Fan-Made Title Pokémon Uranium Is Officially Dead

Ack

Please note that while official support has been dropped unofficial patches are being distributed via one enterprising redditor's own server along with handling other online resources that include battling and trading.

Saying there's a lack of time and resources when you've essentially concluded development on the game doesn't really make sense.

Good make your own game

That creature in the picture reminds me of Bongo Bongo from Ocarina of Time. Just a little

@ottospooky Online services need money and time to be maintained.

Just checked my PC. It's still there. 🤔

@BensonUii Many people have the ability to code and an interest in doing so but do not have the imagination to create a new IP and world to set their game in. Hell, Nintendo and all of their resources only manage a new IP about once a decade, so it's not that surprising that many bedroom coders don't do it. The fact is, this project got them far more exposure than creating a game with uninteresting setting and characters would have.

White knights, white knights everywhere! Well not yet, I expect the rest to flood in come noon.

Really? What a surprising development! It is Nintendo's IP after all, so they have every right to take these things down...
Will we have articles about rain in England as well?

Shame, was fun catching stuff and having a working GTS on PC. Best of luck to the devs who used 9 years of their time to make something they love.

This comment section is surprisingly more civil than I was expecting it to. Is there hope yet for the Nintendo community?
Joking aside, it's always a shame to see fanworks just up and end like this. Hopefully once these guys have free time again they can work on a original game. Best of luck to them in the future!

I think we should look at this and learn from it; If you have the talent and software to create a video game, don't take anything from Nintendo, just create your own game and who knows? Maybe it'll take off really well.
With the amount of popular websites these days, you have plenty of people to try your game and if they like it, they can promote it via their website or social media platforms like YouTube.
Just stay away from Nintendo, heck I'd even stay away from anything Copyrighted because at least then you know your work isn't going to be taken down, you can even charge for it if you so desire.

@BensonUii
Y Nintendon't do dis? Day r monsters.

This comment section is cancer as usual. Considering how Valve treats Fan made project and mods or even SEGA for that matter considering Sonic Mania, there is simply no excuse for Nintendo. There are more choices than C&D'ing a fan made project as Valve and SEGA clearly show us. Nintendo took the bully way around as they usually do given their arrogant and bloated headed history shows. That's how you lose respect and your fans. "But it's their IP!" LOL, you don't see Valve killing fan projects when they appear do you? Where are they at now? Still alive and healthy. Nintendo are just being idiots, nothing more nothing less.

@EngieBengie You're welcome to believe that, though waant it conformed that the developer of this game actually was getting some sort of income from it?

This made me wanna cry.

I think Nintendo should embrace these projects like Little Love Letters than shutting 'em down... like how Capcom officially endosed" Rockman vs. Street Fighter".

Especially when they are so exceptionally well made... ;(

Nevermind, just change the title abit and change the sprites from Ash or Samus to something else and wolla! Nintendo can't touch you!

(Then later release an 'unofficial' patch to patch 'em back to Ash or Samus. Okay okay I'm kidding Nintendo, don't sue me Imma just a baby.)

People keep forgetting something- Pokemon is owned by The Pokemon Company International, which Nintendo only has partial stakes it.
Pokemon is pretty firmly a 2nd-party IP; they don't have exclusive control of it.
People jumping on the Nintendo hatewagon should be blaming TPCI and not just go "d'oh Nintendo!"

@EngieBengie so when you get paid I want your money even though I didn't do your job.you must be silly for making your post.

@Slim1999 - That r-word is on the naughty list here. Please don't use it again. And perhaps consider trying not to aggravate other users while you're at it. Community spirit and all that...

Good go nintendo

I still don't get why they can't just altered the game and turn it into an original title. All they got to do is not used the Pokemon brand.

Why do only Nintendo fans feel this way about fan games?

Going with what everyone is saying above... let's not forget that Undertale started out as a particularly ambitious Earthbound rom hack.

Heck, your Metroid fangame could become the next Axiom Verge, and that game's ON Nintendo consoles today. What you've got to do is keep the mechanics, coding, and anything not related to the copyrighted property in question, and take that with you in a bold, new direction.

@Slim1999 You must be the special one here, Pokemon Uranium is not monetized which makes your argument idiotic and non applicable to begin with. And while I'm at it, the team behind it DID design their own Pokémon so the whole "even though I didn't do your job" is also non applicable. Do Nintendo fanboys leave their brains in the fridge or something?

Pokémon, it's C&D
it's all fangames' destiny

@Kalmaro Doesn't look like it. I can't find a single source that points to the game being monetized in any shape or form.

@EngieBengie Your profile picture fits perfectly with your comments.

@EngieBengie
The only reason SEGA is being so chill about fan games is they're trying to make Nintendo look bad. It's just a scheme. If they were still releasing consoles and games that people enjoyed, they would be much more strict. They've been the bottom of the barrel for so long that they'll take whatever positive light they can get

People trumpeting Sega as the savior of fan games need to remember that they shut down the Streets of Rage remake not too long ago, AND had a massive takedown of Youtube content as well. The only time they'll be trumpeting fan content is when it suits them, such as to help generate goodwill for the likes of Sonic Mania.

That all said, Nintendo's attitude seems to have changed towards fan games recently, although we should probably be thankful they allow them to get released at all. I worry that the reason these games are taken down is because they get media hype behind them, though.

One thing that also concerns me is while I think the likes of AM2R probably had minimal impact on Federation Force's sales and reception, I wonder that if people have had their fill of 2D Metroid for free that they may not pony up the cash for great games like Axiom Verge. And really, if you want to send Nintendo a message, ignoring Federation Force and buying Axiom Verge instead is what you should be doing.

As for Pokemon, that's a whole other thing, but in general, releasing a fan game while Nintendo is trying to promote it's own efforts in the same series is a bad idea. This is the only time that Nintendo really seems to take action, as we've seen with Metroid, Pokemon and all those Mario fan games (likely due to Super Mario Maker). Of course, whether Mother 4 gets taken down is going to be the true litmus test, although I fear calling it Mother 4 of all things is a bad, bad idea.

Like SmaMan said, UnderTale was borne from the ashes of an EarthBound hack. You can create something unique, original and amazing instead of using someone else's characters and artwork. And yes, pixel art is still art. Fangames are awesome, but if you have ambitions to top Nintendo's own attempts, why not show them how it's really done?

Do people think this game was actually being sold? I keep seeing the word profiting. Shoulda done what freedom planet did I guess.

@redivgamer90 There's actually three owners of the pokemon company. Nintendo,Creatures and Game Freak. So i'm guessing these three had to come into an agreement to take down this fan made game.

The reason people keep blaming Nintendo cause that's the name they know right off the bat.

@BensonUii In response to why they don't make their own games, it's because the fan games weren't made with the intention of selling a product. It's a labor of love from people that love the series it uses. They want to make their own interpretation of the series, without removing that interpretation completely from the series.

Nintendo/GameFreak/TPC isn't being evil by shutting down fan-games, they are just protecting their assets. By allowing other people to use IPs without punishment, you open up all kinds of legal issues if they ever need to enforce an actual theft of the IP in court. Pokemon is such a behemoth that their legal team cannot let little projects go.

Blame the IP laws, not the companies that need to protect their assets.

Even now, we see Blizzard trying to shut down paid hack sites that are selling bots for Overwatch. This is a clear violation of IP usage, but I'm sure the site's lawyers are pointing to non-profiting cheat communities who Blizzard didn't shut down.

@Classic603 Whether or not it's true, it's yet to be proven. Nintendo is the only company I know that is THIS much against fan made projects, be it mods, fan games, etc.

@EngieBengie
They used to be fairly large with fan projects, and to some extent they still are.

They used to only draw the line at direct violation of content and brand copyright. Now they have it in for character likenesses as well.

In either case, this game would have been asked to fold back in the day as well, what with straight up distributing a game under the Pokémon brand.

@sonicmeerkat Oh they did try to profit, it just didn't work out for them.

https://www.patreon.com/pokemonuranium

But that's beside the point. I really don't think they should have been making this game in the first place, if the game can't stand without using someone else's property and lifting game design directly without permission then it's dubious what value that game had in the first place.

Creating a successful game inspired by Pokemon is better than creating a game that is successful only because it lifts directly from Pokemon. I think games like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Conquest and even Pokemon GO are deserving of more respect than any fangame that apes the main series deserve.

@EngieBengie
I agree that they are too protective, but it is their IP and if they want to aggressively defend it, that's their right.

@EngieBengie you can actually still pull up their patron account. I can't tell how much money they've made though, I don't use patron.

Not o lyrics that, but it's mere existence and the fact that it used IPs without permission is also a problem.

Then there's the people who put let's plays up on YouTube and stand to gain revenue, off a game with Nintendo's (and other owners of Pokémon) IPs that used them illegally.

They really had no choice but to act, when you think about it. If they let this slide, it would get out of hand.

@CrazedCavalier you are wrong on TPC owning Pokemon. All they do is manage the IP. It was created as a joint venture between the Copyright owners Nintendo, Gamefreak and Creatures Inc. with each of them owning 33% of the Copyright. However Nintendo owns the Trademark of Pokemon and all of its creatures names on its own. Nintendo completely owns the rights to the games

@redivgamer90 Nintendo owns the most of the Pokemon IP. They own the Trademark to it themselves, they have 33% of the copyright as well sharing it evenly with Gamefreak and Creatures as well as all three of them being the parent company of The Pokemon Company who just managed and distributes the games and TV Shows

I'll say it again: Nintendo should provide a safe harbor for developers willing to play by their rules so that they can express their love of the games with their own creations.

AM2R is really quite excellent — not quite Nintendo quality — and it deserves to be played. Same idea here. These are labors of love and shutting them down with no comment is going to let people fill in whatever outrage-for-the-underdog or corporate-righteous-anger story they want about it.

Nintendo should take control in a more wholistic way.

This is simple. Take all the Nintendo/Gamefreak content out of the game and then release it again. People know about the game so they just have to announce it and it will get traction.

nintendo should be more accepting of fan projects

To people here who thinks that Nintendo protects their IPs too Aggressively or they accepting of fan games, you gotta look at this way: With how often Nintendo got sued since the introduction of the Wii for some dumb reason or another by patent trolls, do you really they leave an avenue open for which someone could potentially be able to screw over with later? Shoot, Nintendo not doing that lead to Sony's eventual dominance of the console market with the PlayStation.

@Dr_Lugae Oh now that's a big problem.