YouTuber Says the Pokémon Company Copyright Struck Their 7-Year-Old Video Featuring Pokémon Modded Into COD Zombies

A hugely popular Call of Duty YouTuber has said their seven-year-old video featuring Pokémon modded into COD Zombies was hauled offline after The Pokémon Company issued a removal request. NoahJ456, who has 5.21 million subscribers on YouTube, tweeted a warning to other content creators, advising that if their videos feature any sort of modded Pokémon content, “I would delete/unlist it ASAP.” Tweeting a picture of the notice from YouTube, NoahJ456 said: “Just got a manual strike for a video I made seven years ago featuring Pokémon modded into COD Zombies. Two more strikes and my channel gets deleted.” WARNING TO ALL CONTENT CREATORS! If your videos feature any sort of modded Pokemon content, I would delete/unlist it ASAP. Just got a manual strike for a video I made 7 years ago featuring Pokemon modded into COD Zombies. 2 more strikes and my channel gets deleted. 😐 pic.twitter.com/vEYpM8hdIf — NoahJ (@NoahJ456) March 19, 2024 Replying to a user, NoahJ456 added: “They are technically within their rights to take this down, so unless they have a change of heart (lol) the strike will stay.” It looks like The Pokémon Company is taking a renewed interest in content that shows Pokémon modded into other games after a modder showcased Pokémon in Palworld, the smash hit survival game dubbed ‘Pokémon with guns.’ Palworld features monsters called Pals, which some people have said “rip off” Pokémon. Indeed, the modder who put Pokémon into Palworld claimed “Nintendo has come for me” after a takedown of a tweet. That creator, called Toasted Shoes, tweeted to say they felt responsible for the removal of NoahJ456’s video. “After the heat of Nintendo taking down my Palworld video I did a COD Zombies Pokemon video,” Toasted said. “My mindset was they wouldn't take my video down since Noah and many others had made content on it in the past few years. However they still took action. “I didn't think they'd go scorched earth and I certainly didn't think it would lead to a chain reaction of them punishing @NoahJ456 and every other creator. I am truly sorry that me being reckless may have played some part. “Crazy that it took a month to go after everyone else but it seems they now have their sights set on other creators.” IGN has asked The Pokémon Company for comment. Last week, a former chief legal officer of The Pokémon Company shared a rare insight into its thinking behind fan project takedowns. Speaking to Aftermath, Don McGowan made clear that, at least during his time, The Pokémon Company didn't actively seek out fan projects to shut down but only did so when they crossed a certain line. "You don't send a takedown right away," McGowan said. "You wait to see if they get funded, for a Kickstarter or similar. If they get funded then that's when you engage. No one likes suing fans." McGowan said he and the legal team at The Pokémon Company would typically only come across a project that used its copyright once it was raised in the press. "I would be sitting in my office minding my own business when someone from the company would send me a link to a news article, or I would stumble across it myself," he said. Despite this attitude, there are multiple examples of Pokémon fan projects that were issued a takedown notice, hauling them offline. In 2018, a popular fan-made creation tool players used to build their own Pokémon games bit the dust. In 2021, support for a Pokémon fan project called Pokémon Uranium ceased after nine years of development. And in 2022, The Pokémon Company removed almost all videos of a fan-made Pokémon hunting FPS that went viral on YouTube and social media.