I have mentioned AM2R, a fan-made reboot of Metroid II: Return of Samus, a couple of times in this space. The game, after six years of development, was released earlier this month and was soon taken down by Nintendo. Well, it turns out that AM2R was not the only game in Nintendo’s cross-hairs.
DoctorM64, the creator of AM2R, wrote on his blog today addressing a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) request he received from Nintendo.
“Nintendo of America, Inc. has filed a takedown request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). I received the request on my personal email, so I’m complying with their requests.
“There will be no more AM2R updates, and no more releases under any platform.
“Thank you for the support during all these years.”
Prior to this post, DoctorM64 promised updates for the game despite Nintendo’s desire to squelch the game. He had released a 1.1 update not long after the initial release, even though he had taken down links to his game at Nintendo’s request. It looks like this latest move has definitively killed the project.
Turns out, DoctorM64 was not the only person to provoke Big N’s ire.
Game Jolt’s indie subsite, Fireside, also received a letter from Nintendo. Game Jolt and Fireside host tons of titles for free download, and many of Fireside’s hosted titles are fan-made titles. Of course, several Nintendo franchises make an appearance. Titles include Pokemon Snap Remake, Super Mario Bros. Part 2, and Six Nights at Zelda’s.
Game Jolt posted the letter they received, and it lists a total of 562 fan-made games that purportedly infringe on Nintendo trademarks.
“These web pages display images of Nintendo’s video game characters in connection with unauthorized online games that copy the characters, music, and other features of Nintendo’s video games,” wrote Nintendo’s legal representation, whose contact information was redacted from the posted notice. Nintendo’s lawyers told Game Jolt to take down “all infringing contact.”
“We are required to act promptly on requests like [Nintendo’s DMCA letter] and remove any games included in the notice,” user CROS wrote in a Fireside post. “When a DMCA takedown request comes in, we will ‘lock’ any of the games in the notice. This will result in the game page being accessible by the developer and no one else.”
Whether people agree with Nintendo’s actions or not, the truth is that Nintendo needs to protect its IPs. Fan-made projects may be homages to loved games, but they do legally infringe on Big N’s property. If they don’t take these games down, Nintendo faces legal challenges whenever someone infringes their IPs so egregiously. After all, if a fan can make a Mario game, why can’t a knockoff company?
Still, games like AM2R and fellow fan-made game Pokemon Uranium fill a void that Nintendo seems to ignore. Fans of the series eat these games up. A classic Metroid game is something fans have been clamoring for since Metroid: Zero Mission graced the GBA. If Nintendo would provide one, DoctorM64 wouldn’t feel the need to fill the void.
