Countless fan content is disappearing on Steam because Nintendo threatens to hire a lawyer

Geralt of Sanctuary

Countless fan content is disappearing on Steam because Nintendo threatens to hire a lawyer

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Garry's mod has to quickly remove a lot of content that Nintendo doesn't like.
Garry's mod has to quickly remove a lot of content that Nintendo doesn't like.

Garry’s Mod has to quickly remove a lot of content that Nintendo doesn’t like.

The creators of the physics sandbox Garry’s Mod, which is extremely popular on Steam, have received mail. But not from Gabe Newell or the G-Man from Half-Life 2, but from Nintendo.

A letter from Nintendo? That’s trouble! Anyone who thinks that is absolutely right in this case. Because the Japanese game manufacturer is bothered by the numerous content related to Mario, Zelda and Co. that is offered for Garry’s Mod. We’d better not show you a picture of it until we also receive mail.

The consequence from the developers: an urgent appeal to the fan community.

We have to respect that

In a short Statement On Steam, the developers have reached out to all Garry’s Mod users. The team is very insightful about this and even emphasizes that Nintendo is acting completely rightly here.

The result is an enormous amount of work: 20 years of uploaded content must now be checked and deleted if it involves characters and other objects that are clearly classified as Nintendo’s intellectual property.

That’s why the team behind Garry’s Mod also asks users to be proactive and upload their content themselves Steam-Workshop to remove if you have this Facts of the case fulfill.

Garry's Mod allows users maximum creative freedom, including creating and uploading their own content.
Garry's Mod allows users maximum creative freedom, including creating and uploading their own content.






Garry’s Mod allows users maximum creative freedom, including creating and uploading their own content.

The statement in full:

Some of you may have noticed that certain Nintendo content was recently removed from the Steam Workshop. This is not a mistake, the removal was initiated by Nintendo.

Honestly, that’s only fair. This is Nintendo’s content and what they allow and what they don’t is their business. They don’t want you to play with this stuff in Garry’s Mod – that’s their decision, we have to respect that and remove as much as possible.

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.

Nintendo and fan projects – a complicated relationship

Nintendo has often sent mail or even sent out its lawyers in the past. Numerous fan projects had to be discontinued, most of which are unofficial Pokémon editions.

When it comes to Super Mario games, however, the Japanese company is often more merciful. There is a lively modding scene, especially for New Super Mario Bros. U, that produces complex projects such as Cloudy SMBU published. To date, Nintendo has not taken any action here.

Things are completely different for Gary Bowser, the man who once sold modified Nintendo Switch consoles. Bowser went to prison, is now free again, but will probably have to pay the astronomically high fine for the rest of his life.

Portal 64, a mod for Valve’s puzzle hit, will also never see the light of day because the modder was advised in advance not to risk a confrontation with Nintendo.

And what do the users do? They take it with humor or are angry – or both. In any case, it shouldn’t be a coincidence that Nintendo-Office and Garry’s Mod Revolts Against Nintendo are currently two of the most popular pieces of content on the Garry’s Mod workshop page.

The removal of the Nintendo content shouldn’t affect the game’s gigantic scope anyway: over 300,000 addons created by fans are currently offered in the workshop.

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