Interesting that they aren't sending him a Cease and Desist. Almost makes it sound like "we won't stop you from developing anything but if we find the files anywhere we will have them taken down."
Yeah it's a shame that he chose not to post links again on his site, but I can't really blame him because having to worry about the possibility of getting in trouble with a big company must be scary. But it's great that he hasn't given up on updating and improving the game.
It's not our job to care about the circumstances that compels Nintendo to protect their copyright. Most of us are not investors or employees, or have any financial stake in the industry. Their business practices which have little effect on content is none of our business. At the end of the day, no matter what law they're following, or what precedent there is, or how important it is to their business, the only thing that effects us as gamers is that Nintendo is trying to suppress a well-made fan game. I don't see how anyone can say that doesn't suck with a straight face.
Yeah pretty much. You can spin it in whatever way you want to justify Nintendo's course of action but in the end, to the average end user none of it means shit.
Even if I were to believe that they did know about the project and knowingly let it survive for a day (this is highly likely), that doesn't mean that what they did next was right. I don't think they were being held at gunpoint by investors or the evil personification of copyright laws. They had other choices and went for the most simple one that, yes, is legal and something many other companies would have chosen, but that doesn't benefit anyone else.
At the end of the day this whole thing will be remembered as that one time Nintendo didn't make a new Metroid game for almost a decade and then when a fan made something everyone were enjoying, they shut it down to then offer us a product we didn't want. Whether they were legally in the right or not.
And well, context matters, and Nintendo is struggling to sell systems and is being mainly supported by their hardcore fanbase, the same they're angering with things like these. There are high expectations for their new system and people expect a new approach for them. They need all the good will they can get but they don't compromise so they only gather more and more bad press.
So yeah as far as fans are concerned, they screwed up.