Nintendo DMCAs third-party Steam image site, users upload even more artwork in response

Mario doing some hat tricks
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo has once again intervened to protect us all from misuse of the company's intellectual property. This time, lawyers have been issuing DMCA takedowns to SteamGridDB, a site for the uploading and sharing of custom images for use in your Steam game library. 

As reported by GBATemp (via GamesRadar), Nintendo has demanded SteamGridDB remove images of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, Splatoon 3, Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The site wasn't hosting any files related to the games themselves, mind you: You couldn't download a ROM or an emulator, but if you were using Steam to launch an emulated version of those games, you could get some artwork off of SteamGridDB to add to its library entry. 

But apparently even that was too much for Nintendo. Since the DMCA notices were served, the relevant entries on SteamGridDB have all been replaced by notices that the assets have been "removed in response to DMCA takedown notice sent by Nintendo of America Inc". 

Predictably, users have begun uploading even more artwork in response. Breath of the Wild's SteamGridDB page is awash with art uploaded in the last few days, including images that poke fun at Nintendo's DMCAs. The same is true for the other DMCA'd games, though their art is less of a visual feast than BOTW's.

It's not clear what sparked the takedown, but it might have something to do with the Steam Deck's potential as a Nintendo Switch emulator. When even Valve itself is having to quietly edit its own trailers to remove references to Switch emulation, Nintendo's jealous protection of its intellectual property starts to make a little more sense.

Regardless, it's hardly new behaviour from Nintendo. The company is infamous for stomping down on anything that even looks like it might brush up against Nintendo properties, including a fan remake of Metroid 2, a Super Mario Bros battle royale, and a No Man's Sky parody called No Mario's Sky. The fact that people are out there reverse-engineering games like Perfect Dark and A Link to the Past in a technically legal way must have Nintendo lawyers grinding their teeth to nubs.

Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Read more
A picture of Bowser behind jail bars.
Nintendo wins major French piracy case with EU-wide consequences: 'Significant not only for Nintendo, but for the entire games industry'
BloodbornePSX - A hunter standing in front of a lantern
Sony enforcers execute a legal visceral attack on the BloodbornePSX demake, continuing its mission to eradicate all traces of FromSoft's beloved RPG on PC
Mario 64 fire effect
52-year-old 'Super Mario' supermarket in Costa Rica wins unlikely victory against the Nintendo lawyers: 'He is Don Mario, he's my dad'
The Backrooms 1998 screenshot
'A big scam company just stole my whole game': A Backrooms indie dev has been forced to seek legal help after someone took their game off Steam and uploaded it to the Nintendo Store
Palworld early access
Japanese patent attorney, burdened with a party pooper's knowledge, says Nintendo having 22 out of 23 Palworld-targeting claims 'rejected' in the US is business as usual
Dead or Alive publisher requests between 2,000 and 3,000 takedowns on works of inappropriate fan art annually because it thinks of the game's characters 'like daughters'
Latest in Game Development
Sharon Tal Yguado speaking at the 2025 D.I.C.E. Summit.
'These kids do not care about romance': Game devs want to know what today's teens want, and surveys say sex and romance isn't it
Palworld early access
Palworld studio's first move as a publisher is to save a struggling indie dev: 'This is the energy I want to see driving games in 2025'
Yakuza/Like a Dragon creator Toshihiro Nagoshi says his studio's new game won't be that big after all: 'it's not modern to have similar experiences repeated over and over again'
A man with a sausage-shaped head
'Calm down!' says Facepunch Studios: Garry's Mod successor s&box is getting a fan-requested sandbox mode and an alternative to 'Sausage Men'
Hellboy Web of Wyrd
Devolver has a new label dedicated to making games based on comics, films, TV shows and 'cult heroes'
Garry's Mod screen - G-Man riding a balloon-festooned cart with his hands held above his head while a Counter-Strike guy chases him
Rust dev is bored of paying Unity '$500k a year' to fix its engine and promises that his Garry's Mod successor won't hoodwink devs with fees
Latest in News
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
Storm trooper hero
Another live service shooter is getting shut down, this time before it even launched on Steam