Nintendo to Split Ad Revenue w/ YouTubers

Nintendo to “Split YouTube Ad Revenue” with Affiliate Program

Nintendo has announced on their main Japanese Twitter account that they are working on a new “affiliate program,” which will share advertising revenue with YouTube users posting videos of their games.

Since last year’s wave of Content ID claims on YouTube, users were able to post videos of Nintendo’s games so long as they put advertisements on the videos for Nintendo. In this case, Nintendo kept the advertising revenue that would typically go to the video creator. Nintendo also issued a statement to GameFront around this time asserting their ability to make and hold these Content ID claims despite any previous agreements YouTube users typically have with the games industry.

“As part of our on-going push to ensure Nintendo content is shared across social media channels in an appropriate and safe way, we became a YouTube partner and as such in February 2013 we registered our copyright content in the YouTube database. 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.”