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Nintendo recently pulled back the curtain on their YouTube Partner Program that would allow users to profit from gameplay footage on YouTube, IF the poster agreed to share the monetization with the house of Mario. Now some additional exceptions have peeked out as well.
Nintendo has revealed that the Smash, Pokémon, and Bayonetta franchises are not covered by the new program and will not allow YouTubers any cut of potential ad revenue. There is logic to be found in this decision, since Nintendo probably doesn’t own exclusive rights on many of the characters in these series’, but it’s just another misstep in the eye of public opinion.
The Content Creator Program has a Mafioso tinge to it as is, being that Nintendo takes all of the revenue up front, then makes a percentage distribution to ‘approved’ content creators at a later time, now three of the bigger franchises are completely off the table for the deal. There is a handy, if paltry, White List of approved games, but why create all of this drama when most other publishers don’t even bother trying to manage such content at all?
Feedback from the gaming video community is already revealing the disdain for this new program. Comments express that this is a slap in the face to longtime fans of the brand and will only hurt their image as well as diminish the free publicity they would enjoy with a more ‘hands-off’ approach to YouTube content.
Hopefully Nintendo comes to their senses on the matter and falls in line with the rest of the world, lest they lose even more credibility in the gaming landscape. Then again, they’ve been the wild card/fringe company for a while now, following the beat of their own drum, which both works and hurts in many ways. So who really knows how it will end?
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