I mention on my website that I am a fan of My Little Pony.
The community around the show is amazing and so I contributed as well by creating several games with My Little Pony themes. You may look at them here. I received positive feedback from the community and I am grateful for it.
Fangames, however, stand on shaky legal ground. I have done extensive research and as far as I know, there hasn’t ever been any lawsuit involving copyright infringement concerning fangames or fanfiction in any country. However, that does not mean it is necessarily legal in all jurisdictions to produce such content.
In fact, some companies issue cease-and-desist letters. These are warning e-mails from a company’s legal department that order a game developer to remove download links for fangames from his or her sites and to stop developing the game. The e-mails sometimes threaten with legal action if the developer does not comply.
Hasbro Inc., the company that owns the intellectual property of My Little Pony, is generally supportive of the brony fanbase, acknowledges its existence and cooperates with us. People involved with the show’s production such as animators, voice actors and composers expressed awe over the community and voiced their support. However, several fangames did receive cease-and-desist letters.
The most high-profile case among these was of the game Fighting is Magic, a fighting game with ponies as characters. When the game became popular and it was decided that it would showcase on a major fighting game fair, it received a cease-and-desist letter from Hasbro. The developers decided to comply, but, unexpectedly, the show’s creator herself, Lauren Faust, offered to freely help the creators develop their own character designs!
