Is there any hope to producing a game who's rights are owned by nintendo? I'm talking about remaking a classic. What if you recreated it beautifully and had a truly astounding product, is there any chance that Nintendo would let you publish it (if you let them share in the profits?)

No.

It is conceivable that Nintendo would buy the rights to your game and publish it themselves. It'll never actually happen, but whatever.

There's so many legal problems involved with copyright law, IP law, trademark law, etc, that it's easier just to C&D the people who attempt to do anything serious. Direct profit isn't all that important to the mix, though it is a factor.

so it'd have to be amazing, and it hasn't even really happened yet

Contact Nintendo's licensing and legal department.

But since you had to ask, that means you aren't established enough, not experienced enough, and not professional enough for getting the permission.

Quote: Original post by Funkymunky
Is there any hope to producing a game who's rights are owned by nintendo? I'm talking about remaking a classic. What if you recreated it beautifully and had a truly astounding product, is there any chance that Nintendo would let you publish it (if you let them share in the profits?)

I was going to echo Gauvir, but actually ANYTHING is possible given enough time and money (http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson50.htm). Become a good enough developer with a spectacular track record of creating other games, get rave reviews all over the place, and Nintendo will be happy to meet with you and discuss the thing you want to do with them. Otherwise you're just having an unrealistic pipedream.

I should point out that not all Nintendo "first party" games are done by Nintendo. Many are licensed out to other developers; Rare was common to see during the N64 era. This isn't the same thing as making a game and then asking Nintendo for rights, of course.

Quote: Original post by Promit
I should point out that not all Nintendo "first party" games are done by Nintendo. Many are licensed out to other developers; Rare was common to see during the N64 era. This isn't the same thing as making a game and then asking Nintendo for rights, of course.

Right. I was advising the OP that in order to do the rare thing he asked about, he'd first need to become another Rare.

Depends what you mean by remake - anything using the rights of the company such as the name or the original artwork is not an option. Making a very similar game from scratch may be a more plausible option. Depends exactly what you are copying, and whether the copyright applies to that thing (e.g., generally "game rules" cannot be copyrighted AIUI).

NSMadsen posted a nice article over in help-wanted that helped summarize all the 100s of posts we've made on this over the years:

Warning: If you're wanting to remake a game, read this...

In the future, we probably should just like to it :)

Allan