First Nintendo emulators, now one of the biggest Pokemon fan game sites around gets hit with a DMCA takedown

Relic Castle, the biggest Pokemon fan game site around, has apparently been shut down due to a sudden DMCA takedown notice.

Earlier this month, the Switch emulator Yuzu was shut down following a lawsuit that was settled by its creator and Nintendo. This also resulted in the 3DS emulator Citra being shut down too, marking another win for Nintendo in its quest to remove all ability to play its library of games that it has made almost impossible to play. And now it seems that Relic Castle, a Pokemon fan game website, has also been shut down, though it's not particularly clear who by at this point in time (thanks, Kotaku).

For those that haven't heard of Relic Castle before, it was a forum set up back in 2014 where people could share their love for Pokemon fan games. It was also common practice to share links to these fan games that people could download from third-party websites, though Relic Castle never hosted any of these games itself, it's important to note. Essentially, it was just a convenient place to find any fan games you might want to play.

Earlier this week, the official Relic Castle Twitter account shared that the site has now been shut down completely due to a DMCA takedown notice, but the statement provided didn't say where the notice came from - Nintendo is obviously known for being particularly protective over its IP, but it could be that it was The Pokemon Company that filed this one specifically.

"Relic Castle has always been a non-profit, ad-free, tight-knit community and we pride ourselves in what we have achieved," reads the statement. "Members have felt at home, made friends, and even careers with us. It is with deep regret that I have to inform you that the forum part of this community, which was to turn 10 years old this year, has had to come to an end. With over 20,000 members and 65,000 posts, Relic Castle was a home to many of us. The Discord server is not going anywhere, and the site is still visible as an archive using the Wayback Machine."

This won't have rid the internet of its plethora of fan games, as again these were typically hosted elsewhere, but it will obviously make them harder to find. Pokemon fan games are incredibly popular, with countless unique takes on the popular RPG series, and they clearly don't hurt the sales of the main series either, making the move all the more frustrating.