1st September 2016, 6:57 PM
So, in recent weeks, Nintendo has gone on a spree of shutting down fanmade games that use Nintendo properties. First they got a free-to-download Metroid 2 fan remake taken down immediately after its release, which is a really scummy thing to do when Nintendo has no interest in making that kind of game themselves (I've played the Metroid Prime Federation Force: Blast Ball demo that's currently available for 3DS, and I do think that it is fun, but it's obviously quite different from a 2d Metroid game...). That was a really bad move, though waiting until after it was released does ensure that people will continue to be able to find it somewhere.
Now, today, Nintendo struck again, by issuing DMCA takedowns on over 500 games on the free indie game site Game Jolt. I've never heard of it before, but here are the details: http://techraptor.net/content/nintendo-game-jolt-dmca On the face of it this is another really bad move, but the article's update does say that creators make 30% of ad revenues from ad views on their games, so it IS likely that people were indirectly making money off of Nintendo IPs that way. But still, the users pay nothing, so I do think that this is an overall bad move for Nintendo to make. If people are selling un-licensed Nintendo-IP titles for money, sure, take them down, but going after free games that make some probably small amount of internet ad revenues off of the game? While it is maybe defensible, it's a very borderline case.
So yeah, anyone else have any thoughts on this?
Now, today, Nintendo struck again, by issuing DMCA takedowns on over 500 games on the free indie game site Game Jolt. I've never heard of it before, but here are the details: http://techraptor.net/content/nintendo-game-jolt-dmca On the face of it this is another really bad move, but the article's update does say that creators make 30% of ad revenues from ad views on their games, so it IS likely that people were indirectly making money off of Nintendo IPs that way. But still, the users pay nothing, so I do think that this is an overall bad move for Nintendo to make. If people are selling un-licensed Nintendo-IP titles for money, sure, take them down, but going after free games that make some probably small amount of internet ad revenues off of the game? While it is maybe defensible, it's a very borderline case.
So yeah, anyone else have any thoughts on this?