Nintendo Shutting Down Its Own Fan Sites

It looks like Nintendo has taken a turn for the worse as they are now threatening to shut down several gaming fan sites for copyright infringement.

[ichimaru]

wow
Nintendo will be EA jr. this time next year.copyright infrubgement pffft.

[rosebowl23]

I agree, Nintendo get's a little money and they become worse than EA, Microsoft, etc. I never would've expected something like this from them.

Effective immediately, I am boycotting them.

[BrianC6234]

This is one reason gamers should stay away from Nintendo. They don't care about gamers. Why waste your money on them? They won't give interviews to the media about their games. Now they won't let their fans talk about their games. What's next?

[Amanosenpai]

GOOD JOB NINTENDO... treating like PIRATES to the most loyal costumers u have...

U wont live from "casuals" forever.

[iamtehpwn]

This is down right pathetic.
2 years ago, I was the biggest Nintendo fanboy ever.
And now, I see them as the more greedy than Microsoft! yyeesh.

[Breakfast]

Yea thats right...no other greedy companies in the world...just MS and Nintendo...makes sense to me.

lol...every companies greedy. Thats how you make money

[ianp622]

This isn't greed, it's just stupid.

[Breakfast]

No its stupider than that

[v1c1ous]

are they so against online that they want to take down the internet itself!?!

[TheTerminator]

As if friend codes didn't torture us enough

[Vino]

Why would Nintendo take down their fan sites ?????

[RecSpec]

How is this shocking? Nintendo has never been exactly fan-friendly. They keep all their stuff to themselves. They are arrogant to the point where they tell YOU what you want. "You don't need internet" "You don't need voice chat" "You NEED friend codes". Nintendo has always been like this, but people have always overlooked it because, well, they are Nintendo, Home of Mario, Link, Samus, etc.

[Iamback]

Home of same old crap all over again.....and than again all over again......and than...........

[Voiceofreason]

Kinda like how Sony said we need Blu Ray? Or Rumble isnt need its last gen, oh but wait you need rumble now Sony says. We need a 600.00 console and we will work extra hours to own one. Funny how you cant stand Nintendo for doing the exact same things that Sony is doing. BTW it was an April fools joke.

[diatom]

They just don't seem to get this whole interweb thingie.

[-EvoAnubis-]

That sucks.

Anyway, back to waiting on GTA4.

[-EvoAnubis-]

Confirmed to be an April Fool's Joke. How delightful.

Anyway, back to waiting on GTA4.

[blynx182]

They don't shutdown C3...

[Neo218]

Yet another reason why Sony is better than Nintendo, dont see Sony shuting down there fansites. PS3 is the future, Wii and 360 suck period.

[WIIIS1]

If Sony had any IP worth protecting, they'd be doing the same.

[Kwertie]

I don't think it's as clean cut as copyright infringement, I think it's just a facade. There are plenty of websites guilty of copyright infringement, so why did Nintendo go after small game like them?

Well my guess is it's to do with the whole web safety aspect. Friend codes were put in place to safeguard kids so that it was not easy for a total stranger to make contact with them. Friendcodes.com (I'm presuming), helps people exchange friendcodes over the net (with total strangers). This is what Nintendo doesn't want. They even shut down their official European forums because of friend code trading.

I may be way off the mark, but that's what I'm speculating. The way I see it (and this is obviously way OTT) is that if two people exchanged friendcodes using said site, one of which was a murderer/rapist/whatever and attacked the other party (ie arranging to meet via Wiimail or something, or even the forum), then Nintendo would get crap for not shutting down the site earlier.

Whatever happens, it always comes back on the company because tabloids and reporters in general love to sensationalise stuff. I mean look at this. This is just 1 site they have /requested/ to stop infringing, right? They never actually shut it down (as far as I can see), and they aren't exactly going on a rampage shutting down hundreds or thousands of fan sites.

They haven't even shut down a lot of the ROM trading sites, which really should be on the top of their list what with DS and Wii piracy.

[GODofDOOMS]

"leave your fanboyism at the door please"
i should be agreeing cause i own a PS3 but it was too fanboy and random commect this is about Nintendo not sony and MS

[whoelse]

I think this still could be a hoax, April 1st is nearly here!

[Scottama]

@10: That's what the open zone's for...

Go and play on your own.

[ScottEFresh]

Wii for sale.....MINT condition! BARELY USED includes extra controller and nunchuk, Super Mario Galaxy (barely played), NiGHTS : Journey of Dreams (barely played), The Godfather (barely played), Wii Play (BRAND NEW)....if you come pick it up I will give it to you.

[wiizy]

nonsense. they should be concern about their rights if its being violated.. the sites that follows the rule has nothing to worry about.

[Revvin]

This is Nintendo of old, how quickly people forget. Nintendo comes into this generation as the underdog against MS and Sony and everyone loves an underdog so Nintendo begin to flourish but as soon as they are in a stronger position they revert back to the Nintendo of old, they try to control everything, tell the fans what they want and become arrogant.

[ChickeyCantor]

Wasn't it so nintendo said that its " illegal" to post your Codes on the net? ...
its sad indeed, but if they have " copyrights" and what not they do have the rights to take others down violating their stuff.

And..Nintendo is greedy? yeah right like any company gave you a console away for free.
Its not GREED, its business

[BlackCountryBob]

Maybe if the Wii and DS online wasn't so crippled a site like that would not have been needed in the first place!

I don't quite understand why companies do this, Apple is much the same when it went after mac sites for publishing rumours, it does more harm to their PR than it does benefit to their stock price.

Nintendo, if people are willing to talk about your stuff then let them, loyal fans are something you should be keeping hold of rather than isolating. I have said it before and I'll say it again, the hardcore Nintendo fanboys are feeling isolated and ignored so you should look after them as best you can because your casual gamers are great now but eventually they will move on to the next big thing and you'll need your big fans to remain with you.

[Surfman]

i hate nintendo for this, and for non-respect of the environment, they got a 0/10 from Greenpeace.

[Ivix]

Wasn't it a 0.5? Give them credit where credit's due. ;)

[PR0NE]

arrogant as always; that's nintendo, that's why i don't like 'em.

[KeenanTheSavage]

I think that this is ridiculous, and will just make Nintendo look bad. If they continue on with this, not only are tons of sites going to be taken off the web (including mine), but Nintendo will loose some of it's community and gamers in a whole.

[DFresh]

Nintendo is really f***ed up with their consumers.
Microsoft is the same way.
Both of these companies are short term make a product get a quick buck move on to the next.
Stick with Sony they have the better technology, they are long term 10 years with the PS3 and PS2 still continues to sale, you get service with people that speak fluent English, no Hindu like Microsoft or Chinese like Nintendo.
Thank god I chose not to get the Wii and stick to the best console the PS3.
Hate me if you want but the evidence speaks for itself.
You hear tons of bad reports about Microsoft and Nintendo but never really about Sony.
Why?
Because they listen to the consumer and give them the best product for the best price.
The only bad thing you hear about Sony is they want them to add more features but that's fine better than hardware failures and discontinuation of services.

[V2]

Please, Sony is just as bad. Before the Ps3 was out, they were as arrogant as Nintendo back in the SNES days. Currently there hasn't been any bad news about Sony, but in the last five years, they've had the worst news. Take off your fanboy goggles, and open up you eyes.

[Picnico]

Kwertie sounded like he/she had some common sense but then ended by saying that other sites should be top of their list instead.

The Friend codes site is designed in such a way that a parent or child who didn't look closer could think that it was an official site- it's essentially like a carbon copy of Nintendo's own site. Furthermore, if the term 'Friend codes' has been copyrighted by Nintendo (and I don't know whether it has) Nintendo have every right to ask the people who run a website solely by that name to change the name of the site. I am sure that Nintendo would have no problem with the same website operating under a different name.

It seems to me that 99% of people who have commented on here have their brains so automatically defaulted to 'big corporations bad- small websites good' that you haven't thought through the implications of letting copyright law count for absolutely nothing online. It's not about penalising self acclaimed Nintendo fans at all-if Nintendo lose a relative handful of fans it is of more loss to those fans who can't play Nintendo's great games than it is to Nintendo. If Nintendo decided to call it a day due to people disrespecting their copyrights then we would all lose out on some great games. I have no sympathy with anyone who disrespects the right of creative geniuses like Nintendo to protect what they do in a lawful way and who are probably partly doing so to help children stay safe online. Talk of boycotting actually shows how fickle such so called 'fans' are. It is preposterous to regard Nintendo's stance as a personal attack on anyone who has a love of Nintendo.

[ChickeyCantor]

Bubbles ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++

[Varsarus]

Miyamoto will probably leave soon :(

[mr_potato]

I would put this as rumour until after April 1

This could be a big joke

[Swat20]

further proof that nintendo doesnt care about its core audience anymore and now caters to 5 year olds and 85 year olds. well i hope anyone with a wii enjoys that wii fit yeaaaaa i hear that games real hardcore....

[ChickeyCantor]

how is it proof really? it got nothing to do with " core audience" its about COPYRIGHTS.

its lame they wanna take it down , if its true, but be a bit realistic: Nintendo has the LEGAL rights to do so.

" well i hope anyone with a wii enjoys that wii fit yeaaaaa i hear that games real hardcore....
"
And you sir are a Troll.

[ciid]

http://www.friendcodes.com/...

Already posted an apology.

[MaximusPaynicus]

See what happens when April Fools jokes go horribly wrong? Serves the guy right, if you ask me.

[cooke15]

ok this is fake. can the article be edited now? Ilove how its only the negative nintendo articles that shoot to the top of this place.. Absolutely rediculous.

[DailyAddict]

Hmm... although this one is a joke, didn't Nintendo ACTUALLY do this back in the day? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't DailyRadar have to shut down because of some Pokemon guide debacle with DailyRadar?

Might be fake now, but Nintendo's history is what made it believable.

[Voiceofreason]

I really dont see how their history of being a company like any other made this any more of a reason to be mad. If it was any other company besides Nintendo then most would accept them protecting their rights. However some people just want to hate them. The reasons never really matter

[Goodfella78]

at their comments?,just come online to find loads of nintendo hate mail on this site,because of the timing of my appearance,and the comments above i find this very funny,personally i think the mass hysteria was over the top,i mean after all its only nintendo the company that caters to kids and old folks,c,mon get a grip people.[lol]peace out......

[Enigma_2099]

... otherwise I'd feel like a fool too.

[ScottEFresh]

Since when did April fools start in MArch?? Im sick of the early april fools BS starting in MARCH. Wait until the first to try and pull this crap.

[Voiceofreason]

I totally agree. Whats next? Starting it on Jan 1st then telling everyone on April 2nd "haha we got you good this time you fell for a joke based on a day in April all the way back in January."

[HoboGamer]

LOL, now www.friendscodes.com is definately on Nintendo's radar, i wonder how Nintendo will view this publicity. At least they got a lot of coverage on the Internet Community.

[I Call 9MM]

I've already lost my love for Nintendo. They used to think they were a decent company, but this just takes the cake. I don't think Microsoft or Sony would make this mistake.

I'll always remember the good old days of the NES and SNES, even the N64 and Gamecube. Now, this company doesn't even seem to be the same anymore.

[DJ]

That April Fools jokes are supposed to be ludicrous, not probable.

[buddyro]

they are closing down there site the soccer moms, 12 year olds are Nintendo's target not the hard core gamers so they are now going to sponsor soccer events, and bake sales. The old Nintendo is out the new Nintendo is in times have changed and so have Nintendo.