After nine years of work on Pokémon Uranium, the fans who made it have removed all download links for the game from their website (h/t Christian), saying they want to respect Nintendo’s wishes that the game no longer be distributed, despite the fact that (according to them) it’s already been downloaded 1.5 million times.
Although the developers say they themselves haven’t received any cease & desist letters from Nintendo’s lawyers yet, they’ve “been notified of multiple takedown notices” and don’t want to take any risks. “While we have not personally been contacted, it’s clear what their wishes are, and we respect those wishes deeply,” they said in a statement on their website.
Here’s the full statement:
After receiving more than 1,500,000 downloads of our game, we have been notified of multiple takedown notices from lawyers representing Nintendo of America.
While we have not personally been contacted, it’s clear what their wishes are, and we respect those wishes deeply.
Therefore, we will no longer provide official download links for the game through our website.
We have no connection to fans who reupload the game files to their own hosts, and we cannot verify that those download links are all legitimate. We advise you to be extremely cautious about downloading the game from unofficial sources.
We are blown away by the response this game has received, and we thank you all so much for your outstanding support.
We will continue to provide Pokémon Uranium-related news and updates through our official channels.
You are welcome to continue discussing and sharing content related to the game on our forums and Discord, where there is a very active community.
Thank you for reading, and let’s share the love of Pokémon!
It’s a remarkably chill statement from people who spent nine years on this thing, but I’m sure they’re well aware that anyone who wants to play it will find a way.