altogether, if I'm not mistaken. I don't know the technicalities, but that'd be the same reason why they haven't taken any kind of action against the much more prevalent Pokémon romhacks.

@Trikeboy Normally, Nintendo is lawful neutral. In this case, lawful evil. A more lawful neutral response would have been, "We're going to shut down any public displays that could potentially be used for good PR (which would have been a lawful good response), but we're not going to threaten the creator either, unless they start trying to make money off the game (which they aren't)."

Instead, Nintendo went for the nuclear option upon the project's completion, even though you'd think it wouldn't realistically affect them in it's current form. That is not neutral, that is actively aggressive.

@MarcelRguez ROMhacks are different stories, but Nintendo is still opportunistic there:

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/83817/20150910/nintendos-latest-youtube-copyright-crackdown-is-destroying-entire-channels.htm

https://gamingreinvented.com/nintendoarticles/top-ten-nintendo-fanworks-cancelled-due-legal-complaints/

Nintendo has a history of being trigger happy in taking down many videos and fanworks (mainly the most prevalent ones) pertaining to ROMhacks or otherwise. Interestingly, AM2R playthroughs with no speech or promotions can still be watched on YouTube.

Overall, who is targeted depends on where and how the takedown creates the most resounding impact, more so than the ROMhack or fan project existing at all.

@PlywoodStick I have made fan games and hacks based on Nintendo IP but I wouldn't cry over it if Nintendo told me to stop. I fully understand and support why Nintendo do this. There is nothing evil about protecting your property.

Lets give an example. What if someone made a fan game based on a Nintendo IP that looked official, as AM2R does, but the developer put something in the game that goes against Nintendo's terms of service or something that makes the company look bad. We the gamers can tell the difference but the PR damage from the people who don't would most certainly hurt the company.

@Trikeboy How exactly does AM2R match that hypothetical? There's no intent to harm Nintendo's reputation or finances in it. It's been nearly 25 years since Metroid 2 first saw the light of day. Nintendo hasn't made their own proper 2D Metroid since the GBA.

It was purely opportunistic to pounce upon and devour AM2R as soon as it left the womb. Why not stop it long before it's completed, if "protecting their rights" is all there was to it, like Square Enix did with Chrono Trigger Resurrected? Nintendo could have sent a cease and desist years ago, but instead shut down promotion of AM2R after the creator spent so much of their time and effort on it. That has a maximum impact of wasting the creator's time and energy, and resounding the message that anyone who gets their hopes up will meet a similar fate upon completion of their project.

@PlywoodStick I see, I wasn't aware of that. I was mainly thinking about the Pokémon ones. We've had RSE romhacking running rampant for more than a decade now.

About #58: to be fair, they did wait until it was out to pull the plug. They could have made all this mess much much worse.

ppl don't understanding what a tribute is and Nintendo acting like a stuck up bully as always... both are pitiful and infinitly sad to witness... i've got nothing else to say...
-_-

@MarcelRguez You are using the same arguments a couple of friends of mine use to defends their ideas of open knowledge and open source software. The thing is, no matter if we don't agree with the law, it is still the law. And it is illegal to use assets copyrighted by someone else. The fact that this assets are not a non-renewable resource and Nintendo will not lose the ability to use them because a fan made game with them, is actually irrelevant. What it is important is that the guy behind AM2R didn't had permission to make that game using that IP.

Other argument I see frequently is that this games happens because people want a new Metroid game and since Nintendo won't make one, fans will make it for them.

And that is also wrong. Nintendo could decide not to make a new metroid game ever again and it would still be illegal to make one without their permission.

Now I'm not saying fans shouldn't do whatever they want. They can, but if they choose to do something illegal, why to be surprised when they are taken down?

@Billsama I never said it was legal or that people should be surprised if it's taken down. I'm saying making a fan-game isn't the same thing as theft. It's semantics, but semantics are very important when it comes to upholding the law. Surely you must understand that given the focus of your post in the term.

The thing is, the conversation is not about legality. There's no argument to be had in those grounds. The law is an objective, monolithic thing. It is what it is. It's worth pointing out, however, that Nintendo might have the legal right of taking down a fan-game, but obligations and rights are different things.

Besides that, what the law is might reflect what's ethical, or it might not. This whole argument stems from that interpretation of what is ethical in this context and what isn't, and it's anything but clear-cut.

@AugustusOxy You hit the nail right on the head. To this day it continues to baffle me how so many people have so little understanding of how copyright works.

People like to bring up Sonic Mania but the difference is that Whitehead's team had full consent from Sega to use the Sonic name and assets along with the fact Sega themselves are publishing and profiting off the game. Big difference.

Nintendo at it again, lol! Though honestly, such titles shouldn't be on the list anyway. They are using other's IP,s after all!!

@MarcelRguez Thanks, appreciate it. It's funny, after reading a few of your comments I was simply going to reply to you - "keep on fighting the good fight" as you usually do, but then I saw Aaron's comments so I decided to reply to him, (we have a history, a good history, not the bad kind) and got carried away as usual.

@Dr_Lugae "AM2R is essentially a free replacement for Metroid II which is on VC on 3DS"

Is AM2R on VC on 3DS? Is Metroid II available on PC?

And while it's essentially the same game, it isn't, my kids have played it.

I just don't want to live in a world where every time somebody makes something and tries to give it away for free some corporation comes along and says - No, you can't give things away for free, that's wrong, you have to charge money for them.

Nintendo is probably making more money off of this free fan made project as an adverting tool than losing it to people who are playing this rather than buying the original anyway. Pokemon Go is being giving away and played by millions of people for free, is Nintneod complaining how much money they are losing b/c everybody is playing Pokemon Go instead of Sun & Moon, or did S&M just ship 10 million copies?

And yes, I know the legal differenc,e Niantic licensed Pokemon so TPC got it's cut, but players dont' care abut that, they only care about the end result - Pokemon Go is free, AM2R is free, 10 million people will buy Pokemon S&M, millions of people will buy the next Metroid game if it doesn't suck.

The argument isn't about big companies losing money, it's about them not making even more money through licensing, that's the difference. But AM2R isn't the same game, it's a commeircal for the game, and nobody is making money off of it, or losing money off of it. If anything Nintnod is probably just jealous b/c AM2R is so well received and up for an award while 20,000 people signed a petition to have MP:FF not be released.
https://mynintendonews.com/2015/06/26/scott-moffitt-we-hear-the-fans-complaints-about-metroid-prime-federation-force/

One is a remake of a Nintendo game that can be bought on the eShop, and the other is just Pokemon...And we all know how the Pokemon Company is with this stuff.

How many times must Nintendo shoot themselves in the foot?

When I first became a gamer, I came across a plethora of fan games and let's plays that influenced me to buy Nintendo products. I still remember Super Smash Flash eventually got me to play Super Smash Bros Brawl. Watching Blitzwinger playthroughs of Lego City Undercover convinced me that Wii U was a system that I wanted to get. Neither of the mediums are technically legal, but they do work in Nintendo's benefit. If Nintendo was to think likewise, they are incredibly close-minded.

As I said once before, being in the legal right doesn't necessarily permit that you to take legal action. Bad PR makes them lose money too.

They didn't own the IP, they didn't own anything, so they couldn't take any credit for it. It makes perfect sense.

The AM2R and pokemon uranium nominations got ripped and torn.

I love it when people say, "This was a bad PR move from Nintendo. It's going to hurt them in the long run and sales for their games is going to decrease."

If you haven't realized by now that Nintendo has stopped caring what other people think of them for over a decade, then that's just sad. Nintendo doesn't care if a few whiny fanboys are upset over this. What those "creators" did was illegal and therefore, Nintendo took action, like a responsible company should. And those who are complaining about all of this? You're the minority. The shrill voice in the background that Nintendo stopped listening to long ago. Keep prattling about how you disagree with this, keep calling them archaic, and so forth.

At the end of the day, Nintendo's going to press forward no matter what. They've tuned out those who support crap like this and have moved on. You will never be able to sway them to think otherwise and they know, as I know, that this move will hardly affect them at all. But keep telling yourself that it will, cause I guarantee you it won't. Nintendo isn't phased by petulant whining and rule breakers.

@rjejr Eh they can give things away for free...they just can't take something that belongs to someone else, make something out of it and give it away for free.

If it was "Fake-mon Uranium edition" or "Planetoid II : Zamuz is Back" and different enough from the source material(although Planetoid II couldn't just copy Metroid II's level layout) they could do whatever they want while having the same gameplay. The difference though is that less people would be interested.

If you're using someone else's IP you really should be beholden to what they want to do with their IP. Should Nintendo's IP really be free to plunder for anyone who wants to take them and give them away for free? If Rare want to make Donkey Kong Country HD for Xbox1 should that be allowed as long as its free?

@MarcelRguez I agree. I just doubt that the motivation is as simple as wanting to protect their IP rights. I'm glad Nintendo held off until AM2R and Uranium's completion (and hopefully Pokémon Prism's completion) before acting, but I do wonder what's stopping them from acting sooner.

And yeah, it's a good point that legality and morality are not mutually exclusive, yet are often conflated as such.

@Dr_Lugae "If Rare want to make Donkey Kong Country HD for Xbox1 should that be allowed as long as its free?"

I think in that case MS would be making money as it's on Xbox, somebody would be profiting. And that's a real company making a real game, nobody would be calling it fan art. 1 person making 1 copy of a Pokemon game on PC isn't helping MS sell Windows 10 or Dell sell PCs. Some people would buy an Xbox to play DK. So that's not a very accurate comparison.

Her'es a better comparison, somebody writes a story based on other characters in other fiction and publishes it free online.

https://www.fanfiction.net/

Geez, NL, way to start this argument again!

Disgusting. AM2R is a strong contender for my game of the year. I know Nintendo need to protect their IP but I don't see how this affects their IP. Seems more like sour grapes after they wasted time and money making Federation Farce.

Disappointing, but not unexpected. Was planning on voting for AM2R.

Nintendo and their Nintendoness strikes again.

@3MonthBeef That discussion wasn't entirely cut and dry, according to the comments. For example, with the explanation of tacit consent based on no response given for a request for permission:

"I would say that that mean that if you request permission to proceed and can document and show proof that you sought said permission and the IP holder does not respond, you are protected from the IP holder seeking damages. You proceeded in good faith that the IP holder did not care that you were making something based off their IP so if they do come after you with a Cease and Desist, they wouldn't be able to sue you for damages. They can still force you to stop working."

So a cease and desist may still apply, but no further than that. Further comments expound upon that:

"See Kling v. Hallmark Cards, 225 F.3d 1030 (9th Cir. 2000). The equitable defense of laches applies when there has been a sufficient passage of time between the plaintiff's knowledge of the injury and the date of bringing the suit, and the defendant has been prejudiced by that passage of time.

However, relying wholly on laches is ill advised, especially if you're trying to avoid any risk altogether. It is an affirmative defense, like fair use."

So there's some nuance to it. This project apparently took nearly 10 years to complete, and the original Metroid 2 was released nearly 25 years ago, not just 7+ years ago. Nintendo didn't bother sending a cease and desist during the entire duration of the project, which was publicly known of for years. So there may be some missing information which adds another wrinkle to this situation.

The thing that I laugh at here is since these are "Fan Made Games," Wouldn't they all copyright infringe?

Nintendo doesn't care about these Pokémon knockoff ads for the play store but they care about fan games. -_-

Nintendo must be very salty about AM2R, still. Best Metroid game since Super on SNES, and a fan made it with just pure passion, not marketing buzz and hopes of easy profit. If you neglect your own IP, the fans won't suddenly give up on it like you did, they will take the reigns. I fully support AM2R, and the team that made it were not looking to profit from it, so it was an opportunity for Nintendo to embrace their fans for once rather than see them as mindless consumers to scold and shove back into their little box. Sega has worked with fans to promote Sonic - so stop punishing your most loyal supporters, Nintendo. There was no threat to Nintendo's right to copyright here, they just can't stand to be upstaged.

I see a lot of people looking at SEGA with rose tinted glasses
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/sega-shuts-down-streets-of-rage-remake

This sucks. Pokemon Uranium is really fun and held me over until Sun and Moon arrived.

I feel like if the Game Advertis- I mean Awards really wanted to put these up for an award they would of just went with AM2R rather than pushing their luck with Uranium just for the sake of it.

They knew these would get pulled. You don't put a C&D fan game with stolen assets up for an award at a show being sponsored by the rights holder when a new game in the series is coming out without maybe asking if it's okay first. It's pretty much just a publicity stunt and designed to make Nintendo look bad.

Not saying Nintendo should of done this, but they were GOING to do this and whoever put up these awards knew damn well this was likely.

The fact that the awards also got taken down reflects badly on the show and reveals it for what it is, just a corperate event and not even slightly independant.

@3MonthBeef Square Enix stopped Chrono Trigger Resurrection once in-game screenshots of it were showcased, long before the fan game was completed. That was rather high profile for the time, though. Perhaps AM2R wasn't high profile enough yet to recognize?

As a Nintendo fan, I hate Nintendo fans.

Perhaps if Nintendo games weren't crashing and burning in-terms of quality this wouldn't be such an issue, but since Iwata's passing, Nintendo has failed to develop a single game on 3DS or Wii U that I'd give more than a 7/10. Honestly if Nintendo continues this trend the Switch could well be Nintendo's swan-song...

No Xenoblade Chronicles X doesn't count as it was in development years before Iwata's passing and was already released in Japan by the time Iwata-San passed away.