This looks strange.
Garry's Mod developers announced on Wednesday, April 24 that Nintendo issued a DMCA takedown notice due to Nintendo-related content on the Steam workshop. However, it looks like someone might have pulled a prank on them.
Garry's Mod developer Facepunch Studio announced yesterday they started removing all Nintendo-related stuff from Steam as they got a takedown notice from Nintendo and would abide by it. "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," Facepunch Studio said.
The DMCA claim could have been faked
While the purging process goes on, though, members of the Garry's Mod community investigated it and found out that someone might be playing Facepunch Studio and forcing them to remove content since February.
A notable modder who goes by the nickname brewsterkoopa put out a warning to fellow modders that month, that a group of "trolls" had been filling false DMCA claims around Garry's Mod Steam workshop.
What made brewsterkoopa suspect these DMCA claims is the fact that Nintendo addons exist in Garry's Mod since 2005 and Nintendo never tried to take them down. The modder also noticed that if Nintendo was behind this, they would have asked Valve to remove the content just like Warner Bros did with Harry Potter mods before Hogwarts Legacy launched.
Who might have issued these DMCA claims on behalf of Nintendo, then?
Brewsterkoopa and other modders investigated further and found out that someone called Aaron Peters was behind the DMCA takedown notices and Peters is not and never has been a Nintendo of America representative. The video below perfectly summarizes what the Garry's Mod community found about Peters.
Nintendo has become notoriously known for taking down anything that resembles their IP over the years, but according to Garry's Mod community findings, Nintendo has nothing to do with this.
Facepunch Studios is now officially investigating the matter
Facepunch Studios issued a new statement on Thursday, April 25 via a post on X. The owner, Garry Newman, said they've seen what the community is talking about and are doing their "own investigations."
A couple of hours later, though, Newman confirmed that the takedowns were verified by Nintendo as "legit" and told Garry's Mod fans that they'll continue deleting Nintendo-related stuff from the Steam workshop. This has led to loads of comments asking Facepunch Studios to review all the findings before carrying on.
Given the nature of this situation, esports.gg has reached out to Nintendo of America representatives to try getting confirmation whether they have filled DMCA claims against Garry's Mod or not. We'll update this article if/when Nintendo answers.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest gaming news and updates.