We know the story so far. A group of modders successfully created a Breath of the Wild multiplayer mod for PC. This mod garnered a lot of popularity since it would allow players to freely explore the world of Hyrule in a new way that wasn’t seen before. The mod had no tethering limits, allowing up to 32 players to theoretically join in on the fun. Unfortunately, Nintendo wasn’t really happy with this, as they have used their legal powers to strike down the mod creators and the YouTuber that sparked the multiplayer mod’s creation.
As we all know, this Breath of the Wild multiplayer mod’s story begins with PointCrow: A content creator who issued a $10,000 bounty for the creation of the aforementioned mod. This saw a bunch of mod creators working on the mod’s development, and a year later, the mod was released publicly. Allowing players to experience The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with new gameplay features on Cemu. Of course, this wasn’t meant to last as Nintendo was paying close attention, and they issued copyright strikes against PointCrow’s videos.
As stated on his Discord, PointCrow mentioned that because of the strikes, his videos were forcibly taken down, and not only that, but the links for the mods were now going to be unavailable. Recently, the content creator published a video in which he talks about how the company claimed over 20 videos of his, putting his channel in danger as YouTube only allows for 3 copyright strikes before a channel and any content associated with it is taken down.
What’s worse is that Nintendo issued claims against even normal Breath of the Wild gameplay videos that are in line with Nintendo’s game content guidelines. As such, it’s setting a precedent that would essentially affect content creation not just about Breath of the Wild but also about the upcoming Legend of Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom. It’s possible that all content linked to Nintendo may be at risk of being struck down, no matter how compliant it is with their guidelines.
To add fuel to the fire, it’s been found out that a local split-screen mod for Breath of the Wild was also struck down, and PC Gamer also found out that Nintendo has taken down multiple mod videos showcasing new gameplay features for Breath of the Wild with copyright claims. What will happen to the multiplayer mod? Will it ever be reinstated? The answer is still unknown.
