After controversy over their decision to put copyright claims on certain videos, Nintendo has now announced plans for a revenue share system with YouTubers.
In this day and age, where the media and content that we watch on the net is just as important as that we watch on a cable connected television screen, YouTube is undoubtedly king. It’s where most of us go to watch trailers for games and films and plenty of us use it to watch music videos too. But what about the people who make things for YouTube? These are the people that host news shows or vlogs as they offer commentary of the day’s events or share stories about their lives while some people even use it to showcase footage of the games that they’re playing to show off their gaming skills or simply just to review the games themselves. However, this poses a problem for some gamers when companies place copyright claims over footage of games uploaded without consent from the company that made the game. Nintendo were known for placing such claims but now, they are looking to build bridges with a revenue sharing scheme.
In tweets posted by the publisher, developer and console manufacturer, Nintendo explained (in Japanese) that while those who upload footage of their games would still need prior consent from them, they would still be able to make money from the footage that they upload, which is a huge step up considering that the Content ID Match system (in which companies like Nintendo can work with YouTube to identify who has uploaded unauthorised footage) just saw the videos swiftly removed from the video sharing site. It’s unclear of the total percentage of revenue that would be ‘shared’ but the revenue that rolls in will be split between Nintendo, the YouTube user and Google (YouTube’s parent company) effectively meaning that ‘some money is better than no money at all’.
However, the fact that the revenue sharing system does require Nintendo to sign off on the footage raises some questions about censorship as the company could, in theory, deny videos that are particularly harsh or negative about the game that they show. For example, if you’ve uncovered a glitch that makes the game unplayable or a gameplay element that sucks the fun right out of it, they might not let you upload it and could potentially have it removed right away even if you do. These are things to be addressed by Nintendo at some point so we’ll keep you posted once we know more.
Source: Joystiq
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