Last month, Pokémon marked the milestone of its 30th anniversary. The franchise—both a major video game series and a cultural touchstone—has kept growing across multiple generations thanks to its focus on building bonds, celebrating friendship, and fueling rivalry through its games. Yet, across the long run of entries, a particular release has always felt like an intriguing outlier. It’s a title that The Pokémon Company didn’t even make.
That game is, naturally, Pokémon Uranium. Revealed to the public in 2016, this unofficial fan-made effort quickly caught on with online audiences who were drawn to the series. While Sun and Moon stirred debate among players, partly due to their polarizing 3D visuals, Uranium stood apart by featuring original pixel art for new Pokémon, presenting a fresh narrative, and reworking familiar franchise expectations in a bold way. Pokémon Uranium’s momentum climbed fast, reaching more than 1.5 million downloads in roughly a week.
It wasn’t long before Nintendo stepped in. Legal representatives contacted Uranium’s two developers, which forced a stop to the project’s development and ongoing updates. Still, the damage was already done: the game’s influence had taken root, and fresh creators kept pushing the Pokéball forward even after the original team had to step away.
“We both started working on Pokémon Uranium when we were pretty young,” says one of the developers, who goes by Ori online, in an interview. Along with fellow developer JV, she approached Uranium as a personal project, with Ori concentrating on the visuals and written content, while JV handled maps and events—using his prior experience with the well-known RPG Maker software. Of all the projects Ori had been involved with, Uranium was the only one that ultimately became fully playable.
“Over the years, we put out different beta builds, and the game grew as our abilities improved,” Ori shared. “At some point, when we were both finishing college and the game was close to being finished, we thought, ‘Okay, we can actually wrap this up.’ We set a target date, wrote down a list of tasks and milestones, brought in extra team members and beta testers, and we all worked extremely hard during the Spring and Summer of 2016 to release the completed edition—now called Uranium 1.0—on August 6th.
“For us, the driving goal was to finish something we’d pictured since childhood—something our younger selves could genuinely feel proud of,” she added. “I’m confident that if my younger self could play Uranium, she would be thrilled. So, mission accomplished.”
When Pokémon Uranium finally arrived in August, Ori and JV were met with a wave of praise. It was attention the pair never expected. “Nothing could have prepared us for the massive rush of viral popularity that kicked in after the full release. I’m sure it was shaped by elements completely out of our control,” she said.
Ori pointed to the global launch of Pokémon Go and the renewed wave of Pokémania that swept through the world for a second time since the original games captivated players in the 90s. “You probably remember that summer when everyone was walking around with their phones out, hunting Pidgeys in the park,” she remarked. “It felt like the perfect storm for viral stardom. And because our game was free and [accessible] on PC, it reached plenty of people who’d never owned a Nintendo console and hadn’t played a real Pokémon RPG before. Surprisingly, for some it turned into their first taste of the franchise—something we didn’t plan for or anticipate. It was a wonderful accident.”
Uranium wasn’t just another typical Pokémon fan game or romhack—it had its own personality and quirks. As Ori put it, the game is “a bit of a strange, edgy, and also somewhat silly take on the Pokémon world.” While some longtime fans disliked the departures from the original formula, others were drawn in specifically because of those distinctive features. “It clearly struck a chord,” Ori reflected. “I mean, there’s still an active community of players even today, ten years after its release. I truly didn’t expect it to leave such a lasting mark. I still see fans sharing artwork on Tumblr, showing off their trainers and Pokémon squads. Every time I come across that, it makes me happy.”
Even after a full decade, once the game’s life shifted into a new phase, Uranium has continued to thrive. One important figure in the modern Pokémon Uranium community—community manager Cody—was happy to weigh in. He was there at the game’s initial launch and has helped sustain Uranium’s legacy online as it moved into its next chapter.
“What’s interesting about how it’s changed over time is that even after all these years, people are still finding the game—or hearing it was unplayable—only to run into it much later,” Cody explained. “Over time, what it has become is a small circle of experienced players who’ve been with us since the beginning, supporting newcomers who are encountering it for the first time. We’re not as busy as we used to be, but I think we’re in a really good spot.”
A decade on, the community is still lively enough to enjoy the usual multiplayer side of Pokémon. Trading happens in a “healthy” way. Competitive PvP groups are still around and take part in online battles. And one group of fans has even created a DnD campaign using Uranium’s world as its setting. Much like other parts of Pokémon, the game continues to hold up across multiple generations.
As Cody continues: “One of the events we used to host was called the Wonder Trade Extravaganza. We’d bring together as many Pokémon Breeders as possible, and everyone would contribute all their nearly perfect Pokémon into the Wonder Trade, which worked like a raffle. It was a chance to wager something you’d caught in the wild for something stronger. After we stopped running it ourselves, the community picked up the event. And, naturally, we keep releasing seasonal Mystery gifts for big holidays and for our launch anniversary. I feel like there’s a place for everyone, no matter what brings you to the game. It’s been incredible to see.”
Even so, the core story of Pokémon Uranium is tied to a particular turning point: the legal action connected to Nintendo. At the height of its popularity—when it was surging through viral sharing—the game was shut down overnight by the same kind of opponent that typically confronts fan projects when they become visible to the wider public.
Don McGowan, a former attorney for The Pokémon Company, was involved during the period when many fan projects, including Uranium, were stopped. While Nintendo handles these removals directly, McGowan told Eurogamer that he may have warned Nintendo about certain fan works if they annoyed him or his Japanese colleagues—especially when the projects were run by “shifty” people. He can’t recall whether he raised Pokémon Uranium specifically.
“The general rule for takedowns: if you believe something could affect the sales of legitimate products, that’s the kind of thing you care about. So knockoff games always…