For eight years, Adam "Koolboyman" Vierra had developed Pokémon Prism, a fan-made spinoff project, only to be shut down by Nintendo days before its launch.
Nintendo Cancels Pokémon Prism
Nintendo's Australian law firm had apparently sent Vierra a cease-and-desist letter, which he uploaded on Google Drive sans personal information. The letter alleges that Vierra's project, which modifies the original ROM of Pokémon Gold to offspring an entirely different game, violates Australian laws.
"Pokemon Prism has been cancelled," Vierra wrote in a Facebook post. "I'm sorry it ended like this. I will make a longer statement regarding this soon, but expect this page to be shutdown in a few days."
Vierra, who lives in San Francisco, was sent a letter by Nintendo's Australian law firm since the game's planned launch site, Rijon.com, is hosted in Australia. Addisons, the law firm in question, has never taken action against individuals who have created fan-made ROMs previously, but it has at one point taken action against software piracy, for which it won.
Pokémon Prism
Pokémon Prism would have taken place in the region of Naljo, where players assume the role of Lance's son or daughter. It was originally slated to be released on Dec. 25 until Nintendo abruptly shut it down. Fans of the fan-made title had been awaiting the game's final version, the popularity of which peaked partly because of Pokémon Brown, created in 2004.
The games was poised to include an all-new region, an original story, and 20 badges. Its art style culls largely from the gameplay and art direction of Pokémon games released for the Game Boy Color.
Other Fan-Made Shutdowns By Nintendo
Pokémon Prism joins Pokémon Uranium and a laundry list of fan-made titles shut down by Nintendo. Pokémon Uranium was shut down just a week after a frenzied launch, citing similar copyright issues. However, Pokémon Prism is different because it's essentially a "mod," as gamers call it. It's a ROM hack instead of a full game, so it still needs to piggyback on the original ROM in order to function.
Verra might have skipped past the possibility of Nintendo going after Pokémon Prism, since Pokémon Brown endured nothing sort of what Prism is enduring now. The game would have appended Brown significantly, adding tweaks to a number of the game's elements.
Vierra, however, unlike most developers who had suffered the same misfortune in the past, owes responsibility for the shutdown, stating that he shouldn't have made a trailer and that he should have finished developing the game sooner. But could this have saved the game? We'll never know.
Vierra hasn't indicated plans to release Pokémon Prism through other means.
