Popular Pokemon fan site closed after DMCA strike

The Relic Castle has fallen, as the popular Pokemon fan website has been taken down following a DMCA notice.

The Relic Castle website hosted thousands of Pokemon fan projects, including games. Unfortunately, it’s no more, as the Relic Castle site has been taken down, with the link now sending players to a message explaining the reason for its absence.

“Dear Pokémon fan game community,” the post says, “It is with heavy heart that I announce that the Relic Castle website has been taken down following a DMCA takedown notice.”

It goes on to say that the content on the site can still be viewed on the Wayback Machine, and the official Discord is still operational.

The post doesn’t say who the DMCA came from, but it’s most likely The Pokemon Company. Especially as this DMCA comes hot on the heels of an interview with a lawyer from The Pokemon Company, where they actively discussed shutting down fan projects.

Relic Castle isn’t the only fan-related project affected recently, as a recent Call of Duty YouTuber had a video from seven years ago hit with a strike, as it contained modded Pokemon-related content.

It’s unclear why The Pokemon Company is hitting these fan projects now, especially as they’ve been available for years. Relic Castle was around for a decade before it got shut down.

Perhaps the controversy surrounding Palworld’s similarities to Pokemon has caused The Pokemon Company to become trigger-happy as it seeks to nail down its license even further.

Regardless, it’s a bad look for The Pokemon Company, as it’s shutting down non-profit fan projects for no reason. All these actions do is alienate the most diehard of fans, as these projects are online and can’t easily be scrubbed from the Internet.