Nintendo’s recently-launched beta Creator Program is already garnering lots of interest from YouTube gamers. According to GameSpot, the Japanese game company announced on February 4, 2015 it was extending the wait time for gaining acceptance into the Creator Program due to an overflow of submissions.
Nintendo posted a statement on its YouTube partner website claiming “we’re receiving a higher volume of applications to register channels & videos than expected.” GameSpot notes the original 72-hour time frame for video or channel approval by Nintendo has been pushed back. To speed things up, the game company suggests YouTube creators make sure their channels and videos are in line with the Creator Program’s terms of service and list of supported game titles.
This is the latest event in Nintendo’s so-far kinda sordid history with YouTube gamers. Back in May 2013, the Japanese game company used YouTube’s ContentID to target videos which featured game content from its titles. Nintendo then (in a move which nearly all other major video game publishers have never intentionally made) either forced creators to take down the clips, or imposed an ad on their videos of which Nintendo claimed 100% of the revenue (after YouTube took its cut, of course). The game company’s new Creator Program was set up to presumably establish a better working relationship with YouTubers, affording them an opportunity to take home 60% of the revenue for individual videos, or 70% of the revenue for entire channels dedicated to Nintendo content.
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Nintendo attributes the flood of Creator Program partner requests to gamers’ “enthusiasm for the program.” However, not all YouTubers are crazy about the company’s new partner policy. Creators such as Zach Scott, Geek Remix, and Boogie2988 have spoken out against Nintendo’s YouTube partner policy. More notably, PewDiePie (who influences more than 34 million subscribers) penned a Tumblr blog post decrying Nintendo’s Creator Program, calling it a “slap in the face” for gamers who’ve done nothing but provide free exposure for Nintendo and its titles.
Despite these protests, Nintendo’s Creator Program has apparently received more applications than the company can handle. We’ll see how the Program develops (and if opposing YouTubers warm up to it more) by the time it leaves beta and officially launches on May 27.
