
Make way for Nintendo Game Content Guidelines
So apparently, Nintendo is getting faster and faster at recognizing trends. In the words of Pearl from Splatoon, the Nintendo Creators Program DUNZO. Well, it sort of it. It seems they realized that maybe trying to wrestle complete control over the content users make with their games has been too difficult to micromanage. Good riddance too, getting an auto-flag for copyright is annoying. Especially when you have to tell Nintendo 3 times that your Splatoon vid is part of the program. Indeed, we do still cover the Splatoon Splatfests on a regular basis. Nintendo isn’t exactly blameless, but it is understandable that they’d want to capitalize on this trend. They are a corporation after all.
However, now with the change, Nintendo does have some rules it wants people to follow. The copypasta is as follows:
We are humbled every day by your loyalty and passion for Nintendo’s games, characters and worlds, and respect that you want to be able to express yourself creatively by sharing your own original videos and images using content from our games.
As long as you follow some basic rules, we will not object to your use of gameplay footage and/or screenshots captured from games for which Nintendo owns the copyright (“Nintendo Game Content”) in the content you create for appropriate video and image sharing sites. To help guide you, we prepared the following guidelines:
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You may monetize your videos and channels using the monetization methods separately specified by Nintendo. Other forms of monetization of our intellectual property for commercial purposes are not permitted.
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We encourage you to create videos that include your creative input and commentary. Videos and images that contain mere copies of Nintendo Game Content without creative input or commentary are not permitted. You may, however, post gameplay videos and screenshots using Nintendo system features, such as the Capture Button on Nintendo Switch, without additional input or commentary.
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You are only permitted to use Nintendo Game Content that has been officially released, or from promotional materials officially released by Nintendo (such as product trailers or Nintendo Directs).
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If you want to use the intellectual property of a third party, you are responsible for obtaining any necessary third-party permissions.
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You are not permitted to imply or state that your videos are officially affiliated with or sponsored by Nintendo.
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We reserve the right to remove any content that we believe is unlawful, infringing, inappropriate, or not in line with these Guidelines.
Please understand that we will not be able to respond to individual inquiries regarding these Guidelines. Also, we may update these Guidelines from time to time, so please refer to the latest version before sharing your content.
So, point for point, this is what we are looking at in laymans terms.
- You can monetize is the normal way but can’t do weird stuff.
- If you are just posting gameplay with no commentary, that’s no good. It’s only good if you are using Nintendo’s SHARE BUTTON.
- You can’t use anything that isn’t released by Nintendo officially.
- They aren’t accountable for other 3rd party claims.
- You can’t say you work for Nintendo.
- We can remove content if we thing it’s really bad.
This is miles and miles better than the Nintendo Creators Program. The dashboard and all features were a pain in the butt. We don’t even have that many viewers on our YT page currently. But having to register our Nintendo videos directly to the NCP was bothersome, regardless. If we already aren’t profiting off Nintendo videos, why should we? Yet we had to apply for the service anyway. But now that’s all over. This is an absolutely GOOD MOVE from Nintendo. It shows that they have self-awareness and knowledge, and are willing to adjust accordingly to the free market.
Bottom line, is you will soon be able to start uploading some Nintendo content as long as you aren’t full of sh*t. That’s a pretty solid deal. What do you say? Are you going to put Nintendo vids up on your channel now? We will continue either way.