The creators of the popular Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Project M have announced that they are ceasing all development on the program, and they have shut down all download sources for the mod.

“We’ve learned so much in the process of making Project M—accumulating life-changing lessons in communication, team work, professionalism, work ethic, and more—but there’s only so far we can take those skills in a volunteer project,” the Project M team wrote in an announcement on their website. “With this in mind, we’ve made a difficult business decision: We’re ready to finish development here and move on to bigger and better ventures.”

First released in February 2011, Project M has been especially popular in the competitive Smash Bros community, with numerous tournaments choosing to use Project M rather than one of the un-modified Smash Bros games.

The Project M developers explained that they are satisfied with the last release of the mod, and they feel that now is a good time to step away.

“Again, it’s been an excruciating call to make, but it’s been made a bit easier by our satisfaction with the previous and final release, v3.6,” the developers said. “We’ve spent six years polishing Project M, and rather than let it drag on through another several years of dwindling development and change-fatigue in the competitive circle, we’re going to consider our work complete.”

Was Nintendo involved?

While Project M’s creators assured fans that the decision to cease development was theirs alone, many have questioned whether Nintendo Co Ltd finally decided to pull the plug on the mod, with which the Japanese game maker has had a complicated relationship for some time.

Ryan Morrison, who is the attorney who represents the Project M developers and was the only contact listed in the team’s farewell announcement, stated that Nintendo had nothing to do with the decision to shut the project down.

Morrison said on Twitter, “To clarify: We weren’t contacted, issued a [cease and desist], threatened or had legal action taken against us in any way, but we want it to stay that way.”

Many fans are not convinced, however, especially because all of the download links for the previous releases of Project M have been taken down.