Nintendo to “Split” YouTube Ad Revenue with Affiliate Program

YouTube Users Can Make Money with Nintendo Videos Only if They Split Revenue with Nintendo

By Adam Taylor on May 28, 2014 at 9:53am

Nintendo announced on their official Japanese Twitter account that they are working on a new “affiliate program,” which will share advertising revenue with YouTube users posting videos of their games.

Since last year’s wave of Content ID claims on YouTube, users were able to post videos of Nintendo’s games so long as they put advertisements on the videos for Nintendo. In this case, Nintendo kept the advertising revenue that would typically go to the video creator. Nintendo also issued a statement to GameFront around this time asserting their ability to make and hold these Content ID claims despite any previous agreements YouTube users typically have with the games industry.

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 Feb. 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.

According to two separate tweets from Nintendo on Twitter account, Nintendo will split the ad revenue between YouTube, the user creating the video, and itself. There is a bit in these tweets that references Nintendo needing to consent to the videos for the YouTube user to split revenue on them. We do not know what the result is if Nintendo doesn't consent, or what their terms of consent will be, but we can only hope they're lenient.

Nintendo's latest WiiU release, "Mario Kart 8" features video capture and sharing features. Players can save footage of races from any character's perspective and upload whole races or 30-60 second clips to YouTube or Miiverse. It's unclear whether or not YouTube posting from this game would qualify as something Nintendo would consent to being monetized through their new affiliate program.