Pokemon Prism Fan Project Also Shut Down By Nintendo
By John Jacques 19 December 2016
Nintendo issues a cease and desist order to the creator of Pokemon Prism, prompting the developer to cancel the game’s release just before it was due to launch.
A fan-made Pokemon ROM hack that has been in development for the last 8 years has now been shut down a few days before of its scheduled release, prompting many fans to lament Nintendo’s highly proactive protection of its intellectual properties. Pokemon Prism, the title which will now be permanently shelved, had recently exploded into public eye after its creator uploaded a pre-release trailer for the ROM hack. While it certainly got the attention of many fans, it also poked the beast that is Nintendo’s legal counsel.
Nintendo has a reputation for its absolutely no-nonsense policy when it comes to protecting its intellectual properties, and Pokemon Prism is far from the first title to find itself forcefully shut down by the Big N’s legal team. A few months ago, a fan-made game titled Pokemon Uranium was shut down as well, only a few days after the project finally launched. This time, however, the developer of the game never even got to see his creation release, much to his dismay.
Gamers can take a look at the official Pokemon Prism trailer below, which went viral online shortly after it was uploaded and managed to attain over 1.4 million views. While the creator had to take down the original trailer, many other YouTubers have reuploaded the clip to preserve this bit of gaming history:
Many fans are questioning why the developer of Pokemon Prism opted to release a trailer ahead of the release of the ROM hack, since this evidently alerted Nintendo to the infringing title before the general public had a chance to download it. For his part, the creator admits that uploading the trailer was a mistake.
Interested gamers can take a look at the actual cease and desist here, which comes courtesy of Nintendo’s legal counsel. To our knowledge, this is the first time Nintendo has actually shut down a ROM hack – no doubt due to all the attention the trailer got.
The creator, who is simply known as Adam, found a silver lining to the end of his 8 year-long project: he states that he’s learned invaluable knowledge from producing the game, something that he says nobody can take away from him. The self-described Pokemon fan is understandably upset about how things panned out, but there’s always an inherit danger when modifying a company’s intellectual property. Now, Pokemon Prism joins the likes of Galaxy in Turmoil and Project AM2R as projects shut down by their very inspirations.
Would you have played Pokemon Prism, Ranters?
Pokemon Prism was set to be a ROM hack released later this week.
