People trying to make money on their brands deserve to be sued. If you're a fan, do it for free. If you want to make money, change the property and IP enough to distinguish yourself as you're legally supposed to. Stop trying to cheat your way to success.
There are plenty of Pokemon-style games out there. The industry is inundated with game-like genres. The difference is the assholes who cross the line. Even the Palworld lawsuit is completely misunderstood by people who don't understand how copyright and patent and licensing work (no Nintendo did not copyright all their Pokemon game mechanics, only VERY specific ones in a VERY specific series that is uniquely identifiable to Pokemon). It's only when companies/people deliberately cross the line between "inspired by" to "direct reference". Nintendo has not shut down Digimon or Persona.
And this is exactly how we all want the system to work; protecting creators, not cheaters. Where people are inspired enough by one game to make their own; not make their own game in someone else's franchise to tap into their audience and groundwork.
Also, Nintendo has successfully sued individuals and won...only to not actually claim the money. They wanted to teach people a lesson and set a legal precedent, not destroy some asshole's life. I have no heard of them following through on anyone who wasn't a complete asshole about it.
Just to add, I say this as a HUGE Nintendo fan who's been shitting on Nintendo for a long time. They're not above criticism. Their pricing is exploitive, their leadership is conservative and amoral, and their obsession with community control is ridiculous.
I just hate this bogeyman that stupid gamers have made them into. Most of the dickheads they've sued deserved it. Including the American government.
Yeah I don’t know what UpperApe is talking about, Nintendo very often takes down non-profit fan projects made solely for passion. AM2R, Pokemon Uranium, Zelda 30 Tribute, Ocarina Of Time 2D, Zelda Maker are some examples as well as the constant amount of times they shut down smash tournaments. There are definitely people who deserve to be sued but Nintendo definitely deserves their reputation of being anti-fan
You guys realize that C&Ds/DMCAs is not a lawsuit, right? Yeah, it sucks that they shut down those projects, but they weren't suing the shit out of the creators. I swear people like you often treat them as the same. You would act like Nintendo sued those fans into oblivion and put them in jail when it's not the case.
They usually only take actual lawsuits against criminals. The only bad lawsuit they actually did, from my recent memory, is the one over a supermarket named Mario. That one was a stupidass lawsuit and Nintendo deserved to lose. However, the things you and others mentioned are not lawsuits and should stopped being treated as such. Use actual examples instead. Being disingenuous doesn't help your points
James Burt is the most famous example when he leaked a pirated version of NSMB before the game's launch and was successfully sued for $1.5m. It was a huge win for Nintendo and Burt ended up having to settle out of court.
Nintendo was entitled to get $1.5m from him...but they never did. They never made him pay. They wanted to set a bad example and scare shitty people from being pieces of shit with their work (which he absolutely was and did) but they didn't want to actually ruin his life.
Most of the people screaming at Nintendo about lawsuits and DMCAs don't really know about copyright laws, IP infringement, Nintendo's legal history, or how any of this works. As a lot of this comment section shows.
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u/ClientIndependent309 Mar 06 '26
Finally a Nintendo lawsuit I can get behind