There is no doubt that Nintendo has seen better days financially, but they do have a new revenue stream that they are now pursuing, which once more makes fans uneasy. According to some YouTube users, Nintendo has claimed ad revenue on user-created videos that feature their games.
Make no mistake, Nintendo is not blocking or banning their content from being put up on YouTube, they merely want to place ads before the videos that use their content (Parodies, Let’s Play, etc), the money from which will go directly to Nintendo and not to the creator of the video.
Nintendo has stated:
For most fan videos this will not result in any changes, however, for those videos featuring Nintendo-owned content, such as images or audio of a certain length, adverts will now appear at the beginning, next to or at the end of the clips. We continually want our fans to enjoy sharing Nintendo content on Youtube, and that is why, unlike other entertainment companies, we have chosen not to block people using our intellectual property.
While Nintendo isn’t doing anything shady in the eyes of the law as it is following both the YouTube copyright guidelines as well as copyright law, it doesn’t change the fact that there are plenty of people out there that generate their income from the ad revenue on YouTube. Imagine if other developers and publishers followed suit. Just because you have the right to do something, doesn’t mean you should actually go out and do it. What are your thoughts on the issue? Drop a comment and let us know.
