Project M has shut down, and no, it was not because of Nintendo.

InsanityRequiem

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http://projectmgame.com/en/

Basically, long running fan Super Smash Brothers mod closed their doors. Their announcement contains a bit of vagueness, thanks, and such, but ultimately they?ve stated that after six years and a desire to move on, Project M is no more.

It?s been stated on a few of their twitters and in the couple reddit threads by the developers that no, there was no legal action taken against them by Nintendo, but they do have legal NDAs to abide by that prevents them from speaking fully in regards to the situation, but ultimately it was their decision to shut down Project M.

While the devs did state Nintendo did not enact legal action, people have gotten onto the conspiracy train that the Big N did. But in reality, it most likely is one of either two things.

1) Group split and chose to amicably shut down Project M and call it down due to internal differences. I, personally, don?t think this is the case, mainly because 2 has bigger support in my eyes.

2) They?ve been picked up by a company to fully work on ?the new project? they?ve alluded to in their announcement. And due to the (soon to be enacted?) Trans-Pacific Partnership, it?d be best for the company that Project M is shut down to prevent a lawsuit. I believe this has bigger merit into why Project M was closed. Why? To prevent any sort of lawsuit from Nintendo?s part, especially because if Nintendo didn?t enact a lawsuit while Project M exists, they would possibly lose their intellectual property rights for Super Smash Brothers. Basically, remember when Bethesda had to go legal on Mojang for their Scrolls game? Nintendo would have to do that for Project M (and since PM had been around for 6 years, Nintendo would be seen as failing to protect their IP).
 

Fappy

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Yeah, I assumed it meant they were picked up to work on an official project. It's always cool to see modders become professionals.
 

ShakerSilver

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Not sure how I feel about this. One the one hand seeing them move onto their own project is cool and I know I'll support . On the other, if the reason for shutting down and removing their mod page had to do with fear of TPP fucking with modders (among other things), I can't say I'm too happy about that.

However, what does this say for other Smash fan projects like Super Smash Flash or other mods like Brawl minus? Is PM prominent enough that Nintendo would actual consider it to be threatening to their IP? Considering how Twitch starting to shut down PM streams a couple of months ago than it may be possible.
 

InsanityRequiem

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ShakerSilver said:
Not sure how I feel about this. One the one hand seeing them move onto their own project is cool and I know I'll support . On the other, if the reason for shutting down and removing their mod page had to do with fear of TPP fucking with modders (among other things), I can't say I'm too happy about that.

However, what does this say for other Smash fan projects like Super Smash Flash or other mods like Brawl minus? Is PM prominent enough that Nintendo would actual consider it to be threatening to their IP? Considering how Twitch starting to shut down PM streams a couple of months ago than it may be possible.
If anything, and the legal speak of the TPP papers are to go by from what I?ve learned, it may be more due to the fact that while civil suits might be a fight some companies could take it to court about, it?s the fact that TPP makes such actions criminal the cause of fear. And with how criminal proceedings happen, a group or company being forced to shut down due to creating, even hosting, altered IP content is a situation a sizable portion would avoid.

So essentially, Project M closing doors is most likely a preventative action for when TPP passes and is enacted. That way all companies involved can just wipe their hands and say ?it?s no more? in an effort to avoid the confusion and downright legal quagmire and headache that could happen.
 

Atmos Duality

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Well...going by the TPP argument, the root cause of the threat is still Nintendo. I want to say it's less insidious than the usual anti-consumer hooplah, but given how Nintendo has treated other fan-works (at best, as new streams of revenue they didn't fully earn) I just can't.

I've been preparing to make my peace with game modding regardless, given recent developments, and the generally negative attitude in gaming as a whole. It's just too damn cynical now.
 

Hairless Mammoth

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Atmos Duality said:
I've been preparing to make my peace with game modding regardless, given recent developments, and the generally negative attitude in gaming as a whole. It's just too damn cynical now.
That's how I feel as well. If modding goes away (or all/most of PC modding becomes what Valve and Bethedsa is trying to do), I'll be pretty disappointed. But, I'm prepared to accept it happening. Although, if it does happen and the companies that caused it can't make great content at a decent price, I might not spend much time or money on video games anymore. (That's already happened to me with TV and cinema.)

Finger's crossed the TPP and any other totalitarian legislation can be destroyed before even fan art starts to get cease and desist letters.