by Brendan Clementz

The video game company Nintendo is notorious among fans for sending cease and desists to different fan-made media online using their characters.

Every fan project with Nintendo properties involved dreads the chance of Nintendo taking notice of them and shutting them down for one reason or another. Recently, a cease and desist was sent to the sandbox game Garry’s Mod, which had many free downloadable add-ons featuring Nintendo properties, but people still aren’t certain whether it was Nintendo or another person entirely. 

On April 24, an announcement was made to the Gmod community saying that, “Nintendo related workshop items have recently been taken down,” assuring people that it was not a mistake and came directly from Nintendo. This post was followed by a slow but steady wipe of Nintendo content from the workshop for Gmod, where add-ons are downloaded. 

As the process continued, doubt was cast on whether the takedown actually came from Nintendo or an imposter pretending to be the company. Suspicion was cast on a past copyright troll named Aaron Peters, and the creator of Gmod, Garry Newman, began asking people on X (formerly Twitter) for their opinions on the validity of the claims made against Gmod.

Some people pointed out inconsistencies from Nintendo’s typical information when issuing cease and desists versus the information found in the Gmod strike. Later, Newman said that he had been “assured that the takedowns are legit,” but it’s still a topic of contention in the community.