In-Depth: SEGA & Fan Content Takedowns

21 Comments

1. There’s this Amazing fan game/hack called Newer Super Mario Bros Wii. It was made in 2013 but Nintendo never took it down.

   1. SEGA didn’t take down sonic after the squeal and before the squeal that was post and made by a youtuber.

2. I know you keep disclaiming it as not being an “anti-Nintendo article” and I totally get that…

   …but you can still see how you could interpret the underlying message as “Nintendo totally has a right to do this…but that doesn’t mean that they have to, which makes Sega awesome”, right? Because that’s still how I read this.

   I get it, you’re doing your best here to not seem biased, but I think we can all agree here that Nintendo has been really anal about all this for the past decade or so, there’s no shame in admitting it. If anything, it’s a helpful thing to acknowledge the strength in how liberal Sega has been with things and acknowledge how powerful and helpful that would be for Nintendo if they adopted a similar mindset.

   People on the internet still love all of Nintendo’s products so much that regardless of how the company acts, they will still promote, meme about, and love the hell out of those products. If Nintendo could just wise up and realize how much more powerful and influential they would be if they eased up on all these misplaced legal actions, they would have a much much MUCH stronger following than they do right now, and that’s still a lot.

   Even if it means that Nintendo might be the last company to get on board with the “free social publicity” idea, I DO hope that one day they do get there.

   Plus, they went after Angry Joe, I think we can stand to be at least a little critical of them.

   1. I can make things as clear and unbiased as possible. I can say multiple times how that is the case. I can source many things. I can make an entire article that is literally saying “Nintendo doesn’t have to do this, but they’re perfectly allowed to, along with SEGA, and that’s not a problem at all”. There was not a single criticism of any of the companies I said in the article. But people will always interpret things in their own fashion. It makes no difference what I say, how I phrase things, there will always be people that see it in a completely different way. Does that make me wrong, though? No it doesn’t. It doesn’t make me right either. People will judge in their own way.

      So yes, I can still see how they could interpret it that way. Because no matter how much I can imply otherwise, it makes no difference whatsoever. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. And as per usual, it’s likely I’ll be blamed for that (as is usually the case when I do even the slightest thing, serious or not). I’ve long since concluded that, no matter what I do, there will always be people who disagree with the article and/or how they interpret its message. That’s just how it goes.

      1. it seems like they are making things alot worse from the company besides the company do have there rights to do so. and they can recently take any actions on people works who has copyright materials.

   2. “…but you can still see how you could interpret the underlying message as “Nintendo totally has a right to do this…but that doesn’t mean that they have to, which makes Sega awesome”, right? Because that’s still how I read this.”

      I have experience in analytical reading and I can tell you for a fact that SSF1991’s article is very neutral and even-handed. Our minds are quite prone to automatically and imperceptibly making judgement calls in our subconscious regio. You just did that–not the article. Now, subjectively speaking, I believe most people, if presented the facts, would come to the same conclusion as you just did. It simply makes sense that a company that lets their fans praise their work artistically versus one who stifles it will be seen as “awesome” and the other as harsh and cold. It is called customer appreciation and free advertising!

   3. To me it sounded like “We should really cut Nintendo some slack. They’re not doing anything wrong and they’re looking out for the product. The fact that SEGA does it is not a right. It’s a privilege and we should consider ourselves lucky.”

      1. That’s exactly what the message was supposed to be. But as I said, you can’t stop people from interpreting things differently.

         1. true, but you may have a point for all of this. people can make things as there fan arts and stuff but nothing stopping them for doing what they do.

3. Now I know why I feel like buying Sonic Mania day 1 full price but plan on getting breath of the wild 2 years later!

4. hmmm I totally get the infringement thing and believe me I understand it but I really wonder how long Nintendo’s piss poor decision making can go on before there are dire consequences to these actions. Yeah Nintendo is still a pretty hot comodity but the cell phone mobile platform is absolutely killing them probably 2 to 1. I don’t remember the figures exactly but every time I turned around I kept seeing Sales for Wii U and 3DS weren’t meeting expectations time and time again. I’m gonna go out on a limb on this comment but Nintendo keeps pissing people off there is going to be serious dire consequences for them. The world economy is not good and if another round of economic collapses happen like what happened earlier this year…Nintendo is going to be in a serious world of hurt. If I were them I’d really rethinking their playbook cause piss poor decision making can only go on for so long before the jenga blocks fall. Cause look what happened to Sega over the last 4 years. Things were really not one bit good for a very long time. This year feels like there has been a serious turn around for them but I won’t confirm that till we see the end results of Sonic Boom Fire & Ice and Sonic Mania, then onto Project 2017 and beyond. They seem to look very promising so here’s hoping. Fingers crossed 😎 That’s my thoughts anyways.

5. sonic after the squeal & before the squeal is a fan game. i don’t know if SEGA has the courage to take down the game that was post on youtube by a youtuber who made it a few years ago. basically, i recommend that SEGA might be able to take action on it. because basically, SEGA has nothing to do with the game that already been made by a youtuber. besides, i notice that it might be copyright.

6. SEGA… despite having made many awful business choices, it was smart on letting fans do whatever they wanted. Or sort of.

   Look at them now: the Sonic brand on North America is literally run by fans, which is not a bad thing. You can get more engaged with people and even better products come from it. Like the upcoming game “Sonic Mania”, which is just an approved fan-game with developers hired straight from the community. Nintendo can’t do that without feeling a bit hypocritical.

   If you don’t get what i’m saying: look at TSSZ own poll! Mania is above Project 2017’s hype.

   1. you might be a little correct on that one. but SEGA trying there best not to make any mistakes during business choices. and now nintendo is saying that they are afraid that they might make some mistakes once the NX gets revealed thats the only case i can think of my friend.

      1. They should be afraid very afraid because they’ve been making mountains of obvious mistakes since the 3DS launched, look at their most recent mistake bringing Mario Maker to the 3DS but crippling it’s online sharing functionality. This is a far cry from the Nintendo of 2006 who were very obviously realizing their mistakes and doing everything possible to attain the massive mainstream appeal they had during their glory days.

         1. To be fair, we don’t know how long the 3DS servers are going to be running once the NX comes out. For all we know, they could be shutting the servers down just a few months after the NX comes out, and then MM3d would be unplayable. That said, yeah it sucks it won’t have online functionality. That was literally the best thing about the game. Really hoping that it will have that functionality added later on.

         2. you got a point there they shut down the wii servers after the Wii U was launch and people got upset about the Wii servers being shut down.

7. As much as I like Pokemon a lot, I’m really annoyed with the company as to how they treat their fans. I surprised the pax party isn’t mentioned here… There was a fan pokemon con in the US called Pokemon PAX party, and it got hit with a lawsuit by Nintendo. Nintendo sued the guys running it for $4k.

   I heard about the Pokemon Uranium thing too recently. It wasn’t a rom hack and they didn’t make any money from it either. But they still got attacked.

   Really bad times for Nintendo, just so disappointing…

8. I don’t think Nintendo is as good at PR as it thinks they are. It’s true that they are in their right to take down any fan work that is not authorized by them. The problem is, depending on the size or amount of times one does this, it can cause a rift between the company and fans, especially if the company hasn’t been meeting fan expectation like it should be.

   Sega may not be the best company but they still allow most of these fan projects to exist because they care about their fans. They know that these projects are made with the intention that fans love these series. Capcom’s a little similar to this and even endorsed and helped out with a Megaman fangame Megaman x Street Fighter by sending resources to the maker of the game. Nintendo would rather be overprotective of their IPs and stay behind other game companies in progression. Fan projects are only harmful when a person is making money off of it. Otherwise, all takedowns do is hurt the company’s image, making people think they are selfish and don’t care about the people that buy their games in the first place.

9. Once again Sega does what Nintendon’t

10. Little Red N hates you, but luckily The Great Blue S LOVES you, fans… E>-)

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