Nintendo has once again stepped in to protect us from the misuse of its own intellectual property: the SteamGridDB (opens in new tab), a site for uploading and sharing custom images for use in Steam's game library.

As reported by GBATemp (opens in new tab) (via GamesRadar (opens in new tab)), Nintendo has asked SteamGridDB to provide a list of games it has uploaded to the site, including "Pokemon Scarlett & Violet," "Splatoon 3," "Super Mario Odyssey," "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," and "Xenoblade Chronicles 3," and requested that the images be removed. The site did not host any files related to the games themselves: you could not download ROMs or emulators, but if you used Steam to launch emulator versions of these games, you could obtain the artwork from the SteamGridDB and could add it to the library entry.

However, it seems that even that was too much for Nintendo: since the DMCA notice was issued, all relevant entries on SteamGridDB have been replaced with a notice saying "Removed in response to the DMCA takedown notice sent by Nintendo of America Inc. replaced (open in new tab).

As expected, users began uploading more artwork in response. Breath of the Wild's SteamGridDB page (opens in new tab) is full of art uploaded over the past few days, including an image (opens in new tab) making fun of Nintendo's DMCA. Other DMCA-targeted games are similar, but their art is not as much of a visual feast as BOTW's.

It is unclear what sparked the takedown, but it may have something to do with Steam Deck's potential as a Nintendo Switch emulator (opens in new tab); even Valve itself has gone to great lengths to remove any mention of Switch emulation If they are having to quietly edit their own trailer (opens in new tab), Nintendo's jealous protection of their intellectual property seems a bit more reasonable.

Be that as it may, this is hardly new behavior for Nintendo. The company has been in touch with Nintendo property, including a fan remake of Metroid 2 (opens in new tab), a Super Mario Bros. battle royale (opens in new tab), and a parody of No Man's Sky, No Mario's Sky (opens in new tab), all of which seem to come into contact with Nintendo's property. The game is notorious for stomping on things that might come in contact with Nintendo property. The fact that someone is reverse engineering games like "Perfect Dark" (opens in new tab) and "Link to the Past" (opens in new tab) in a technically legal way must have Nintendo's lawyers seething.