The developers of the fan-madePokemon Uraniumreveal the game’s player count, and discuss content that they plan on adding to the project in future updates.
Pokemonfans are waiting patiently for therelease ofPokemon SunandMoonlater this year, but a fan-made game was released in the meantime to help tide them over. That game,Pokemon Uranium, has already been taken down due to Nintendo’s demands, but despite this, its community is stronger than ever, and the developers plan on continuing support for the project through a series of free updates.
One of the developers, a 22 year-old woman named Involuntary Twitch who has been working on this game since she was 13, has offered fans an idea of what to expect from the free updates forPokemon Uranium. The patches will address some of the game’s lingering bugs and technical issues, but they will also add substantial content to lengthen the game.
As it stands, it is not possible for players to capture all thenuclear Pokemonlisted inPokemon Uranium’s Pokedex. So, there are plans to updatePokemon Uraniumto include side quests that will allow players to capture the eight Pokemon that are currently unavailable to catch in the game. It’s possible that other large content updates could come as well, but the developers aren’t revealing what they could entail just yet.
Some may find it odd that the developers would continue support for agame that can no longer be downloadedin an official capacity. However, the developers claim thatPokemon Uraniumcurrently has an active player count of over 1 million players, and when one takes into account those that downloaded it from torrent sites or other means, that number is probably much higher.Pokemon Uraniumhas an advantage in that it was a free download, but even so, amassing such a large number of players in such a short time is impressive.
There’s a chance thatPokemon Uraniumenjoyed a boost from the recent popularity ofPokemon GO.Pokemon GOearned more than $200 millionin its first month available, and has been played by millions upon millions of wannabe Pokemon trainers the world over. It really seems to have returnedPokemon’s popularity to heights it last saw at its peak in the 90’s, and it’s possible that the increased attention people have been paying to the franchise lately because ofPokemon GOhelpedPokemon Uraniumachieve its impressive numbers.
Even ifPokemon Uraniumfails to maintain its numbers, though, the developers will probably continue to support it. After all, the people behind the game have been working on it as a labor of love for the past nine years, so there’s little reason to think that they will stop now, even afterPokemon Uraniumhas been taken down by Nintendo.
