Current Events > How often do you hear of fan-games being shut down by the right-owners?

(+) Yeah! (+)

But fan-games that are not remakes of actual games. Stuff like Nintendo shutting down Metroid R, Square killing that 3D Chrono Trigger, or Blizzard destroying the fan recreation of klassic WoW are not what I'm on about. I mean non-profit fan stuff that is not moonlighting off another product. The only one I've ever heard of was some hentai game about fucking Peach was in the works and Nintendo was like "Hell no".

I just know about the Spyro fan game that got shut down a few years ago because the guy was told to stop by Activision

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

The rights holder generally has the final say in how the IP gets used. Theoretically, there's not much legally getting in the way of the rights holder going after anyone who so much as draws a character because they think it's cool, although obviously it's never worth it due to the resources required and the awful PR that would be generated.

Fangames could absolutely hurt sales, although it's rare that they get such clout. As an example, there's a lot of people who think that Another Metroid II Remake is the best version of Metroid II. It's perfectly plausible that some people who wanted an updated version of this game would go for the fangame over Nintendo's official remake, especially if they didn't have a Nintendo platform. I would argue that demonstrates an unmet need in the market, but the law would argue that this infringement on the IP has cost Nintendo.

I think it was a few years before Halo Wars came out; some modders were working on a big Halo-themed conversion mod for Command & Conquer Generals but ended up stopping due to a cease & desist.