After Nintendo released a cease and desist to the developers of Pokémon Prism, it appears the fan-made game is not as “dead” as it seems. Some leakers have obtained the Pokémon Prism project and released it on the internet.
The pirates posted a notice on 4Chan claiming that they are “a group of people interested in seeing ROM hacks succeed.” The document also states that they have no affiliation with Pokémon Prism developer Koolboyman and the rest of the team and got the files because “a dev got careless.”
In a chat with Kotaku the pirates explained their actions and why they believe Nintendo is wrong for handing out the C&D.
“Regardless of Nintendo’s legal rights, we do believe that they are destroying their fans’ hard work for no reason and at no gain,” they said. “Nintendo could have used this (and any other good ROM hack) as an opportunity to promote the Pokémon series in general. They don’t even have to do anything other than let the games live.”
Pokémon Prism was a ROM Hack of Pokémon Crystal that introduced two new types of Pokémon (Gas and Sound-type), allowed for trainer customization, the ability to play as your Pokémon and a new region to explore.
The game was in development for eight years and gained a following when the Twitch Plays Pokémon community began to play one of the earlier versions of the game.
Prism developer Koolboyman was ready to release the full game on Dec. 25 but received the cease and desist from Nintendo on Dec. 21. Koolboyman then shut down his website, which hosted another ROM Hack called Pokémon Brown (a hack of Pokémon Red ) as well as Rijon Adventures , which was a Hack of Pokémon FireRed.
So do you believe Nintendo was right to protect its IP or do you believe these fan-games have a place in the gaming community? Let us know in the comments section below.
