Developer Garry's Mod has announced that they are in the process of removing all Nintendo-related content from the Steam Workshop after receiving a takedown request from Nintendo.
in one Posted to SteamFacepunch Studios confirmed the takedown was in fact legal – perhaps in contrast to previous takedowns this year allegedly sent by a scammer. Facepunch added that the request is “fair enough” since the content belongs to Nintendo, but noted that the process will take time since “we have to go through 20 years of uploads.”
“If you want to help us by deleting your Nintendo-related uploads and never uploading them again, that would help us a lot,” Facepunch wrote.
Nintendo has historically been extremely protective of its owned content, in the last year launching legal challenges to Palworld Pokemon modsOne Popular Switch emulatorand a Nintendo 64 Portal Revival used the official Nintendo 64 SDK. So Nintendo's request (indeed, a tall order) to get Nintendo-related content out of a silly sandbox game isn't surprising.
What's a little more surprising is how long it took Nintendo to actually do anything about it. Twenty years is a long time for mods to like this one lets you fill the world with gun-wielding Marios or This turns Waluigi into a weapon go unnoticed! It's also not a well-kept secret. Garry's mod whole deal is allowing people to modify it. You have to throw a bunch of strange characters, items, and ideas into its sandbox and create silly situations. That's what makes it such a popular video and streaming medium.
Search “Mario” in Steam Workshop for Garry's Mod at the time of this post there are just over 5,500 entries and Luigi's list is over 1,200. “Zelda” has 800. “Kirby” has 739. “Waluigi” has 286! This is the gold mine we are losing!
Whatever prompted Nintendo to start taking an interest in this now, they do care – so say goodbye to making jumpscare horror games starring Kirby in Garry's Mod. IGN has reached out to Nintendo for comment.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
