The shot backfired: Over 20 years ago, a small development studio made a big impression on Nintendo, but there was still trouble
Pokémon is by far the most financially successful multimedia franchise in the world.
(An impressive 88 billion US dollars) have already been earned by Pikachu, Glumanda, Lugia and co. with numerous films, series, trading cards, video games and countless merchandise items.
So it’s no wonder that the rights holders are reluctant to let go of the brand. But Nintendo did just that 24 years ago and ended up regretting it. A YouTuber has now unearthed the bizarre story
A clear case of overstepping one’s authority
The year is 2000, the second Pokémon film (in this country Pokémon 2 – The Power of One
) is about to be released and Nintendo says: Hey, let’s do some advertising!
So the Japanese company turns to Warner Bros. and grants the US film studio the rights for marketing activities related to the movie.
Nintendo was probably expecting pyjamas, drinking cups and fizzy drinks – but certainly not a Pokémon video game!
Warner Bros. thought it was a great idea to commission the then unknown software company Cyberworld
to do just that. After all, what do you have the rights for?
But rather watch than read? You can also watch everything we’re about to tell you in video form on the YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming – that’s where we first heard this story, honor to whom honor is due (it starts at minute 10:50):
This game is … too good!
Cyberworld had little experience with video games, but specialized in the creation of virtual 3D environments of shopping malls – and that should pay off.
Because the in-house technology of displaying 2D sprites in a three-dimensional environment made for a technically impressive Pokémon browser game.
Pokémon 2000 Adventure
was the name of the game and in terms of graphics, it was miles ahead of many other contemporary pocket monster titles such as the Game Boy editions.
Official 3D games only existed at the time in the form of Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Snap. The browser game is also said to have impressed in terms of gameplay for the time. This is what it looked like back then:
Pokémon 2000 Adventure
quickly became a mega success: One million downloads in just one month – and then suddenly the fun was over. Nintendo suddenly pulled the plug because they suspected a breach of contract.
To this day, however, the actual reason has not been clearly communicated. One of the developers at the time recalls what he thinks happened in the video embedded above:
We released [the game] and within a month we had about a million downloads […] And then Nintendo freaked out and immediately sent us a cease and desist letter. […] They were of the opinion that Warner Bros. had breached the contract – they had basically exceeded the permissible scope of the contract.
So it appears that Nintendo was acting with the law on its side. It is quite possible that the company feared that the successful browser game would have pushed the future of the franchise in a direction that was not intended by those responsible.
No wonder Nintendo couldn’t take a joke here. And another reason why rights holders of major brands are so reluctant to relinquish their licenses!
