Massive Pokémon Fan Recreation Website Taken Down With out Warning By way of DMCA

Relic Citadel, a well-liked discussion board centered on the creation and sharing of Pokémon fan video games, has gone offline with no superior warning. The parents behind the location blame a DMCA takedown discover for the sudden shutdown.

Relic Citadel was arrange in 2014 as a web based discussion board the place folks might speak about Pokémon fan video games, and will additionally share hyperlinks to obtain these video games from third-party web sites. Relic Citadel by no means hosted any of those information straight; as a substitute, fan video games utilizing a mixture of new and previous belongings have been usually downloaded from locations like Mediafire and Google Drive. The boards have been only a handy hub for hyperlinks and gave the neighborhood a spot to debate Pokémon fan video games. Nevertheless, it’s all gone now.

On March 21, the Relic Citadel Twitter account posted a message stating that the location had been shut down “following a DMCA takedown discover.” Relic Citadel didn’t verify who despatched the discover.

“Relic Citadel has at all times been a non-profit, ad-free, tight-knit neighborhood and we pleasure ourselves in what we’ve achieved,” the workers defined within the message.

“Members have felt at dwelling, made buddies, and even careers with us. It’s with deep remorse that I’ve to tell you that the discussion board a part of this neighborhood, which was to show 10 years previous this 12 months, has needed to come to an finish.”

Kotaku has reached out to Relic Citadel for extra info.

In response to that message, Relic Citadel had over 20,000 members and 65,000+ posts. Whereas the location is gone, the Discord server stays and is “not going wherever.” Relic Citadel workers additionally pointed to the Wayback Machine as a useful resource for people trying to go to the location shifting ahead.

“Thanks all for being with us this final decade, and thanks for making Relic Citadel as superior and life-changing because it has been for a few of us,” stated website proprietor Marin and supervisor Andy in a message on social media. The identical textual content can now be discovered on a largely clean web page that changed Relic Citadel final night time.

That is simply the newest salvo within the conflict towards Pokémon mods and fan content material. Not too long ago, a seven-year-old YouTube video that includes modded Pokémon in Name of Obligation was taken down, too. Some concern The Pokémon Firm and Nintendo—spurred by the success of Palworld aka Pokémon with Weapons—is likely to be cracking down on content material which may have been in a position to fly underneath the radar earlier than. For now, we don’t know who ordered Relic Citadel to be shut down, however for Pokémon content material creators and modders, it doesn’t matter. Issues are trying riskier than ever for them.

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