Last Week, Nintendo announced a new “Creators” program that marks a change in how the company deals with YouTube revenue. For the past year, Nintendo has claimed 100 percent of ad earnings on videos featuring its products (as is its right under copyright law). Now, the company has further clarified the program.
As we reported last week, Nintendo will only share revenue on certain games (excluding the latest Super Smash Bros. titles, Bayonetta 2, and Captain Toad Treasure Tracker). Creators can receive 60 percent of ad revenue for approved videos and 70 percent if your entire channel is approved.
Now, Nintendo says it will not be approving channels featuring any games not on its whitelist. This includes Nintendo titles like those mentioned above and any games from other developers or publishers.
“If you have already submitted your channel for registration and it includes video(s) that contain game titles outside of the list of supported games, please remove those videos from your channel within two weeks of the submission date,” the company writes. “If the video(s) are not removed from the channel within this time, your channel will not be registered with the program. You may resubmit your channel for registration at a later date.”
If users wish to register their channels, they’ll need to focus exclusively on Nintendo products. The alternative is to forego the 10 percent of ad revenue differential between approved individual videos and entire channels.
Nintendo has also apologized for lag in getting approvals through the process. “Due to your enthusiasm for the program, we’re receiving a higher volume of applications to register channels & videos than expected,” the company writes. “It is taking longer than we anticipated to confirm the applications.”
YouTube users, including PewDiePie (real name: Felix Kjellberg) have spoken out against the program. "Everyone loses in this scenario that Nintendo has created,” he wrote. “That’s why I’m against it.”
[Source: Nintendo via Eurogamer]
Our Take
This additional stricture means that established channels that feature a wide range of games won’t be eligible for the maximum 70 percent revenue. Nintendo keeps boxing out the voices that would do it the most good in terms of promotion and signal boosting. Essentially, this means that established YouTubers will need to start fresh with a Nintendo-only channel in order to earn the maximum 70 percent.