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Fan-made Pokemon Uranium is shelved by its creators after Nintendo notices

Not before it was downloaded 1.5 million times

The unlicensed, fan-made game calledPokémon Uranium, whichlaunched last week after nine years of development, has been removed for download by its creators.

The game was downloaded some 1.5 million times over the past week, according to the development team, but after being “notified of multiple takedown notices from lawyers representing Nintendo of America,” theyelected to pull the download links from their official page.

“While we have not personally been contacted, it’s clear what their wishes are, and we respect those wishes deeply,” the developers said in a statement on the game’s website. That said, “We have no connection to fans who reupload the game files to their own hosts, and we cannot verify that those download links are all legitimate. We advise you to be extremely cautious about downloading the game from unofficial sources.”

Pokémon Uraniumlaunched on Windows PC on Aug. 6, creating 150 new Pokémon to capture and train in an homage to the original Game Boy Pokémon titles. The non-canonical title set its adventure in the Tandor region, where many original Pokémon have mutated after an exposure to radiation. The player’s job is to battle and stop them.

Pokémon Uraniumis the latest high-profile casualty in the demimonde of fan-made video games whose developers sink months or years of time into a game, gain notoriety thanks to a passionate and involved fanbase, and discover that not selling their work doesn’t mean they have rights to distribute it. Just this week,fan developers launched something calledAM2R: Another Metroid 2 Remake, only to see the file hosting services where it was offeredremove it a day laterafter Nintendo filed copyright claims against the work.

Previously, at the end of July, work on a fan-built game based on the canceledStar Wars: Battlefront 3was terminated after its leadership was contacted by Lucasarts. The project will still proceed as as a generic sci-fi multiplayer shooter without any reference to Star Wars or use of its property.

A few fan-made works have been successful in either acquiring a license or permission to develop. One notable success istheSkywind modding project, which is remakingThe Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind of 2002 with the engine used for 2011’sSkyrim. That project is creating new assets to re-renderMorrowind,and as such has Bethesda Game Studios’ blessing.

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