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Report: Nintendo To Begin YouTube Affiliate Program
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Last year, Nintendo made waves by initiating YouTube “Content ID” matches on videos portraying the company’s games. This diverted monetization from the video creators to Nintendo, and was heavily criticized by the Let’s Play community.
At the time, Nintendo claimed its move to capture all video monetization was to ensure that that material “is shared across social and media channels in an appropriate and safe way.” Now, a two-part message via the company’s Japanese Twitter account signals a shift in policy.
A translation of the two tweets indicates Nintendo will be working with YouTube to create an affiliate program to share revenue with authorized content creators. Specific details are not yet available. We’ve reached out to Nintendo of America for more information, and we’ll update should we receive a response.
[Source: Nintendo on Twitter (1), (2)]
Our Take
Nintendo is taking a step in the right direction here, but it is far from the open policy taken by publishers of all sizes, including Devolver Digital, Deep Silver, and Ubisoft. Based on what little we understand right now, it appears that YouTube creators will need to be part of the affiliate program in order to monetize. This would give Nintendo some control over content, and it could choose to remove those creators it later disapproves of for whatever reason.