Nintendo Placing Ads in YouTubers’ Let’s Play Videos

With over 220,000 subscribers, Zack Scott is well followed YouTube content provider. However, after spotting that Nintendo was making content ID matches on several of his Let’s Play videos, Scott wrote an open letter on Facebook stating that he would not be continuing to upload playthroughs of Nintendo games.

The video games giant got in touch with Gamefront and issued the following statement:

“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.”

So, many of those people that make a living off of posting videos of them playing Nintendo games to YouTube can no longer monetise their content.

There will obvously be a split opinion here: “it’s Nintendo owned, so they are well within their rights to do so”, or on the other hand, “Nintendo are shooting themselves in the foot by taking this backward step”.

Personally, I fall into the latter. Whilst they may paint themselves as saints due to the fact that they’re not blocking these videos, Let’s Plays are now a feature of gaming culture. Whether they watch because they want to see how the game plays, or they enjoy specific personalities, the popularity of video game playthroughs can’t be understated.

With the Wii U floundering and the 3DS failing to hit its sales targets, you’d think Nintendo would be happy for any bit of publicity regarding any of their titles. Pity they’ve gotten greedy.

But that’s just how I feel. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section, below.