Nintendo shuts down tool used to build Pokémon fan games

Enlarge / A screen from the Pokemon Essentials interface showing how to build a map with the tool in RPG Maker.

Nintendo has a long history of using legal action to take down fan games based on its popular copyrighted franchises. Now the company is taking aim at one of the tools used to build some of those fan games.

Since 2007, Poki(C)mon Essentials has been a crucial part of the Poki(C)mon fan game community. As a free mod for the paid RPG Maker software, Poki(C)mon Essentials offers all the graphics, music, maps, and tilesets a fan game maker needs to craft their own Poki(C)-adventure.

Fans of the tool congregated around the PokeCommunity forums and a dedicated Poki(C)mon Essentials wiki to download files, share creations, and discuss the scene. Earlier this week, however, Poki(C)Community forum moderator Marin announced that "the Poki(C)mon Essentials wikia and all downloads for it have been taken down due to a copyright claim by Nintendo of America." That means "we will not allow Poki(C)mon Essentials or any of its assets to be hosted or distributed on Poki(C)Community," the announcement reads. "We sincerely apologise that we have to do this, but there is no going around it."

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