The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Multiplayer Mod Targeted By Nintendo

One of the core tenets of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is that you can let your imagination run free. If something is theoretically possible in the game’s intricate physics system, it’s most likely possible in practice as well. And from the looks of it, Tears of the Kingdom will also follow this path of letting players’ imagination run wild.

Nintendo encourages players to take the most unorthodox approach to any problem presented in Breath of the Wild. However, any creative liberty taken outside of the game’s structure is mercilessly crushed with an iron fist. Nintendo is notorious for unleashing its lawyers upon those working on ROMs, emulators, mods, and even the music from its precious IP, and it has followed suit with the recently released multiplayer mod for Breath of the Wild.

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In November 2021, YouTuber PointCrow put out a $10,000 bounty on the creation of a multiplayer mod for Breath of the Wild. This resulted in a pair of modders, AlexMangue and Sweet, joining with PointCrow to begin working on the mod. Over time, they revealed gameplay videos, and as of April 4, 2023 launched the mod. The mod itself works on Cemo, an emulator for Wii U, and allows up to 32 Links to run around and cause mayhem in Hyrule.

Unfortunately, only days after the mod’s launch, Nintendo came knocking with DMCA takedowns for the gameplay videos. It seems the company doesn’t want anyone messing around outside of the structure of the game.

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“Incredibly disappointed that @NintendoAmerica has decided to block my videos on Breath of the Wild,” Tweeted PointCrow. “It’s the love for the community and the innovation that we bring to it that has kept it alive & brought new people to love the Zelda series. I hope you reverse your decision soon.”

However, it seems that after some appealing, the videos are available to view, but cannot be monetised. The mod itself is also still available. “Update: I have appealed these claims,” he continued. “As of now, they are still visible for you to watch — however, they are not monetized. Hopefully Nintendo releases these claims, as I significantly transform their work and my videos are under fair use.”

window.arrayOfEmbeds[“1644165796804038657”] = {‘twitter’ : ‘"n<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Incredibly disappointed that <a href="https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NintendoAmerica</a> has decided to block my videos on Breath of the Wild. It&rsquo;s the love for the community and the innovation that we bring to it that has kept it alive &amp; brought new people to love the Zelda series. I hope you reverse your decision soon. <a href="https://t.co/CtvjpmBrs3">pic.twitter.com/CtvjpmBrs3</a>n&mdash; eric pointcrow (@PointCrow) <a href="https://twitter.com/PointCrow/status/1644165796804038657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2023</a></blockquote>nn"’}; window.arrayOfEmbedScripts[“twitter”] = “"<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>"”;

Despite being known as a company that brings smiles to millions around the world, Nintendo has a reputation for being ruthless when it comes to securing its IPs. The most infamous incident with regard to this was the 2019 lawsuit against RomUniverse for creating ROMs of older games.

The company wanted to sue the creator for each individual Nintendo product on RomUniverse. Nintendo was seeking $400,000 for each of the 49 games on the site, resulting in a massive $15 million lawsuit against the ROM creator. The judge, however, ruled that Nintendo should get $35,000 a game, adding up to just over $1.7 million.

While Nintendo wanted more in an attempt to make an example out of the site, the judge ruled that the defendant had been punished enough already.

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