If you keep up with any sort of Pokemon news site, you are probably well-aware that Nintendo has officially requested that several sites (most notably Serebii.net and Pokebeach) stop posting official images from their games. They claim that this is copyright infringement.
While this is technically true, it took them, what...over a decade to start bitching about it? The hell?
This is not the first time that copyright holders and fans have butted heads. Every three seconds, an AMV is taken down from YT because companies cannot stand having their works promoted, FOR FREE, by people who might have actually PAID for said stuff. (That stat is an approximation, but you get the idea.)
More recently, OneManga and several other manga scanlation sites were sued by license holders. OK. I can understand that. That's still not cool.
(Plus, Viz lost one of my favorite properties. The English version of the above manga goes for, I kid you not, over 1,000 USD. Not having scanlations is like salt on a wound.)
What really surprised me, in this case, was that it was Nintendo doing it. Nintendo has always struck me as a very stable company that, at the very least, acted like they did not need our business. That's usually a good move; "if you want idiots (i.e. the lowest common denominator) to listen, wave money around."
Pokemon has a huge fanbase, an anime and a bunch of gullible little kids who will buy anything that Nintendo throws at them. Although the adult fanbase of Pokemon is substantial, my guess is that it is LARGELY sustained by little kids (although not as heavily as YGO is). Those are ALWAYS a fine source of money. ALWAYS. Pokemon is pretty safe as a franchise and is probably the LAST one they should worry about.
Look into Pikachu's eyes and tell me that Nintendo is in debt.
This sudden 'BAWWW' strikes me as a desperate and likely unnecessary move - are you really that deep into the financial pits, Nintendo? You have not complained until now. You have a sound franchise whose fanbase can only get bigger if the information about it is spread online. Essentially, you will lose money if you keep this up. Stop now.
At least they haven't nailed Bulbapedia, yet. Then I would have to get a weapon that actually worked.
