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Nintendo's Request Forces Garry's Mod to Remove 20 Years of Community Content

Steam announces a new takedown demand from Nintendo, compelling Garry's Mod to eliminate two decades' worth of community-created content.
Nintendo's Request Forces Garry's Mod to Remove 20 Years of Community Content

Highlights

  • Nintendo is enforcing its copyright by mandating the removal of two decades of fan-made content from Garry's Mod, which includes Nintendo assets.
  • Garry's Mod, a popular sandbox game launched in 2004, renowned for its user-created maps and assets, now faces the task of purging Nintendo-related content.
  • Players and creators within the Garry's Mod community express disappointment as Nintendo insists on the deletion of music, character skins, and other Nintendo assets from the game.

Nintendo has a reputation for vigorously safeguarding its intellectual properties, and its most recent takedown directive targets Garry's Mod, compelling the sandbox game to erase 20 years of content containing Nintendo-related workshop assets. Enthusiasts of the Super Smash Bros. scene and various sandbox titles are well-acquainted with Nintendo's history of shutting down games through DMCA notices. The current demand by Nintendo for the removal of all its assets from the Garry's Mod section of the Steam Workshop has the community mourning the imminent loss of their creations.

Debuting in 2004, Garry's Mod has won hearts for its user-generated maps catering to game modes like Prop Hunt, Death Run, and more. Players extensively rely on the diverse GMod assets available on the Steam Workshop, including thousands of distinct items, models, skins, and beyond. However, the extensive volume of content has now become a pressing issue for Garry's Mod, as Nintendo demands the elimination of numerous fan works.

As disclosed in an announcement on the GMod Steam page, Nintendo has formally insisted on the removal of any instance of Nintendo assets from the Steam Workshop, targeting community-made maps and items utilized by Garry's Mod creators. Many GMod fan maps incorporate references to popular culture, featuring assets of renowned characters like Mario and Donkey Kong. Regrettably for some players, all Garry's Mod Nintendo-related content must be expunged, rendering shared workshop items inaccessible. This encompasses all content generated over the past two decades, posing a challenging road ahead for the Garry's Mod team.

Which Content Is Being Eliminated From Garry's Mod?

In compliance with Nintendo's request, the GMod team is actively deleting all content within its section of the Steam Workshop that includes Nintendo assets. This encompasses music, character skins, items such as Question Blocks and 1-Up Mushrooms, environmental models like breakable blocks and flagpoles, and static images of Nintendo games, characters, or logos. The affected content includes all community maps and workshop items uploaded since the inception of Garry's Mod in 2004. Although a deadline for content removal was not specified, users are urged to proactively remove any of their content featuring Nintendo assets. This formal directive to the Garry's Mod developer follows a prior extensive Nintendo DMCA notice to Valve last year.

Given the immense popularity of Nintendo's intellectual properties, it is understandable that the gaming titan is protective of its games, characters, music, and more. Nevertheless, numerous players express dissatisfaction with Nintendo's firm stance on takedowns, with hopes that the Japanese company will adopt a more inclusive approach towards community content in the future. Presently, Garry's Mod is diligently working to eradicate all Nintendo assets and content from its section of the Steam Workshop, alongside the removal of community-generated GMod content.

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