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Pokemon Uranium Official Hosting Taken Down

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Published: August 13, 2016 10:55 PM

We reported earlier today on the launch of the highly anticipated fan game Pokemon Uranium, but we're now sad to have to report that it is joining the ranks of AM2R, with a DMCA takedown filed on the title.

In a letter posted on their website, the developers explain why they have taken down the game for download on their website. While they have not personally been contacted, they have been told of multiple takedown notices sent by lawyers representing Nintendo of America, and decided to take it down in accordance with Nintendo's expressed wishes.

They clearly state that they have no connection to fans who reupload the game, and caution people about possible illegitimate downloads being unverified. That means those could have things like malware or viruses put in them to take advantage of trusting souls who click on it.

According to the letter, while the game was up on their site, Pokemon Uranium was downloaded over 1.5 million times, a truly enormous amount for a fan game. They do state that they will continue to provide Pokemon Uranium related news via their site and other official channels. Most importantly, as they elaborate more in-depth in the comments, they will be patching and updating Pokemon Uranium as well as maintaining the online functions like GTS, Online Lobby and more. 

They invite people to discuss and share content related to the game on their forums and discord.

We have reached out to Nintendo to confirm that these are indeed legitimate takedown requests. As of the time of publication, they have not responded, although one can look at AM2R for what the likely response will be for the matter at hand. When they do respond, we will update this article accordingly.


Quick Take

This surprises absolutely no one, although the claims here that they are respecting Nintendo's wishes ring a little hollow when they mention that they plan to continue updating the game and maintaining the online services. It likely is a move on their part to protect themselves from potential legal actions or threats by not hosting the files directly.

The 1.5 Million downloads is pretty insane for a fan game of any sort, and shows the popularity of the Pokemon brand overall. That amount of downloading also means that any attempt by Nintendo to prevent uploads of it are likely futile and more an exercise in showing that they are trying, and potentially frustrating users by forcing it to shift locations at times.

What do you think of Pokemon Uranium being taken down? Do you think the team should have waited until they had a formal letter? Do you think Nintendo is being overprotective of their IP? Share your thoughts in the comments below!


Don Parsons
| Senior Writer

A longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don