Following a mass DMCA takedown order from Nintendo, 379 fan-made games have been removed from games hosting service Game Jolt, including many free-to-play titles.
Game Jolt is a website that hosts free and commercial video games for download. Sometimes indie games are sold on the website alongside the Epic Games Store and Steam, while other times, gamers make fan-made follow-ups to their favorite titles such as Undertale. Many of these free, fan-made titles are also based on franchises like Pokemon, Super Mario, and The Legend of Zelda, or include trademarked characters from these franchises.
Nintendo's legal department issued a mass DMCA takedown of 379 games from these franchises, which was published publicly to GitHub by Game Jolt's co-founder Yaprak DeCarmine. The statement issued claims that Game Jolt not only uses Nintendo's intellectual property without the company's permission but also profits from doing so. "The web site at gamejolt.com generates revenue from advertising banners displayed on the site and advertisements played while users wait for the games to load," Nintendo's statement says. "We would appreciate our expeditious removal of all infringing content."
All 379 games listed in Nintendo's statement have been taken down from Game Jolt. Developers of these fan-made titles have been greeted by a surprising message that their game was removed from the site: "We have received a DMCA takedown notice and were required to remove it from the site. Only you are able to view it."
However, one developer, jeb_yoshi, has reposted their game Five Nights at Yoshi's with ads disabled, believing this to be the source of the DMCA takedown. "After looking into it, I believe the fact there was profit being earned from advertisements on the game page was the reason for the takedown of this game among countless others," the developer writes. "Hope it goes well."
Many developers who have made Nintendo-inspired titles are frustrated by the takedown, including Eeveeloverdoesgaming, who believes this is a sign that Nintendo "hates their fans." Despite the statement about Game Jolt generating ad revenue from Nintendo-inspired content, it doesn't look like Nintendo is demanding financial compensation for the copyright infringement at this time.
The company has a legal team specifically geared towards anti-piracy and copyright infringement that seeks out even hobbyists and indie developers "to give all legally-sold Nintendo games a chance to succeed," Nintendo's legal page states. In the past, Nintendo targeted Super Smash Bros. modders for tampering with its software with costume and skin mods.
Source: Game Jolt - GitHub