How Nintendo Chooses Which Fangames to Sue

[@pokepress]

As someone who follows the Pokémon franchise closely, I’d say it started to pick back up around the late 00’s and early 2010’s when the first generation of fans started to move into college and the workforce, thereby giving them time/income. This also coincided with the rise of online media, the popularity of the DS and Wii, and the beginning of live streaming. The mainstream really started noticing it in 2016 when Go hit like a truck, but it was already picking up steam.

[@connormclernon26]

So this is the guy who led the way on DMCAing Pokémon Uranium?

[@Cuprite1024]

Uranium wasn't actually DMCA'd. Iirc, the devs just took it down preemptively to avoid that happening.

[@Mr.Pacario]

Nintendo did get it removed from The Game Awards show, along with AM2R. Nintendo’s a sad, sick weasel of a company.

[@JJ_R]

I like to imagine Nintendo spins a roulette; Wheel Of Lawsuits!

[@ross3695_basedhax]

from what I seen they don't shut down projects too big(like Newer Super Mario, CTGP, Project M) in case they get boycotted Just don't ever announce your fan project until it's ready

[@Johannes.Spinnenschreck]

Didn't they shut down Project M though?

[@mythosinfinite6736]

​@@Johannes.Spinnenschreck They did, with legal strongarming.

[@ross3695_basedhax]

@@Johannes.Spinnenschreck not directly, they just pressured Twitch and other companies to ban it and PMDT got scared or something

[@Johannes.Spinnenschreck]

@@ross3695_basedhax Oh okay. I didn't know that. Thx for telling me.

[@shanegiorgio4713]

I mean, Pokemon Uranium and AM2R were pretty big, and those are the textbook examples for fangames being shut down. Granted the former is pokemon so it's more Gamefreak's turf, but still.

[@JamesTDG]

15:29 Essentially treating your project as a firework

[@aaww1010]

I think the sad area and their eyes might be the late DS era, black and white and black2 and white 2 not really those games in general but around the DS. Pokémon sales started going lower.

[@pokepress]

It’s pretty much the rule that later Pokémon games on the same hardware sell fewer units. It was true on GB/GBC, DS, and 3DS. Switch is a bit harder to judge given the number of games.

[@JamesTDG]

@@pokepress It is definitely more iffy than just that because we can play the GB/GBC/GBA Pokemon games on NSO now, so we can't get those stats and see if it affects sales of current switch pokemon games. Also Nintendo has not really disclosed a lot of their sales stats to the public...

[@pokepress]

One thing I’d be interested in knowing about the Detective Pikachu movie is whether there was any sort of clause that said the Pokémon company can use any plot devices or characters they create in a future game (actor likenesses would be something separate-that’s not what I’m talking about).

[@ProjectionProjects2.7182]

Honestly I think Nintendo always WANTS to shut down anything they think infringes on their IP. However the only reason they don't is because they are scared of the backlash that would occur if they stared firing away at everyone at once. If Nintendo had everything their way there would be no fan games, mods, 3rd party emulators or anything else that they believe infringes on their IP.

[@vaelegoro7782]

And continue to sell things at prices that exceed the value of the end products in consumers eyes

[@ProjectionProjects2.7182]

@@vaelegoro7782 Lol true.

[@ShadwSonic]

Then wonder why these games that have "nothing" to do with them are selling so much better... and where they keep coming from. IP scrubbing isn't impossible to do by any means, there just isn't usually a reason to do so... unless that's the only way the game can be released in any sense. And if you have to go to that length? Might as well monetize.

[@ausgod538]

​@@vaelegoro7782ah yes the consumers end which sells 10, 20 and 30 million

[@vaelegoro7782]

Ya that's brand loyalty for ya but then the fan base Complain about every tiny problem it has

[@izzymosley1970]

To me it seems like that Nintendo mostly goes after very successful fan games. Which in some ways seems more despicable to me than equally going after all fan games imagine spending years of your life to make an successful fan game only for Nintendo to strike it down I don't care what the law says that's Evil in my book.

[@futurehistoryarchaeologist4480]

I think they might intentionally let some projects finish before they send out a DMCA request. AM2R had been around in a playable (albeit incomplete) state for years before it got the takedown request. This might be because they know that once something hits the internet it doesn't really go away. I think they want to "defend their IP" but also let their fans have their fun.

[@pokepress]

It’s also possible that they’re trying to avoid a “Streisand effect” situation where their legal action gives a project tons of exposure. I suspect a lot of these projects end up fizzling out and they think in some cases they’re better off waiting.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

Imagine if after X years of not selling a game at all a company couldn't legally claim it anymore. Imagine Nintendo started losing rights to games they refused to make available.

[@BJGvideos]

So why are some fanworks ok but others aren't? Like, why was that one doujinshi artist arrested for a Brock/Ash work while the same stuff (and waaaaaay worse) goes up on Pixiv every day? Why did NoA give the green light (albeit under the table) for the fan translation of Mother 3 despite NoJ's wishes? Why was Uranium taken down supposedly for being too dark and grim when fanfics that are even darker exist everywhere? It really does seem arbitrary even within the same company!

[@TeltStory]

I think it comes down to the amount they need to take down, they're trying to hit pressure points instead of putting so much money into sueing pebbles.

[@callak_9974]

Could be about profiting over something and free as well. If it might affect profit is also a problem. AM2R was served with a C&D, and soon after Metroid Returns was announced for the 3DS. Some things are too difficult to actually block though, images on the internet can spread so quickly that stopping adult art of their characters is basically pointless. But trying to sell such is easier to deal with since that is a part of how copyright law works.

[@Cae_the_Kitsune]

Wait, NoA game the green light for the fan translation of Mother 3 under the table?

[@SuperSmashDolls]

NoA did not 'green light' the fan translation, in fact Mato specifically said he expected to never hear from Nintendo again and considered it a huge career risk to work on a fan translation project. NoJ's wishes are unknown but nothing about MOTHER 3's development indicates that they specifically don't want Americans playing it in English. There just wasn't really a good opportunity for an official release. And Itoi left game development specifically because of this game so he's not interested in a remake or anything that would create an opportunity for an official translation to happen. If Nintendo was the size of, say, a major US entertainment company, they'd be sending way more takedowns and being way more mean about it. MOTHER 3's fan translation would have been C&D'd immediately. It's often said that "companies have to protect their IP", but that's not a legal principle. It's a business one. If you want maximum profit, you can't have anyone else playing in your sandbox, because you only make money if people can't buy Mario from anywhere else. Yes, that includes noncommercial fanworks. Just because they're not making money doesn't mean you're not losing exclusivity.

[@circledude2362]

Plus regarding Palworld, Nintendo is angry that they CANT sue Palworld, so they claim they need to take their frustration out on Fakemon

[@PFGFrankly]

funny how mother 3 translation have been on the press but it didt get dmca

[@King_Luigi]

(Uhhh... you mean *"didn't"* get DMCA'd, right? 'cause it's still up in the same place its always been.) But I'd say it surviving was because the translation team only hosted a patch file, not the game itself (or a pre-patched version of it). As long as the file doesn't also have Nintendos code in it, then it should be 'safe', since it can't do anything on its own anyway. The fact that Nintendo didn't seem to have serious plans for doing it themselves at the time also helped in them "ignoring" the project.

[@PFGFrankly]

why did relic castle get taken down, it was a non profit, maybe some fan games did make money so whyy

[@Doktario_Mystario]

14:55 personally i don't see Palworld getting the hammer because: 1) you could argue parody because the Pokemon has gotten critisized in the past for "glorifying" animal abuse and cock fighting (mainly by PETA) 2) while it has similairlity's, nothing is 1:1 to anything Pokemon related and all the assets are at least "home-made" 3) there is no way you can confuse the game for an official Pokemon product because everyone knows Pokemon (and by extention Nintendo) is a family friendly franchise/company 4) you can't copyright an art-style

[@joshuaball5916]

This makes SMG4's Lawsuit Arc all the more pointless.

[@Anamonator]

Fr

[@kitestar]

Yuuuup

[@xtremespotzu]

I wonder if this is the final version of How Not to Get Sued.

[@watercat1248]

True that is more important

[@nextscitt5046]

I love that they even drew in sponge from Mario’s Mystery Meat in the first few seconds.

[@chillyz0]

Sega is one of the company's that are not strict about their Ip's like sonic the hedgehog and actually let them make a offical fan game for the company called sonic mania

[@M64bros]

As being a third party company that should follow their own path rather than listening to the wrong Sonic fans that can destroy the IP and the brand Remember what happened with Sonic omens

[@tkayube]

A lot of people end up getting mad at the gaming news sites for publicizing fan games, but I tend to assume that the news sites get some kind of permission from the fan game's creator to write about the fan game, and aren't maliciously digging up otherwise stealthy fan games in order to snitch to Nintendo.

[@Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan]

So my question is why was Relic Castle taken down?

[@efeugurYT]

I just want to show my love for mario WHY NINTENDO WHYYYY

[@stevenshockley4237]

In other words, leave Super Mario Eclipse alone. They don't profit, they're passion-based.

[@ThrillerXero]

At least sega doesn’t axe down fan games

[@DallasCrane]

10:20 oh no, I loved those hand drawn game guides

[@tyujg7495.]

And Game freak origionally started off doing that too

[@charlesmetal8224]

If you sell your fangame or distribute it as officially licensed. If either of those things happen, that is grounds for a lawsuit. Pretty much anything else should be left alone. One of many reasons I hate Nintendo is that they are way too aggressive about protecting their IP, as well as emulators and other things. Basically they constantly go out of their way to antagonize fans and it's not cool.

[@circledude2362]

then what about fan series? I'm asking because of Super Mario Logan.

[@THGMR-ox7sd]

I’m also confused about that. They got cease and desist but don’t think anyone else with a similar channel did. Maybe it’s because they used mario characters in ways that upset Nintendo.

[@circledude2362]

@@THGMR-ox7sd but didn't channels did something similar in animation? did NINtendo had enough of Super mario Logan cause it had their plushes?

[@danielmalinen6337]

It's understandable if money is involved in fan projects, but it still doesn't explain why Pokemon takes down and threatens to sue several fan projects whose aim is to turn Pokemon into TTRPG versions, even though there is no money involved in these in any way because they have been free and freely available to everyone. Is it the Pokemon company's way of seeing TTRPGs as somehow negative or harmful?

[@pizzapeppino]

It has nothing to do if you make profit of it or not, Nintendo see it and shut it down because they can.

[@King_Luigi]

Yeah, of course they "can", at any time. The point is that making some kind of profit will pretty much guarantee that they'll go after you. But if there's no money involved, and it doesn't _also_ happen to be similar to something they're currently working on, the odds of them doing something are far lower.

[@goldmemberpb]

Pokemon as a brand has always been very strong but past gen 2, the popularity did dip quite a bit. But depending on what person you are talking to, anywhere from gen 4-9 is when pokemon stopped being great. Yeah...

[@aaronrivera2511]

Hmm, but what if the money is going to the site hosting the game rather than the game itself? Would it still capture Nintendo's eye, or will it fly under the radar? I am, of course, asking for a friend.

[@RandomEntry13013]

At least them (allegedy) shutting down SMBX got us Terraria.

[@Willchannel90]

Their rights nothing to against.

[@vaelegoro7782]

Why do consumers and and developers often have different opinions on the actual value of the end product? and what general rules could companies follow to make sure their game meets the consumers value of the product

[@Patolagos]

Is that sponge from vinesauce

[@AndyToons64]

Nintendo: eenie meenie, miney moe catch a pokemon by the toe

[@zOOpygOOpert]

Is that Sponge at the beginning

[@tyujg7495.]

A way to bypass this is to get the kickstarter to donate to you and not the project,

[@Lanausse]

IS THAT SPONGE

[@nextscitt5046]

He’s busy looking in the quest for meat.

[@ashtiboy]

but hey what happems if a thrid party that want to sell ther ip on a emultated rom of there older netendo rom games on ther own home brew on there own legaly owned rights of ther ip and nitndio tryd to DCMA the roms but the third party ip hodler of that games roms licanse bascly says: hey! no stop that niendio! we own that ip and we want to sell the roms for our costmers for other stire fonuts with our own homebrewedd emelator for our own gosh darn roms. then nedno trys to do the DCMA takdown anyway and then a thid party ip copyright licascsing disupte lawsuit agest nendtido by the thrid party ip owner of the rom that got dmca by the niedno hadware owner. so happens in this copyright diuspure case? so how does that work?

[@callak_9974]

Uhh, what? Definitely need some spell checking there.

[@ProjectionProjects2.7182]

The problem is that Nintendo hates fan games even if no money is made. Nintendo dose not realize that the only people who play fan games are fans which already buy Nintendo games anyway. So they are not losing money from them.

[@fhjunior6183]

Thanks for the vid

[@Ludraman_]

I don’t usually like bad people but I think you’re handsome

[@DE23]

Did you mean bald people or is there some drama I'm unaware of?

[@VideoGameStoryTime]

I'm assuming they meant bald people because a) I'm also unaware of any drama and b) I hate being bald... 🤷

[@MisteRRYouTuby]

The moral of the story: Don’t touch Nintendo’s things without their permission. It’s not nice.

[@JaxRetroGamer]

Nintendo isn't that strict they only take fangames that are remakes of official Nintendo games so I can't make a remake of Nintendogs on PC but I can make a original Nintendogs fangame.

[@TwiliPaladin]

This has been disproven so many times it's honestly sad.

[@FloofPuppy]

Not to be THAT guy but you're kinda beating a dead horse here with all the "Nintendo Lawsuit Legal fangame" bs. That's... LITERALLY all I see from you guys. Choose ANOTHER subject to talk about already. We freaking GET IT. I might even unsubscribe if this keeps going.

[@VideoGameStoryTime]

Honestly I don't disagree with you, I'm tired of doing these kinds of videos, but this topic won a recent poll and it was a relatively simple video to make in a really busy week. At this point this channel is just barely staying alive. BretonStripes is working longer hours so I'm doing this around work and childcare, and it feels like I've made so many compromises to keep things going that it doesn't even resemble the kinds of videos we initially wanted to make. Anyone who's upset with the direction of this channel in the last year or so, I completely agree, there's just not the time there used to be to make the videos we used to make. I only keep going at this stage because I genuinely love making videos.

[@FloofPuppy]

@@VideoGameStoryTime I understand your feelings and frustrations with your partner and you balancing things out~ I hope things still get better for you and your family too~ ^^

[@mittensfastpaw]

@@VideoGameStoryTime:(

[@M64bros]

​@@FloofPuppy Not going to lie, I'm also starting to get really sick of it as well. Sure! Nintendo's dmca legal team is sucky but we don't want to hear the hate story all the time and it's really making a bunch of Nintendo switch owners look bad for owning a switch, The worst part is when people blame Nintendo as a whole, They drag in the developers and the employees considering the fact they have absolutely nothing to do with the DMCA legal team that makes those decisions.

[@FloofPuppy]

@@M64bros EXACTLY!!!

[@brickmaster8701]

55 minutes

[@Silly_guyyyyyyyy]

Sup yall (First😈😈)

[@polocatfan]

this is a load of lies. stop defending nintendo.