A developer’s project has now been removed by Twitter and YouTube. He built a first-person shooter in 30 days where you shoot wild Pokémon. Even featuring boss battles. Nintendo did not find it funny at all.
What happened? A gameplay video went viral in the gaming community a few days ago. It showed a first-person shooter in Unreal Engine 5, where the player shot at Pokémon like Pikachu and Mewtwo with assault rifles and shotguns.
Viewers of the video found it partly horrendous to shoot at the cute Pokémon. On the other hand, they were also curious and wanted to try it out themselves. However, the game was never intended for release. And yet Nintendo intervenes.
Nintendo files a copyright infringement
What kind of shooter was it? The developer, who calls himself Dragon on Twitter, worked on the shooter for about 30 days. The first-person shooter is part of his project, in which he aims to develop something new with Unreal Engine 5 within a month. He used templates from Unreal Engine for weapons and environments and included ‘real’ Pokémon as enemies.
This way, players could encounter Pokémon like Arbok in the wild and shoot at them. There were also boss battles against legendary Pokémon like Mewtwo and Articuno. The bosses had more hit points than the Pokémon in the wild and had special attacks that players had to avoid. Within a few days, the gameplay videos exploded. The video alone collected over a million views on Twitter.
On Twitter, the developer showed a gameplay video. On YouTube, he shared a documentary about the game’s development, including gameplay. In the documentary, Dragon explained that the game was not intended for release and jokingly stated, ‘Please don’t sue me, Nintendo.’
This is how Nintendo reacted: The fan project was shut down by Nintendo with “copyright strikes.” The gameplay videos are no longer visible on Twitter and YouTube and have been removed. Instead, Twitter displays the message, ‘These media have been disabled due to a report from the copyright owner.’
However, the gameplay is not gone everywhere yet. On Reddit, the video can still be seen. Even though the thread has already been removed by the moderators:
Nintendo is cracking down hard again. According to the developer, the project was never meant for release. It was his project, from which he shared gameplay videos with the community. After receiving much positive feedback, Dragon developed a boss battle against Lugia, but that video was also taken down.
How do players react? On Twitter, phrases like ‘You may be developing quickly, but Nintendo’s copyright department is quicker’ can be found under the blocked videos. Many players already warned under the first gameplay videos that Nintendo would likely respond quickly. One user writes (via Twitter): ‘I see you followed the WikiHow article ‘How to get contacted by Nintendo’s legal department in 10 steps.’
This feedback and the concerns stem from Nintendo’s notorious reputation for taking action against such unofficial fan projects.
Just recently, a story circulated throughout the gaming community. The artist raised €270,000 for handmade guides to Nintendo classics like Zelda or Metroid. Nintendo sued and shut down the artist’s project.
