Source? Not saying you're wrong, but I hadn't heard that before. I'd hate for people's names to be dragged through the mud if it isn't true. If true, that's a pretty big bummer, I've been supporting them from the beginning of development.
They have two ex devs to my knowledge and i’m not even sure about the rest here. What makes you think they killed it off to sell their own game?
Here you go:
http://is2.4chan.org/v/1531460303114.png
In case you can't see it. I've attached it as well. That's an exPM dev leaking more of the build on /v/, and giving insider info, and Warchamp coming in and crashing the party. Yes, that's his actual Tripcode, meaning it's most definitely him. You can search for his trip on Google to find more posts by Warchamp with that exact trip in case you want verification.
I got more:
http://is2.4chan.org/v/1531460426771.png
This is Warchamp7 lying to people, saying that no one from the PMDT works at Wavedash, which is obviously false as we know HE works at Wavedash, alongside StrongBad, and SilentDoom, and Hylian is closely tied to them. Making that 4 people.
Facebook:
>Mewtwo2000/posts/724185831014518
This is a Facebook post by Mewtwo2000, explaining how no legal action taken, that someone simply "suggested they could get in legal trouble" which is also false he's just repeating what people higher up (Warchamp7) told him. He doesn't know, there's just this vague legal trouble they could get into (it's bull****).
http://is2.4chan.org/v/1531461430497.jpg
And this is a Reddit post by another member of the PMDT saying Nintendo TOOK legal action toward the team and was gonna sew them for a lot of money. (Starting to see the holes in their story). So combine this evidence with what was leaked by a disgruntled member of the team, as well as what was said by Wizztech on 4chan and Reddit when he leaked stuff as well, the truth is simple:
There never was a C&D or any legal action taken toward the PMDT. What happened was, certain higher up members like Warchamp and Strongbad wanted to make their own game that they could make money off of (which they are more than entitled to do), however, instead of leaving the team, and letting others carrying on doing what they were doing. They took over the situation, deleted the near finished build of PM 4.0, and made up some bull**** story about a C&D from Nintendo, in order to prevent PM from competing with their pet project Icons in the future, as they had eSports aspirations with Icons, and had gotten $6 million in funding from investors. Wavedash was formed as a company well before PM was killed off. They actively also took steps to prevent people from working on PM, saying it "could get them in legal trouble if they did." This is confirmed BULL**** now. And if you don't believe me, the first image is again, and insider from the Dev team, anonymously leaking this information on 4chan. And the fact that he leaked this alongside a build of the game that had never seen public, it pretty much verifies it as true. Doubly so since Warchamp himself showed up in the thread to damage control.
Wavedash, and Warchamp and Strongbad can do whatever they like, but the fact remains that they lied to everyone's faces and backstabbed the PMDT, so they could profit of their pet game project, and more than that, got away with it cause everyone believed their lie and came to their defense. To this day, there is still no evidence of a C&D or any legal action taken, and in fact, other fans are still working on their own PM builds like Legacy. And not only that but we have witness testimonies from other insiders contradicting what they "officially" and very vaguely stated. So yeah, that leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.
Here's a recent thread on /v/ discussing it in case you wanna dig into it yourself, some anons elaborate more on it. Toward the bottom:
http://boards.4chan.org/v/res/423977554#p424001337