The End Of Uranium: Pokemon Fan Game Ceases Development
In July, a fan project that took nine years to create made its grand debut on the Internet: Pokemon Uranium, a new classic-style Pokemon game made completely from scratch, with new creatures and a new storyline. Even though the game was not made for profit, Nintendo saw it as dangerous — if people could get their own new Pokemon game for free, why would they pay for one? Then there’s the whole copyright violation thing.
Nintendo hit every site hosting Pokemon Uranium with a C&D, and all of them complied. Shortly afterward, the game’s creators pledged to keep supporting the copies that were out there as long as they could. That was in August. One month later, it looks like Big N has tightened the vise.
“Unfortunately as Pokémon Uranium is a [fan game], there is a limit to how far projects such as these can go. We are therefore ceasing development on this project,” they said on Twitter. “As such, we, the creators of this game, will no longer be offering game downloads, updates, online services or support for Pokémon Uranium.”
This means the end of online trading and battling, effectively crippling the game. The only thing that can save it now is a mod that allows Uranium to be supported by some other server, which is something fans HAVE pulled off to keep a few ancient titles alive. The question now is if Uranium has enough support to make such a thing possible. The first week the fan game was made available, over 1.5 million people downloaded it.