Game Awards Drops Pokemon, AM2R Fan Games as Nominees
By Jasmine Henry 02 December 2016
The Game Awards has removed popular (yet controversial) fan-made games Pokemon Uranium and AM2R from its list of nominees, with fans pointing to Nintendo’s copyright takedowns.
When The Game Awards returns on December 1, a number of games will be in the running to take home a prize. The nominees list for the event includes titles such as the hugely popular Blizzard shooter, Overwatch, 2K’s open-world criminal sandbox Mafia 3, and Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Two games that won’t have a shot at winning something at this year’s The Game Awards, however, are high profile fan-made games Pokemon Uranium and Metroid 2 remake AM2R.
Pokemon Uranium, which was taken down after receiving several notices from Nintendo and AM2R, which was also shut down by the company, were both in the running for “Best Fan Creation.” While many fans were excited to see the two games nominated, The Game Awards has now removed both games from its list of nominees, which just leaves Brutal Doom 64 and Enderal: The Shards of Order in the running for the award.
While neither The Game Awards nor Nintendo have revealed exactly why the game’s were taken out of contention, one of Pokemon Uranium‘s developers tweeted “Sigh. Well, it was worth a shot” in response to the news. Fans have also voiced their disappointment, criticizing Nintendo for its recent waves of copyright takedowns, which included the takedown of a No Man’s Sky/Mario mashup.
After Nintendo sent out copyright notices, over 500 fan-created games ended up being taken down and although Nintendo hasn’t commented on The Game Awards debacle, this is being seen as an extension of that as the company tries to stop fans from infringing on its copyright. The company may argue that allowing The Game Awards to honor either Pokemon Uranium or AM2R – or to even consider doing so – would only encourage people to keep infringing copyright as they too aim to get recognition from The Game Awards.
Other fans of the two games, meanwhile, are saying that it means enough to them just to see Pokemon Uranium and A2MR nominated in the first place (even if it didn’t last long). Many have also pointed out that even though The Game Awards won’t feature the two titles, the annual industry awards show does have plenty of other things to look forward to.
For example, after being forced to skip the event last year following a (very public) spat with Konami, industry veteran Hideo Kojima will be honored at The Game Awards 2016. The first Mass Effect: Andromeda gameplay will also be shown during the event, as part of The Game Awards’ decision to feature more gameplay footage than CGI, a stance which follows the controversy surrounding No Man’s Sky and the criticisms of “false advertising” from fans.
The Game Awards will take place on December 1.
Source: Kotaku
