Pokémon Uranium "More Alive Than Ever" Despite Removal Of Official Download Links, Claims Developer

Mmmm the Tandoori region

The only legal issue they would have would be the use of the name Pokemon... that's the only thing that could incite legal action, but could be easily changed.

@Tsurii it is? 🤔

@Tsurii Why do you say that

@DragonEleven assuming they simply changed all uses of the term Pokémon to "Tandormon" (for example), would Nintendo's lawyers not have enough other material to push for copyright infringement on, given how thoroughly the game relies on existing Pokémon game mechanics? I mean sure, things like Digimon or Yo-Kai Watch or Fossil Fighters may have ideas and concepts inspired by Pokémon, but they usually have more unique identities and features beyond "a new Type of monster". This would be even more blatant a clone than the original Great Giana Sisters was to Mario

They did their part, to prove to the world that they could just make a carbon copy of an official IP and give it for free. It's simply a take materials and give it away situation, the only thing different here is that the game is original and just happens to use elements, brand, gameplay, and contents from the official IP, that's what Nintendo's copyright infringement claim is trying to protect.

Somehow people still doesn't realize that uniqueness is gold, this game would had being something spectacular had it not had any ties with Pokemon. Sure the same million excuse about creating this crap because of passion for the IP is likely but if they really do had passion, just make an original game that borrow elements from the IP, not out right copy it down from the gameplay all the way to even the title screen. I applaud the skills and the passion, I just don't like people who illegally copy especially on materials that aren't theirs.

It's AM2R, not AMR2.

It's still possible to download it, just look for a mirror site, I managed to download the game yesterday.

Good. Good.

This is what all fan-developers should do: Keep the game kinda quiet while they're working on it, release it before Nintendo (or whatever company) has anything to say about it, and then go from there.

At least this way the companies won't stop this stuff from ever getting out there.

Of course, the wonders of internet.

@gaga64 As long as they're not profiting from it directly, and they're not including copyrighted content, there's no laws being broken.
The problem is that the name 'Pokemon' is copyrighted, so by giving it the same name they are inadvertently implying that it is an official game, which is fraud.
They could probably still use 'Pokemon' in the title as long as they made it clear that it's not official... for example, something like 'Uranium: A Pokemon inspired game' or even 'Pokemon-esque Uranium' would probably be okay.

Glad to see them still continue development of this great project. It is the funnest Pokemon game I've played since the Gameboy Advance days. I do wish it were open source though.

@DragonEleven I agree from a purely legal perspective by calling it Pokemon they are inviting trouble. They need to make sure this is labeled as unofficial and that they need to absolutely need to not be making a profit... which mind you this was shown to me last time we were discussing this game so...

https://www.patreon.com/pokemonuranium

Some people are out of control.
They like something until they reach Worship level.
When they are in that level, they will do anything to satisfied themself. Even by illegal actions. They done too far in my opinion.

@gaga64 You can't copyright or patent game mechanics. This is why there are thousands of asteroid and breakout and everything clones. You can only protect the content and IP. So, if these guys have the original Pokemon monsters in them with similar imagery and names that is actionable. I believe they have actual sprites from Pokemon titles for a few. I don't know the details.

One also must consider that the download number would be considerably less than 1.5 million if it didn't have Pokemon in the title or try to be an additional title in the series. That's the power of the brand that Nintendo has spent millions promoting and that this fan group is trying to capitalize on. It's a bit like local diners selling mickey mouse pancakes. They "magically" sell better, but actually they are just capitalizing on something they've invested nothing in but on a much, much larger scale.

Moral, legal, and philosophical issues abound but who can care when there's a free game in front of you, right?

I've suggested it before but I'd love to see Nintendo make a sort of safe haven for fan games where it can control the messaging about what is official and what is not and fans can exercise their passions. Could be a win-win despite the difficulties in pulling something like that off.

Once you release something on the web, it's out there. There's no going back. Removing "official download links" means nothing.

@Wexter That's what I meant when I specified 'not profiting from it directly'... the Patreon is set up to raise them money for each game they create, not specifically Pokemon Uranium... basically a donation with rewards as thanks, rather than a payment for the game itself.

I thought it was a clever plan to raise awareness for the game.

Removal of the game got just as much (likely more) buzz than the release and there are plenty of other links on the web where people can download the game just not the "official" way.

@DragonEleven The problem is it has Pokemon in the branding for the Patreon. It could cause problems for them if Nintendo spots it as while it specifies "fan game" it does use the Pokemon brand which could cause brand confusion.

I guess the "we are scared of the big company so we will remove the links" tactic they used worked well.

I haven't played it but watched a few videos. There are some nice ideas and it looks well made, I don't get why they made it Pokémon though? The work that went into it they could have made something new that actually sold on Nintendo systems. Which in my eyes is a much more exciting prospect, but perhaps that's just me.

I wasn't keen on thier monster designs though, or not actually picking your monster at the start but having it choose one for you based on some personality test. But other than it looks solid.

@DragonEleven, they're also using the move sets, items (like Pokéballs) and general structure & mechanics of the game. The latter would be harder to argue but the former two would get them in a lot of trouble, and combined it all adds up. Plus from what I've seen it at least references existing Pokémon too.

My boys have been playing the game a bunch and are actually enjoying it quite a bit. The fact that it feels just like pokemon, has a bunch of original pokemon and lots of new guys works great for them. They also love that there are some new evolutions of existing pokemon (ie: a 3rd evolution of mankey, a new final evolution for spritzee, etc.) Also the idea of a new nuclear type is interesting and having an evee that can evolve into a Nucleon does look very cool. The people who made it did do a good job to make it feel like a real pokemon game.

@Ogbert As long as the game is different enough from the original content-wise there would not be any legal problems, as they would not be profiting from it, and would not be causing the original creator to lose profit.
References to copyrighted content are also okay as long as it's not the copyrighted content itself that is included.

Too bad that they can't remove every link on the internet lol

@aaronsullivan oh yeah I realise mechanics are impossible to enforce (or Mario would be the only game character to ever jump, for example), but when this clone literally copies every single mechanic wholesale without changing it, would they not be on slightly shakier ground? Perhaps if it had never been branded Pokémon in the first place, and they hadn't drawn all the attention, they could get away with it fine, but then they'd have considerably less downloads...

@aaronsullivan
Hm.. Is there any game you would like to recreate? 😀

They should just have made an original game, you're just asking for trouble using Nintendo's IP's and well... the Pokémon they made up are just pure garbage

@DragonEleven references, these are more than references. It is a game where the purpose is to catch, battle and train creatures explicitly named Pokémon using devices known as Pokéballs, healing them at places called Pokémon Centers, battling in Pokémon Gyms plus a ton of other items and names ripped straight from the official games. Simply changing the name is not enough. It could easily be argued that this is, in effect, a bootleg. No different to when you see an unofficial Luke Skywalker figure, modelled after Mark Hamill in the role, boasting it comes complete with a light sabre and R2D2 droid but on the card it reads 'Space Battles' instead. It's clearly not ok.

And no this isn't being sold, but that doesn't translate to not loosing sales. It could easily be argued that the 1.5m downloaded copies means a potential 1.5m people who now have a free Pokémon game to play an no need to buy one from Nintendo/Game Freak/The Pokémon Company. Thus costing them money, thus giving good grounds to sue for damages. Regardless of whether or not they state upfront this is not their intention and regardless of if they remove the word "Pokémon" from the game, with the rest in there this is still a Pokémon game they did not have permission to make and distribute.

Thankfully none of the plethora of studios involved in the ownership of the Pokémon IP have said anything. And if they did a 'cease and desist' would likely be the first port of call But if the team that made Uranium wants to go legit with this they need to remove all uses of the copyrighted material throughout the game, not just the name.

@Ogbert You're right in that those examples are more than references... they're all terms that include the copyrighted name that I have already said would need to be changed.
Move names and other terms are not explicitly exclusive to the Pokémon games, and are not copyrighted either, so they can be freely used in other games without concern.

As for the possibility of damages, they key point is that this isn't a Pokémon game... it doesn't feature real Pokémon, and does not interact with the official games in any way. If people were going to play a Pokémon game, they'd play a proper Pokémon game, not this... their motivation for playing Uranium would be a reason that could not be fulfilled by a proper Pokémon game (desktop game, fan-made content, etc.).

@arrmixer Given time and a team, I have a couple of games I'd like to make that are partly inspired by previous ones. I've "remade" Rampart already although it adds quite a bit (and it's in space) and I've made a game like Adventures of Lolo (and that type) but 3D. Both had much more ambition to be taken further than they ended up. I don't see a point in duplicating something too closely except for learning or cash grab attempts.

I've made prototypes of games that are similar to others and have been onto a couple good new directions, but gotta pay the bills with the day job and very little pays without much more investment than I've made. You can only invest so much creative energy into not finishing something before you wait until it can get created.

Working on a nice little physical card/board game right now, but work on it is still sparse. Too much regular work getting in the way, but that's fun in its own way. It's inception was from my pondering the combination of two other popular games and a board game I made when I was much younger.

I do like to start my creations as combinations or new takes on things I've experienced.

I think I over-answered your question!

@aaronsullivan
Nope you answered perfectly my friend. I actually enjoy coding just for fun. I'm currently learning swift at the moment. Sounds kool but I'm by far no professional. Because of work I can't always get into it but hey like you said it's fun when I can find time. Sometimes I'd rather just code then play video games 😜.
I actually played the game you put out years ago very nice!

I played it for about an hour tonight and enjoyed it. The screen stutter drives me crazy and I was in initially taken back by the low rea but it's fun and that's the most important part.