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Project AM2R getting legally slammed by Nintendo; file hosts hit with DMCA notices

Thing is, even if Nintendo got it down, it'll keep living. Links will keep spawning. The game exist and is released. Now it's spreading.

And now that Nintendo made such a big fucking deal out of it and shone a massive light on the game, it'll be linked and shared even more. People who previously had no major interest in propagating it will now do so just as a big "fuck you" to Nintendo.

I grabbed a torrent of it last night, I'll play it eventually but I'm certain that Nintendos tone deaf attitude made me take a lot of pleasure in grabbing that file.
 

Ridley327

Member
Didn't it only do a tenth of Zelda's lifetime sales? This is not the major IP people want to think it is.
Something like that. I think Tomodachi Life on its own has outsold most of the games in the series combined. It's not any wonder that Sakamoto wants to work on casual games these days when those are the results.
 

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
You actually can, it's just most people don't.
Crazy Taxis floating 3D arrow pointing towards destination is actually patented.


Yeah I recall sega's four button camera system/controls for arcades. Also Namco's patent on loading screen minigames, although I think they let that expire recently?
 

Zunnoab

Neo Member
The difference is that this is a fanmade copy of a game Nintendo still sells, its not like they just made their own fan made metroid game, they copied the entire game. That's a very important difference. Nintendo did not, as far as I know, DMCA the Project M or Super Mario Bros Wii projects. That's because the fanmade projects were not simply replacing sales of the existing game from a legal standpoint.


Apparently it needs a be a complete copyreproduction of the game instead of a fan project based on a game.
Of note: Skywind has Bethesda's blessing. Morrowind is a heck of a lot more current than Metroid 2 is as well. Both are adaptations rather than direct copies, too.
 

LordRaptor

Member
People who previously had no major interest in propagating it will now do so just as a big "fuck you" to Nintendo.

I grabbed a torrent of it last night, I'll play it eventually but I'm certain that Nintendos tone deaf attitude made me take a lot of pleasure in grabbing that file.

I am not even interested in Metroid but I will now download this.
Get fucked Nintendo!

Keep fighting the power dudes!
Jfc...

Yeah I recall sega's four button camera system/controls for arcades. Also Namco's patent on loading screen minigames, although I think they let that expire recently?

Loading screen minigames were introduced with Ridge Racer on the PS1, so the 20 year expiration dates been reached.
 
I don't blame them, Metroid games must sell like shit compared to costs.

I doubt it. Barring maybe the first Prime game they've never had excessive development timetables, don't use extensive licensed music, have almost no voice acting, etc. I would be shocked if pretty much every game other than maybe Other M wasn't profitable.

It's just that Nintendo's level of success is vastly different than most companies. When you can sell tens of millions of copies of Mario they may feel like like they are wasting a developer working on a series than sells 1-2million.

And, in the case of Retro they were probably right. It was probably a much better return on investment to sell 5+ million copies of DKCR than 20% of that on a Metroid Prime 4 or similar.
 

MrBadger

Member
It's funny how I missed the release and takedown of this game because I was at a fan-organised Sonic event to play a fan-produced Sonic game that was being published and funded by Sega. I'm not over Streets of Rage Remake, but fan interaction is certainly a thing Sega (at least the Sonic part of Sega) do better than Nintendo.

Say what you will about Nintendo VS Sega or how mistreated as a brand Sonic is, but there isn't a 2D sprite-based Metroid game in the works that takes everything that was great about Super Metroid and builds upon it. At least to our knowledge.
 
What's with all the legal talk? I've seen noone dispute the fact that Nintendo is well within its rights to send out DMCAs just that it's shitty for Metroid fans.

Just as it is Nintendo's right to stop or hinder distribution of the game people have the right to tell Nintendo to piss off.

No explaination on how legally correct this thing is is going to change that.
 

Maedhros

Member
"Hurr durr, Nintendo is a good company, they waited for this project to be released before they took it down.

Fucking SERIOUSLY??
 
D

Deleted member 12837

Unconfirmed Member
Could anyone post the MD5 of the file? That's OK to ask for in here, right?
 

Maedhros

Member
Could anyone post the MD5 of the file? That's OK to ask for in here, right?

See the OT, I guess it's on the OP now.

EDIT: Actually: here

am2rw9sy7.png
 

Bastardo

Member
What's with all the legal talk? I've seen noone dispute the fact that Nintendo is well within its rights to send out DMCAs just that it's shitty for Metroid fans.

On the previous page, I did not dispute that is unlawful of Nintendo to send a C&D letter, like you mentioned, but I disputed that the legal situation is as clear as many people here make it look like.
 

PtM

Banned
On the previous page, I did not dispute that is unlawful of Nintendo to send a C&D letter, like you mentioned, but I disputed that the legal situation is as clear as many people here make it look like.
By stretching the meaning and intent of fair use.
 

RK128

Member
"Hurr durr, Nintendo is a good company, they waited for this project to be released before they took it down.

Fucking SERIOUSLY??

That is a good way of looking at things though.....to a degree. Like it or not, they had to take action at some point, so it was 'nice' of them to do so AFTER the release of the game rather then during its development.

Still a bit upset with how Nintendo dealt with this situation. I said this at least five times since last night but will say it again: They could have worked with the developer to get this officially released on the Wii U as an official Metroid 2 Remake to celebrate the series 30th Anniversary.

Clearly, that isn't happening though, so oh well :l.
 

Maedhros

Member
That is a good way of looking at things though.....to a degree. Like it or not, they had to take action at some point, so it was 'nice' of them to do so AFTER the release of the game rather then during its development.

Still a bit upset with how Nintendo dealt with this situation. I said this at least five times since last night but will say it again: They could have worked with the developer to get this officially released on the Wii U as an official Metroid 2 Remake to celebrate the series 30th Anniversary.

Clearly, that isn't happening though, so oh well :l.

Sorry, but that's bullshit. This is just making guesses to fit a narrative of Nintendo being good guys. We don't know if they actually knew about it or not before this.
 
Keep fighting the power dudes!
Jfc...

You are seriously defending this.
Just because it's legal doesn't make it shitty towards the community and really bad PR.
They pissed off a bunch of people and got nothing back in return. The cat is out of the bag and no amount of legal fuckery will bring it back in.
 

MrBadger

Member
That is a good way of looking at things though.....to a degree. Like it or not, they had to take action at some point, so it was 'nice' of them to do so AFTER the release of the game rather then during its development.

Still a bit upset with how Nintendo dealt with this situation. I said this at least five times since last night but will say it again: They could have worked with the developer to get this officially released on the Wii U as an official Metroid 2 Remake to celebrate the series 30th Anniversary.

Clearly, that isn't happening though, so oh well :l.

I think porting it is easier said than done considering (I think?) it's made in Game Maker. Also, I don't think Nintendo are automatically obliged to fund a fan project just because it's good or the devs spent a long time on it. the best we could have realistically expected of Nintendo was for them to just turn a blind eye to AM2R's existence.
 

RK128

Member
I think porting it is easier said than done considering (I think?) it's made in Game Maker. Also, I don't think Nintendo are automatically obliged to fund a fan project just because it's good or the devs spent a long time on it. the best we could have realistically expected of Nintendo was for them to just turn a blind eye to AM2R's existence.

I know but after seeing SEGA's moves with the Sonic IP regarding fan creations, I just feel a bit annoyed toward Nintendo for not even trying to work with people on fan creations being published on Nintendo consoles.

Nintendo's loss in the long run though, as they lost more good-will from some Metroid fans and the game is on the either that is the Internet now. I think you are right though; Nintendo likely would have let the game live on its own and ignored in the best case situation.
 

RK128

Member
Sorry, but that's bullshit. This is just making guesses to fit a narrative of Nintendo being good guys. We don't know if they actually knew about it or not before this.

I know its BS honestly but just trying to be positive about this whole situation man :l. Nintendo messed up and they could have came to a better conclusion with the developer if they really wanted to.

We will likely never know the full story unless the developer comes out and explains what Nintendo told him (IF they told him anything beyond a simple C&D letter).
 

diaspora

Member
AFAIK Metroid games sells as much as the Souls games on individual platforms. At least the Prime games approximated that amount. The idea of them being poor sellers is nothing short of bullshit.
 

Kyzer

Banned
I wonder how everybody spewing "corporate cheerleading shill bootlicking etc. etc" would feel if they sold something they created and someone remade the same exact thing using all your copyrighted material and gave it away for free. Do you guys realize you can make all the same arguments for piracy and bootlegging? Its not about self interest, or being in love with a corporation, its about understanding the law. I dont see you guys posting about how awesome it would be to just download games for free instead of paying and shitting on people saying you should pay for games, calling them corporate cheerleaders?

The guy is amazing and did great work but distributing it en masse is highly illegal, and rightly so. The positive passion of the creator doesn't really matter. Like, this guy just really loves Suicide Squad, so he decided to reshoot the exact same movie himself in a higher resolution and with a better budget and give it away for free...that is still illegal lol. Being a superfan is cool and hes totally our bro but he knew damn well what he was getting into.

Again, GAF probably played a bigger part in Nintendo taking action than he did. I blame whoever made the thread advertising it, encouraging everyone to download it, and even going as far as implying Nintendo is okay with it.

Now we have a situation where people are salty and bitter because Nintendo had to do what they had to do in order to protect their IP. Literally in order to be able to protect their IP in the future, they cannot set a precedent of legally, formally, knowing about a copyright infringement and DECIDING to let it live.

Fangames and works are amazing, but those guys need to not get ahead of themselves. The same way musicians get carried away and then just start releasing remixes and stuff without permission and then it bites them in the ass years later, this got too big...its probably not even the creators fault...
 

LordRaptor

Member
You are seriously defending this.
Just because it's legal doesn't make it shitty towards the community and really bad PR.

I'm not 'defending' anything, or saying that all laws exist to make everybody happy.

I'm just saying "I wasn't interested, but I;m downloading to 'stick it' to Nintendo because fuck nintendo" is a pathetic attitude for what is presumably a grown adult to have.

If you are 13 and unaware of how the world works, my apologies.
 

ArjanN

Member
Again, GAF probably played a bigger part in Nintendo taking action than he did. I blame whoever made the thread advertising it, encouraging everyone to download it, and even going as far as implying Nintendo is okay with it.

That makes significantly less sense than blaming Nintendo even.
 

Kalopsia

Neo Member
Now we have a situation where people are salty and bitter because Nintendo had to do what they had to do in order to protect their IP. Literally in order to be able to protect their IP in the future, they cannot set a precedent of legally, formally, knowing about a copyright infringement and DECIDING to let it live.

i'm glad tragic hero Faceless Corporation Nintendo had to agonize over their decision to get their outsourced legal team to protect an IP they've consistently abused for the past decade from a grassroots fan project that aimed to rekindle interest in the brand.
 

Kyzer

Banned
You are seriously defending this.
Just because it's legal doesn't make it shitty towards the community and really bad PR.
They pissed off a bunch of people and got nothing back in return. The cat is out of the bag and no amount of legal fuckery will bring it back in.

???

The community expects to be able to remake Nintendos games and distribute them en masse for free? Sorry but thats asking a bit much lol. If not letting that be a thing is being shitty to a community, then that community has no hope of ever being happy. They sent him a cease and desist. Thats a formal "Sorry, but you cant do this." thats it.

They didnt get nothing, they now get to protect their IP in the future without the court throwing out the case because Nintendo has a history of letting well known copyright infringements live...

Just saying man.


Being salty is okay. Acting like they did the wrong thing is just misinformed and selfish.

That makes significantly less sense than blaming Nintendo even.

Nintendo obviously has blame in sending the cease and desist, do I really need to name them in order for people to feel satisfied? My point was that the creator had less to do with Nintendo taking action than the people advertising his work did.

i'm glad tragic hero Faceless Corporation Nintendo had to agonize over their decision to get their outsourced legal team to protect an IP they've consistently abused for the past decade from a grassroots fan project that aimed to rekindle interest in the brand.

Yall seriously have issues lol the salt is unreal

You can frame it however you want, you and others are very clearly the ones in your feelings and NEEDING to feel negative emotions toward this company thats just doing its job. Metroid is an abused IP, Nintendo must be blamed, cant be "defended" (cuz thats what explaining IP law is in this thread), this was a passion project grassroots pure love and innocence

Ok guy remade a game that Nintendo sells on the eshop and gave it away for free lets separate the salt from the facts please
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
The community expects to be able to remake Nintendos games and distribute them en masse for free? Sorry but thats asking a bit much lol. If not letting that be a thing is being shitty to a community, then that community has no hope of ever being happy. They sent him a cease and desist. Thats a formal "Sorry, but you cant do this." thats it.
Sega does what Nintendont, I guess. It's well within their rights, but they could have taken a different path without compromising their IP.

See: Sonic Mania (and every other thing Christian Whitehead has worked on).
 

Kyzer

Banned
companies should let copyright infringement slide if its rad enough ok cool I get it

it would be nice, yes. lol
 

RK128

Member
I think some people here have no idea how fan games work :l.

-Original Productions: Fan games using existing IP but making BRAND NEW titles with it. Sonic Before/After the Sequel come to mind in this regard
-Fan Remakes/Hacks: Fan's remaking or hacking an existing game and giving it a new spin. Sonic Megamix and the Metroid 2 Remake come to mind

Or a third option recently came into light; Original IP Inspired by Existing IP.

So many fall under this including the following games:
-Freedom Planet
-Spark the Electric Jester
-Bloodstained
-Mighty No. 9
-Yooka-Laylee

Point is, fan games have the right to exist. Granted, the IP owners have the right to shut down the first two options (Original Productions & Fan Remakes/Hacks) but working with the developer leads to better results (look at the Sonic community for reference).

The issue with AM2R is that its BOTH an original production & a remake, so Nintendo 'had' to shut it down. But they could have worked out another solution by working with the developer.
 
Sega does what Nintendont, I guess. It's well within their rights, but they could have taken a different path without compromising their IP.

See: Sonic Mania (and every other thing Christian Whitehead has worked on).

Exactly. Yes, Nintendo have every right to do what they have done here, but it's not the only option, and it's certainly not the option that is best for Metroid fans and I don't think it's the option that's best for the Metroid IP. AM2R is great, what I've played of it. They should have worked something out. I'd have happily paid twice whatever Nintendo sell Metroid 2 on virtual console for it if Nintendo were getting a cut.
 

Kyzer

Banned
the whole point is rom hacks and remakes and fan projects try to stay underground....they shouldnt be heavily advertised and people saying "nintendo is fine with this stuff, everyone download this" on NeoGAF of all places. people ruined it for him and everyone else.

yall snitched!
 
???

The community expects to be able to remake Nintendos games and distribute them en masse for free? Sorry but thats asking a bit much lol.


The fact that they were doing it for free is kinda what would have made it "OK" to do at all. The real problem comes when you try to collect a profit from someone else's work.

Nintendo is only shooting itself in the foot here, they are sticking a knife in the backs of the series' biggest fans - only harming their reputation in the industry. This "our way or the highway" attitude is what ran third-party developers away from their system(s) damn near 30 years ago and what has kept them at an arm's length since. There's a difference between protecting your IP and being completely unreasonable and Nintendo has trouble discerning the two.

People aren't paying for this game anymore anyway, although people *may* have if Nintendo actually acted like they cared about the franchise or the fans and chose to do something - scratch that - ANYTHING worthwhile with the series in the past decade..
 
That hardly means that every single fan game should be accepted with open arms. Let's take an extreme example and work backwards. Should Nintendo shut down a fan game that features Mario acting like a GTA protagonist? With enough violence and nudity to get it an M rating?

This is such an obvious and weak hypothetical. Of course something like a super adult and violent Mario GTA fan troll game would not be acceptable, that doesn't apply to a tastefully and very professionally done fan remake of a game like AM2R.
 

wrowa

Member
Sorry, but that's bullshit. This is just making guesses to fit a narrative of Nintendo being good guys. We don't know if they actually knew about it or not before this.

Jumping to conclusions for the one side is okay, but for the other it isn't?

Fact of the matter is: no one in this thread knows what the decision process behind taking down AM2R was and what was ultimately the reason Nintendo felt the need to shut the project down (opposed to all of the other fan games Nintendo ignored over the years). We don't know what the motivation was to go against the project after its release, instead of prior to it (whether it was because they just didn't know of AM2R's existence or if it's the kind of "we sadly gotta to do it, but we'll wait after its protected by the eternity of the internet" decision). It's all assumptions, a narrative that fits either one side or the other. I dare to say that no one - or at least next to no one - in this thread has the background of working in the law department of a multi-billion company either, so that there's probably a basic lack of understanding the procedure and details of a decision like this on both sides of the argument as well.

One thing I feel relatively certain to say, though, is that this isn't a matter of black and white. I doubt any company has fun in shutting down a project that its fans poured their heart into (not necessarily because they are a nice company, but because who the heck wants a PR disaster like this?) and at the same time it's indisputable that a game like AM2R is legally at the very least of questionable nature.

Has the developer talked about any of this yet? I'd love to know what his stance on all of this is. Sometimes I get the feeling that C&Ds are a bigger topic for people discussing a project as for the people who actually developed it (and likely prepared themselves for this possibility from day one of development).

Anyway, I finished AM2R today and it was an awesome experience through and through. I hope the developers aren't soured on all of this and are feeling as proud about their game as they should be. They've done fantastic work.
 

LordRaptor

Member
Sega does what Nintendont, I guess. It's well within their rights, but they could have taken a different path without compromising their IP.

See: Sonic Mania (and every other thing Christian Whitehead has worked on).

Both Sega and Nintendo have a history of both letting certain projects slide, and of C&Ding certain projects, so you can't be selective in your whataboutism because ultimately it's the IP owners decision of how their IP is used.

I will tell you for an absolute fact that Sonic Mania wasn't made with no input or conversation with Sega and then released onto the web in a very public manner forcing the issue upon Sega to deal with.
 

Maedhros

Member
the whole point is rom hacks and remakes and fan projects try to stay underground....they shouldnt be heavily advertised and people saying "nintendo is fine with this stuff, everyone download this" on NeoGAF of all places. people ruined it for him and everyone else.

yall snitched!

No, the point of rom hacks and remakes and fan works in general is to show their love and vision for the series they fucking love.

Companies should embrace this shit. What they did was a bunch of angry people at them, without any benefit, EVEN IF THEY ARE IN THEIR RIGHT.

Why not just call the fucking guy (guys) and ask them if they wanted to make it official. They could help him to make it even better if they wanted.

But no. Because Nintendo is one of these completely out of touch companies from Japan.
 

pastrami

Member
Jumping to conclusions for the one side is okay, but for the other it isn't?

What conclusion is the other side jumping to? Serious question because this thread is already quite long.

Either way, it's a poor defense for jumping to conclusions and running with narratives that fit your image of a company.
 

Kyzer

Banned
No, the point of rom hacks and remakes and fan works in general is to show their love and vision for the series they fucking love.

Companies should embrace this shit. What they did was a bunch of angry people at them, without any benefit, EVEN IF THEY ARE IN THEIR RIGHT.

Why not just call the fucking guy (guys) and ask them if they wanted to make it official. They could help him to make it even better if they wanted.

But no. Because Nintendo is one of these completely out of touch companies from Japan.

you have no idea what youre talking about and the idea of companies in a multibillion dollar industry doing what sega did becoming normal, companies 'embracing this shit" is literally unsustainable, it has nothing to do with Nintendo being another out of touch japanese company (lol wtf?)

they sent him a cease and desist thats it. thats all we know. youre injecting persona into a company and talking about hypotheticals of a situation we werent involved in and you dont have the experience to even say that its how things could or would work.

also worth mentioning the creator himself told everybody to chillax and hes sticking by what nintendo asked him to do. we dont even know if they have a good relationship or what.


Its not people cheerleading for nintendo, its people feeling vitriol and hatred toward them because of high salt levels. people explaining, elaborating, and defending the decision being cheerleaders or in love with nintendo is much less likely than some just wanting to see nintendo bleed for this.
 

LordRaptor

Member
Why not just call the fucking guy (guys) and ask them if they wanted to make it official. They could help him to make it even better if they wanted.

But no. Because Nintendo is one of these completely out of touch companies from Japan.

Why didn't the maker contact Nintendo prior to release?

Your 'Japan' comment is borderline racist, because I can't think of any major IP holders anywhere in the world who wouldn't C&D when ambushed like this.
 

Maedhros

Member
What conclusion is the other side jumping to? Serious question because this thread is already quite long.

There's no conclusion. He thinks I'm saying that Nintendo is a evil corporation or something...

I'm just saying they are stupid and should have embraced this project. Do nothing or even better, try to transform it into an official release.

But that's too advanced for them, I guess...

Why didn't the maker contact Nintendo prior to release?

Your 'Japan' comment is borderline racist, because I can't think of any major IP holders anywhere in the world who wouldn't C&D when ambushed like this.

What the fuck? What's racist about the commentary? I'm just saying that japanese companies are usually out of touch with their western fans. Not really a secret at all.

There's some exceptions to this and even then, it's on an IP to IP basis (Sega and Sonic, Capcom and Street Fighter).

BTW: Maybe the creator did contact Nintendo. But my guess is as good as anyone else... meaning: only the creator knows. I'm inclined to think that they would refuse though.
 

Kyzer

Banned
From the creator himself...

"What about the future?
I'll continue improving and fixing AM2R privately."

perfect.


"Please, don't hate Nintendo for all of this. It's their legal obligation to protect their IP.
Instead of sending hate mail, get the original M2 from the eShop. Show them that 2D adventure platformers are still a thing people want. "

^^

This guy is smart.
 
You actually can, it's just most people don't.
Crazy Taxis floating 3D arrow pointing towards destination is actually patented.

That's interesting, and I remember there being some issues with that in the past (along with a lawsuit against "The Simpsons Road Rage" for being a general rip-off). Similarly, I know that for a long time Namco had a patent on mini-games in loading screens, but I don't know if this kind of stuff comes under "mechanics".

Like, with CT I'd be reluctant to call that a mechanic as such, because it's not really "how the game operates". It's a help, but you could play without it. Removing it wouldn't really change the game aside from making it harder. The fact that you drive people from destination to destination however is much more integral to how the game operates. I guess I'd consider that to be a mechanic.

Then again, I'm not a lawyer :p
 

Bluth54

Member
..and Nintendo allowed that to happen while still taking a strong stance against copyright infringement. Win/win.
Nah a real win/win would be Nintendo allowing the developer to port the game to Wii U and sell it so both the dev and Nintendo get a cut, much like how Valve allows the developers of the Half Life remake Black Mesa sell it on Steam.

This is just Nintendo being a bully to their fans, which is their typical MO.
 
???

The community expects to be able to remake Nintendos games and distribute them en masse for free? Sorry but thats asking a bit much lol. If not letting that be a thing is being shitty to a community, then that community has no hope of ever being happy. They sent him a cease and desist. Thats a formal "Sorry, but you cant do this." thats it.

They didnt get nothing, they now get to protect their IP in the future without the court throwing out the case because Nintendo has a history of letting well known copyright infringements live...

Just saying man.


Being salty is okay. Acting like they did the wrong thing is just misinformed and selfish.
No they absolutely did go into this the wrong way and got nothing back.
You think that precedent counts for anything? Companies c&d fan projects left and right anyway and nobody is dumb enough to go to court with them.
They could have given the project the go-ahead as an official game and got part of the profits(hell even make it exclusive if they wanted to) or just legally shut the project down much earlier to save the developers the trouble.
There where so many ways for them to play it smarter and make a profit out of it(like Sega) but no they just let the middle managers in the legal department handle this.
Now the game is in the wild and they got a bunch of bad PR for it.
Way to go,you defended an IP you don't care about from a bunch of fans that didn't want to make a profit out of it.

I'm not 'defending' anything, or saying that all laws exist to make everybody happy.

I'm just saying "I wasn't interested, but I;m downloading to 'stick it' to Nintendo because fuck nintendo" is a pathetic attitude for what is presumably a grown adult to have.

If you are 13 and unaware of how the world works, my apologies.
If you are 13 and still feel bad when people trash talk you favorite game company, my apologies
 
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