YouTube is a playground for personalities, ranging from makeup tutorials to cover artists to gamers. The YouTube style is most successful when ordinary people use existing products, songs or games and apply their sense of humor or intellect to document their experience using it.

Gamers use the platform to show off their own gaming experiences, injecting their own jokes into the experience. Top YouTube gamers like PewDiePie and VanossGaming collect mind blowing salaries for doing what they do best: being themselves. Video game companies have seen the power of the influencers, and many have turned a blind eye to copyright restrictions for the sake of promotion. However, Nintendo seems to be not too savvy in this department.

Nintendo’s current YouTube policy flags when users have implemented a slice of their property (mostly via music clips) and proceeds to claim ownership of the video, collecting all ad revenue for as long as the video is up. This has caused most gamers to avoid reviewing Nintendo games for their channels, resulting in a lot of frustration for creators and viewers alike. Some YouTube stars like Josh Thomas (TheBitBlock), Joe Vargas (AngryJoe) and Steven Williams (boogie2988) have taken to their channels to express their opinions on the matter. In a video entitled “A Heartfelt Plea to Nintendo about Content ID Claims…”, Thomas makes a practical case against Nintendo’s policy, claiming gamers and developers should be allies, not enemies. He said:

“They prohibit so much creativity and stop themselves from getting so much free advertisement on YouTube... They need to realize that they shouldn’t be stealing ad revenue from people who are only existing to try and get people excited about their game.”

After consistently covering Nintendo games for 10 years, Thomas doesn’t understand why the company is not friendly to YouTubers. He goes on to say, “I feel like I’m constantly slapped in the face by Nintendo. ... Please stop trying to stop me from celebrating you as a company.”

Many games succeed or fail based on word-of-mouth, and these days, a lot of users check out what their favorite YouTubers think before the make a purchase. In his video, “Will AngryJoe do a Zelda Angry Review?” Vargas also marveled at the policy, saying:

“You would think that they would relax some of their YouTube policies or join 99 percent of other video game companies on YouTube who have now converted and understand the value.”

Intellectual property and creative copyrights are hot topics, as the entertainment industry struggles to hang on to pennies with technological advances allowing users to experience their content for free. Without income from ads or direct purchases, companies cannot pay artists and manufacturers to create the content that users love so much. Similar to the film and television industry, the business of entertainment cannot thrive on free experiences. Creators have bills to pay and families to feed, too. Thus, Nintendo's aggressive effort to protect its property is understandable. However, at what point does a lack of PR affect consumer buying habits? Perhaps we're about to find out.

Next: Nintendo Switch Review

Source: YouTube [See above links]