Nintendo Come After Garry's Mod with a Takedown Request

Garry's Mod, a Steam classic with nearly 1 million user reviews and an Overwhelmingly Positive review score, looks to be in a spot of bother with Nintendo. 'Surely not!' I hear you cry. And I share in your disbelief, because when has Nintendo ever been one to get overly protective of their IPs? (Sarcasm doesn't translate well over text, but I'm shooting my shot).

Nintendo has issued a takedown order to Garry's Mod. Here's exactly what that entails and the reasons behind Nintendo's disgruntled letter.

What is Garry's Mod?

Garry's Mod is a sandbox physics engine, allowing players to create their own games within the Garry's Mod client. This has spawned numerous unique user-made games such as Prop Hunt, a game in which one player seeks while the others hide, disguising themselves as inconspicuous (or not) props and items scattered around the map.

Other popular game modes in Garry's Mod include Death Run, DarkRP, and Trouble in Terrorist Town.

However, the ability for players to design and import their own assets, images, and models into Garry's Mod means that a lot of mods within Garry's Mod are designed around popular IPs. Unless permission for the use of such assets is granted by a publisher like, say, Nintendo, then Mario hats, Goombas, and 1-Up Mushrooms should be off the table. These are copyright-protected assets, after all.

Nintendo Versus Garry's Mod

One might question why it took Nintendo 18 years to take notice of Garry's Mod, and you'd be right to wonder. Then again, Nintendo doesn't owe plebians like us an answer. Their assets are being used in a video game that folks pay money for; they've every right to pen angry letters and put a stop to it. 

Still, the timing is befuddling. Garry's Mod has been sitting at an average daily player count of around 20,000 for many years now and hasn't seen a particular uptick in recent weeks. Why Nintendo saw fit to dunk on Garry's Mod now of all times is a mystery we'll likely never unravel.

Garry's Mod Removing Nintendo Mods

As of the time of writing, Garry's Mod is in the process of removing any and all mods that contain assets that emulate any of Nintendo's characters or assets. It'll be a steep task. There are over 1,800,000 mods to check through, which will require copious amounts of coffee to wade through for poor Garry.

In a statement, Garry pleaded with modders in the community to help out and remove any mods containing Nintendo-inspired recreations. Here's the full post:

Is Garry's Mod Being Trolled?

I hope your tinfoil hat is at hand, because here's the mega-brain take. Some users on Reddit have, by means yet unknown, concluded that Nintendo has not contacted Garry's Mod at all. These users would have it that, in fact, this entire debacle is the work of a notorious troll known by the alias of Aaron Peters.

This isn't even Nintendo but some weird troll named Aaron Peters (not his real name). Idk why Gary is believing this troll.

-BigMoney69x (Reddit user)

Evidence in support of these trolling claims is sparse, at least for the time being. Could it be that Garry's Mod is falling victim to a basement dweller with far too much time on his hands? It's possible. Then again, we've no clue as to the actual correspondence that has taken place between Garry's Mod and the entity claiming to represent Nintendo. 

So, who the heck knows? But if it all proves to be a hoax, just remember you read it here first!