Pokemon Essentials Takedown

[Aki]

Update: Distribution of Pokemon Essentials is still not allowed, but if you have copies of the wiki's documentation then please feel free to share that information.

This morning, the Pokémon Essentials Wikia and the download for Pokémon Essentials were taken down due to a copyright claim by lawyers representing Nintendo of America. We here at Relic Castle are disappointed to see this, but are also fully in support of Nintendo/The Pokémon Company doing what they wish with their IP.

Due to these events, the Relic Castle staff is taking the following steps:​

1) We are making clear we don't host any copyrighted resources, ROMs, or downloads for Pokémon Essentials on our website.
2) We are making clear that we respect the wishes of Nintendo/TPCI and will, if asked, shut down Relic Castle and all information stored on our servers. For now, unless we are instructed to do so, we don't have plans of closing Relic Castle.
3) We will be scaling down our social media presence from here on out.
4) We kindly and desperately ask that you not turn your disappointment and anger towards Nintendo, TPCI, or anyone involved in this situation. The last thing we want is for this to be made into a bigger deal than it should be.
5) We advise community members to stay alert, and respect the wishes of anyone from Nintendo/TPCI who contacts them.

We understand this is frustrating to hear, and we share your concerns about the future of the community, but our first and most important job here is keeping everyone safe. We'll inform you on any updates should they arise, so keep your eyes on this thread.
​

Please do not post mirrors or attempt to distribute Pokemon Essentials. We will remove any and all posts attempting to do this.​

 

[Zangoose335]

WOW i was wondering why the wiki was'nt working last night

 

[Elle]

Will you be taking down the posts from the tutorials page for essentials scripts / resources or stopping from people from posting there from now on? Or will it be left alone?

 

[Aki]

Will you be taking down the posts from the tutorials page for essentials scripts / resources or stopping from people from posting there from now on? Or will it be left alone?

I think we'll be letting any new submissions sit in the queue for a few days (you'll still get your DM about any issues!) but nothing is being removed, at least right now.

 

[Elle]

I think we'll be letting any new submissions sit in the queue for a few days (you'll still get your DM about any issues!) but nothing is being removed, at least right now.

Thank you. :)

 

[Simeo]

That's the end of an era I guess.
I take the liberty to post your answer about posting fangames from the discord :
http://prntscr.com/knq1on

People, don't post your fangames for now, as it is also an essentials project on its own

 

[Roenais]

honestly im overwhelmingly disappointed in nintendo. it sucks that fan projects can still be deemed copyright infringement when entirely unmonetized, and that they even feel the need to flex their legal muscles on such a minor problem. ): ill never understand it, but i guess this is the risk that fan projects take

 

[Obermarschall]

This will not be the end of fan games... and Nintendo knows this too. Another point which comes to my mind is that many big Pokémon fans (youtubers, bloggers, etc) came with a lot of criticism for US and UM, as well as Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu&Eevee.
+ Let's also take into consideration that many GREAT fan games have been posted and came out very recently... so whenever Nintendo is close from publishing new games, we should expect other strikes.

 

[PhantomTheEevee]

+ Let's also take into consideration that many GREAT fan games have been posted and came out very recently... so whenever Nintendo is close from publishing new games, we should expect other strikes.

Hmm, so it feels like if new versions of FanGames or new releasons in general will be timed well, it could add to staying safe...

But in general, it's just saddening for me to see the lawyers of a company whose games and products I loved since being a little girl are being so strict. :C Copyright is a sensitive topic, that much I understand, but... I don't know, it feels to me like they have crossed a fine line now.

 

[Hollow_Ego]

Hmm, so it feels like if new versions of FanGames or new releasons in general will be timed well, it could add to staying safe...

But in general, it's just saddening for me to see the lawyers of a company whose games and products I loved since being a little girl are being so strict. :C Copyright is a sensitive topic, that much I understand, but... I don't know, it feels to me like they have crossed a fine line now.

Thing is: While I understand that they legally have all reason to take down fan games and everything, I believe that fan games do a good service for the franchise. People keep their hype for new official games by playing fan games. It gives more opportunities to experience Pokemon in a different way. And unless people are making money out of it, I think it should be tolerated.

 

[Keileon]

I personally disagree with the stance Relic Castle is taking, but I do understand it. This definitely isn't the end of an era, though. Pokemon fans- especially fangame developers- are a resilient bunch and I'm sure several dozen mirrors of Essentials are floating around the net right now.

Severely annoyed and disappointed at whichever facet of Nintendon't is responsible for this though. LGPE hype being near zero is less the fault of fangames and more the fault of fans not liking the direction those games are going.

 

[Roenais]

Really I'm mostly just annoyed at american copyright law. Nintendo is definitely within their rights to take things down as it could risk the claim to their own IPs, and the more I research the more I understand it-- but it's a definite negative for the community, who help keep the franchise alive in their own way. ):

 

[Onism]

That is, alas, what happens when the last major update to your copyright law was in 1976

I hope no lasting damage is done to the fangame community, and I hope Essentials manages to find a way to continue

 

[PhantomTheEevee]

Thing is: While I understand that they legally have all reason to take down fan games and everything, I believe that fan games do a good service for the franchise. People keep their hype for new official games by playing fan games. It gives more opportunities to experience Pokemon in a different way. And unless people are making money out of it, I think it should be tolerated.

Yes, I can agree to all of that. Nicely put!

 

[Michael]

While I do see this as a huge blow to the community, honestly I have already seen some good coming out of it.

There has been talk among the developers about going indie, sparked even further by this recent takedown. This will allow people to branch away and develop their own IPs, using the skills they've learned from working with essentials to create a new era of games.

While indeed it is sad to think that Nintendo takes pleasure in punishing dedicated fans, I feel that it's a basis for people to be more creative when it comes to development and that's definitely a good thing!

 

[TheLightSword]

This should have been expected to happen, yet it came as a shock to most of us. I can't fault nintendo for their dicision but i'm still dissapointed.it should be obvious that fan games in general are made out of love and passion for their favourite franchise. but to me it feels like nintendo don't understand that, thy probably just think that these fangames are made to profit out of Pokémons success, if that's the case that just shows how little nntendo knows or understades how we try to show our love for it. Or they probably just don't care at all and just wants us to show only buy and paly their own games.
watever their reason is, I still respect their dicision. And i how what happened doesn't discourage anyone from continouing their ideas and projects in this community.

 

[Marina]

What, I didn't know that. That's uncomprehending! Why do they do that to us, if we are NOT making money out of that? I just don't understand... If they could explain that to the Essentials Team, it'd be great, so we could understand them better, but they don't tell us anything..
I love making fangames, and I will still do that, I'll still buy Nintendo products, I've bought Pokémon X, AS, Sun, Ultra Moon. What do they want more?

 

[Simeo]

It IS the end of an era.
Just why people are using essentials which is something you have by paying RPG maker over romhacks? Just because most of us are willing to stay in the legal aspect of anything made online.
Now Essentials basically is a rom in term of legality, which means you can't discuss about how to obtain it, nor download it safely without having a doubt in mind you might be tracked. And more of that, while rom hacks are viable because they're sharing only PATCHES and not the game itself, if you make a game with essentials, you basically have to share the whole game, including every file from the essentials engine, in other words, you're hosting an illegal content that you're distributing illegaly to people who will download illegally your content.
In other words again : You're basically the same as any rom hosting site and you'll endanger yourself by doing that.

So yes, it's the end of an era because I doubt anyone with common sense will risk to enfrain the law just to share a pokemon fangame online that will be no benefit.

 

[A.J1]

If it's going to be an end of an Era then we will do protest, rallies even we should do. If they will end Era we will dissent.
What type of laws fuck.

 

[Riddle]

Calling it “the end of an era” is over-dramatic and an exaggeration. There are plenty of people who risk legality and takedowns, and not just in this community, and frankly I doubt that Nintendo will take the effort to persecute every single person using their IP.

I also believe they have more reasons then removing something just for the usage of their resources. A lot of people source Uranium as an example of Nintendo taking fangames down for no reason, but most people also neglect to mention that Uranium was making illegal ad revenue anyways.

Saying that people won’t want to risk it is a great underestimation. Piracy is going as strong as ever, and it’s easier then it’s ever been to illegally download and torrent things.