In the on-going crack down against mods, ROMs, and asset reuploads by fans of other games, Nintendo has issued a new wave of DMCA takedown notices for mods posted to the hosting website, GameBanana.
The user in question, Waikuteru, is a well-known modder for the games, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and most recently, Tears of the Kingdom. Besides producing simple gameplay modifications, Waikuteru is also the creator of the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom randomizer mods, allowing players a uniquely different way to experience both games by randomizing the placement of enemies, bosses, and items encountered.
Following the DMCA takedown from Nintendo, both randomizers along with nearly every other modification uploaded by Waikuteru over the years for these games has been taken down from GameBanana. Attempting to check the individual mod pages provides a notification to users that the mod has been removed for a rules violation, along with the following notice and Nintendo’s contact information:
- Rule Violation
- DMCA Takedown
- Content that receives a verifiable DMCA Takedown Request must be removed from the site. Takedowns can be appealed via a support ticket. To view the contents of a Takedown Request, please contact the admin that carried out the Takedown.
Other Websites Targeted
While Waikuteru has been able to continue making their randomizer available on other websites, this has all been part of a much larger string of takedowns from the company against websites and users. Games such as Garry’s Mod received attention back in April when the owner of the game received a takedown request for content on the Steam Workshop featuring Nintendo characters and content.
Similarly, ROM hosting websites such as Vimm’s Lair not only received a long list of takedown requests for ROMs and other assets displayed on the website from Nintendo, but other companies such as SEGA, Lego, and the ESA, as well. Many fans have begun to speculate that these takedowns could be the result of AI brand protection services utilized by companies partnering with Nintendo to search for and report this type of content online, given the seeming randomness of websites and assets targeted.
For the time being however, it’s likely that GameBanana will not be the last large scale takedown we may hear of this year.
