Pokemon Uranium Removed To "Respect" Nintendo's Wishes

Pokemon is one of the most known, beloved, and perhaps even reviled gaming franchises, so it's not really surprising that it has no small amount of clones, unofficial spinoffs, and even pirated copies of the game. While a good number of those have no qualms operating under shady legal, sometimes even illegal grounds, the creators of Pokemon Uranium, one of hottest new "clones" to have suddenly popped up, aren't so comfortable about it. As such, they have taken down the game, which has garnered more than 1.5 million downloads already, after working on it for nine long years.

The team makes it clear that they have not personally been served a cease and desist letter coming from Nintendo, they have indeed received (DMCA) takedown notices. Quite a lot actually, to the point that the Pokemon Uranium creators have discerned the wishes of Nintendo. Whether out fear or out of respect, the latter being their formal official reason, they decided to take down the game nonetheless.

It's not completely clear why Pokemon Uranium's popularity skyrocketed so suddenly. Perhaps it's a side effect of the hype around Pokemon GO, with players previously uninitiated into the Pokemon world craving for a more substantial experience. Or maybe it's because the PC game isn't a simple, blatant knockoff of the original GameBoy titles, but one that truly adds new features on top.

Either way, Pokemon Uranium is DOA. But, of course, the Internet never forgets and we're bound to see some copies of the game floating around. The game developers, however, want to make it clear to everyone (and to Nintendo) that they have no part in what happens next and give no assurance that those copies will be legit, let alone safe.

VIA: Kotaku