Nintendo issuing takedown notices for Garry’s Mod, needs to delete 20 years’ worth of items

April 24: Nintendo is always protective of its IPs, and that stance is now impacting Garry’s Mod which is being forced to take down content for the game.

Garry’s Mod, a sandbox title, has been around for nearly two decades. It was no stranger to tons of different mods, including ones tied to Nintendo. However, the company is now issuing takedown notices that will affect creations that extend all the way back to the release in 2006.

The team behind Garry’s Mod wrote the following regarding the situation with Nintendo on Steam:

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.

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.

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.

Some fans are having trouble understanding why Nintendo is going after Garry’s Mod now. Again, the game has been around for roughly two decades and many items are far from new. Nintendo is unlikely to share its reasoning and nothing can be done, so fans may need to accept the situation and move on.

Image source

Update: Doubt is being cast as to whether the takedown notices are genuine. Fans have brought up a known fraudster (post from February, to be fair) who has previously gone after the game’s Nintendo-related mods. However, the official notice above indicates that Nintendo itself is behind the latest takedowns. Either that is indeed the case, or the developers were fooled by the fraudster.

April 25: The latest report from the team indicates that the takedown notices are indeed from Nintendo (thanks SaCul). However, if we hear anything else, we’ll let you know.