Nintendo Willing to Share Youtube Money

You may or may not remember, but roughly a year ago there was a rather large controversy on Youtube regarding the flagging of Lets Plays as copyright infringement.  The issue was sparked further by Nintendo, who went on the record saying no one should be able to post gameplay footage of their games (or property) and make money off the ads—and insisted that any  money earned should be given to them.   They went to Youtube, a bunch of people complained, lines were drawn as developers took sides… the issue fizzled out for most everyone involved, eventually, as developers specifically asked Lets Players to keep doing what they do, as the relationship between themselves and the LPers were mutually beneficial.

But never for Nintendo.  It never really shifted from its position.  Which is why you don’t see many let’s plays for Nintendo titles anymore.

But earlier today, over Nintendo’s Japanese Twitter account, the company detailed plans for a new “Affiliate program” that would finally allow LPers to get a share of the earnings on any videos they produce.

The tweets revealed very little information besides that, and when reached for comment, Nintendo of America only had this to say:
 

Nintendo has been permitting the use of Nintendo copyrighted material in videos on YouTube under appropriate circumstances. Advertisements may accompany those videos, and in keeping with previous policy that revenue is shared between YouTube and Nintendo. In addition, for those who wish to use the material more proactively, we are preparing an affiliate program in which a portion of the advertising profit is given to the creator. Details about this affiliate program will be announced in the future.

...so it’s not exactly a reversal of its position, but… it’s a step, I guess.   This isn’t going to go very far in appeasing LPers, as you never made that much money off ads in the first place (unless you’re PewPewDie), but it’s something.

I’ll keep an eye on this and update the story as we learn more details about this affiliate program.