Experimental sandbox Garry’s Mod has entered the crosshairs of Nintendo’s litigation team after 20 years.
Developer Facepunch Studios said the Switch maker has filed takedown notices that will require it to purge certain Nintendo-related content from the Steam Workshop.
At the time of writing, broad searches for terms like ‘Mario’ and ‘Zelda’ surface a number of user created Garry’s Mod add-ons including character models, level cosmetics, and more.
Although it’s not uncommon for Nintendo to protect its various intellectual properties in this way—the timing of the takedowns feels notable because people have been creating Garry’s Mod content for around two decades.
That means Facepunch Studios has to trawl through 20 years’ worth of uploads in a bid to satisfy Nintendo’s demands—and the studio feels that process might move faster if players lend a hand.
“Some of you may have noticed that certain Nintendo related workshop items have recently been taken down. This is not a mistake, the takedowns came from Nintendo,” said Facepunch in a short update on Steam.
“Honestly, this is fair enough. This is Nintendo’s content and what they allow and don’t allow is up to them. They don’t want you playing with that stuff in Garry’s Mod—that’s their decision, we have to respect that and take down as much as we can.
20 years of Nintendo-themed content in Garry’s Mod
“This is an ongoing process, as we have 20 years of uploads to go through. If you want to help us by deleting your Nintendo related uploads and never uploading them again, that would help us a lot.”
A blurb on the Garry’s Mod Steam page indicates there are currently over 300,000 models, maps, and contraptions available to download via Steam Workshop, so it could be a while before it becomes a Nintendo-free zone.
Nintendo has taken plenty of legal action over the years, torching hundreds of fan projects, hitting popular emulators (like Dolphin and Yuzu) to curb their usage, and scuppering ROM sites like RomUniverse, LoveROMS and LoveRetro. Now, Garry’s Mod has made The List.