Pixelmon – Pokémon Mod for Minecraft is “Requested” to Shutdown

In Minecraft, the possibilities do seem endless. Beyond the insanely detailed creations to the working computers it never fails to spark the imagination of its community. While I might be the King of mud houses in Minecraft, I do appreciate the works that the modding community puts in. I have to say, as a massive Adventure Time fan, I am loving the endorsed game add-on. One of the more popular unofficial mods has been Pixelmon, a Pokemon themed package. Well the party might be over as the owner of Pokemon has ‘politely requested’ that the mod be pulled.

The ‘polite removal request’ of Pixelmon from Minecraft

The ‘polite removal’ does make a nice difference. Particularly when you compare it to the sledgehammer approach Take-Two took against the modding community in GTA 5. In that instance all modders were issued ‘cease and desist’ legal orders. It appears that RockStar have since been trying to repair the damage this heavy-handed approach took, so better late than never, but still hardly comparable to this polite “request”.

In fairness, there is a semi-logic to this. The Pixelmon mod had been in development for some time, it has however, more of a fan project. It certainly had potential and showed a lot of wor for just the work of a small, but committed team. Had it stayed this way, it is likely the Pokemon company could have let it remain. Since the decision was made at the start of this month to ‘officially’ launch the mod, it was at this point that the company took exception.

However, kudos to them, because they have not demanded its removal, they have simply, politely, “requested” that the mod be removed.

Good Guys at the Pokemon Company

It really is refreshing that the Pokemon company only decided to take things this far when Pixelmon was official. It does display a level of benign negligence to their IP which allowed this rather fun mod to progress. They obviously allowed it to go as far as it could, then as per Pixelmon mod website post, decided to agree to the request to withdraw the Pixelmon mod.

Companies obviously need to take care of their IP’s. I would just like to say that I applaude the Pokemon Company. At least they are embracing the fun it’s brand endorses. I can think of many other companies who would not have been so cool about this.

So thank you to the Pixelmon team for your awesome hard work and thanks also to the Pokemon Company for going about this the right way.