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Nintendo Changes Youtube and It Sucks

Nintendo Changes Youtube and It Sucks

Nintendo’s attitude toward Youtubers that play their games has always been kind of abrasive. It has always been one of the most aggressive companies to take advantage of the Youtube content ID system, taking numerous videos and channels down with copyright claims. The company also made it so that any Let’s Play video of a Nintendo game couldn’t make ad revenue for the video maker. Instead the revenue would go to the Big N and the Big N only. As a result, Youtube content creators have shied away from streaming and playing Nintendo games for review shows and Let’s Plays, for the fear of having their channel negatively impacted in some way… and that’s a whole lot of free advertisement that Nintendo is losing.

But now, Nintendo is changing their policies to be a little bit more welcoming to Youtube content creators. They have started a new initiative called the Nintendo Creators Program which will allow certain Youtube creators to earn some sort of revenue on videos that contain Nintendo products. The program entered beta this week and is expected to launch in full this May.

Of course, the program doesn’t simply mean you can start gaining Youtube ad bucks for your videos. In fact, all monetary exchanges have to go through Nintendo. You have to have Google and PayPal accounts to even take part in the program. Then, in order for your video to qualify, you have to register them.

The videos in question have to contain the following disclaimer: “I have a license to use Nintendo’s content in this video through the Nintendo Creators Program . This video is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo , but any advertising revenue from this video will be shared with Nintendo .” The videos also have to only showcase content from games that Nintendo themselves have OKed. There is a long list of Nintendo games, including current titles and past titles as far back as the NES , but the list isn’t comprehensive, so you do kind of have to tailor your content to what Nintendo wants to see you cover. You can read the full list of approved titles here.

Nintendo Changes Youtube and It Sucks

Nintendo will then have to review each video and make a final decision as to whether or not they want to allow you to make money on it. It can take up to three business days for each video to be reviewed and finalized. If your video then meets Nintendo’s requirements, you can start making money off it.

The rates for the programs aren’t really all that bad. Nintendo is willing to pay you 60 percent of all total ad revenue for a single video and 70 percent for a whole channel with multiple videos focusing on Nintendo products, which is pretty good. Users will get paid two months after monthly views are counted. Ad revenue for January will be paid to users in March which is a little slow, but is better than nothing. Nintendo does say, however, that these rates can be changed arbitrarily, which does seem kind of… red flaggy.

You can learn more about the Nintendo Creators Program on its official website.

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