Facepunch Studios and Valve will remove all Nintendo related content from the Garry’s Mod Steam Workshop at the company’s request. Some of these uploads are over 20 years old.
In the statement, the developers explained that the removal of Nintendo related content is because of Nintendo’s takedown requests, rather than a mistake. The statement added that it’s fair for Nintendo to do this, because it has the choice to allow or restrict their content’s usage elsewhere. The developer noted people should respect this decision.
As of the time of writing, looking up various keywords related to Nintendo in the workshop can garner tens and hundreds of results. Because of how much content there is, the developers hope people can help by deleting their Nintendo related content from the Garry’s Mod workshop.
Nintendo has a reputation from its extreme strictness and protectiveness of its IPs and assets. Gary Bowser, who was part of the hacking group Team Xecuter, went to jail and has to pay a $14.5 million fine. The creators of Yuzu—a Nintendo Switch emulation program—had to pay a hefty $2.4 million settlement fee after Nintendo sued them. These choices often spark criticism and controversy online.
Garry’s Mod is in the process of removing all Nintendo related content from the Steam workshop. Those who uploaded anything Nintendo related in the past would be doing the developers a favor deleting them from the service.