The creator of Pokémon Prism, a fan made hack for Pokémon Crystal that was due to release on Christmas, says he’s received a cease-and-desist from Nintendo and will have to shut down the project for good.
On Twitter early this morning, Pokémon Prism creator Koolboyman broke the news and shared a copy of the letter he says received from Nintendo asking him to stop production of the project.
“I’m sorry everyone, but Pokémon Prism is cancelled,” Koolboyman said. “Thank you for your support.”
Pokémon Prism added a whole new region to explore, over 200 Pokémon, and the ability to play as the creatures themselves. Koolboyman and a team of developers worked nearly eight years on the game. Large communities had built around the game including a Facebook group with over 8,000 eager fans.
The letter states that because Koolboyman’s website identifies as the “official website for Pokémon Brown, Prism and Rijon Adventures” it infringes on Nintendo’s exclusive intellectual property rights. Pokémon Brown was a ROM hack for Pokémon Red that added new content. Rijon Adventures was a similar hack for Pokémon FireRed. You can read the letter in full here.
Koolboyman says Nintendo gave him two stipulations. First, he has to cease all further work on Pokémon Prism and refrain from releasing any files from the game. Second, by January 7 he has to remove all downloadable links for Prism as well as his other works, Pokémon Brown and Pokémon Rijon Adventures. Koolboyman and his team have shut down the website for Prism in the wake of this message, leaving only a message of thanks and support for fans.
Nintendo has a long history of taking actions against fan games. Earlier this year, Nintendo filed a DMCA takedown notice against the Metroid 2 remake AM2R. Nintendo also shut down the popular fan game Pokemon Uranium.This cease and desist is another of Nintendo’s strong measures against fan games, which has included large scale takedowns of fan games and specific action against popular creations and hacks.
Nintendo did not respond immediately to a request for comment.