Nintendo To Split Ad Revenue With Streaming Gamers 110
An anonymous reader writes "Over the past several years, as computers and networks have improved to handle heavier loads, it's become popular for people to stream video game footage over sites like YouTube and Twitch. Last year, Nintendo aggressively went after the players doing this for their games, hijacking the ad revenue generated through YouTube. It angered the gaming community, and was actively hostile to the people who were Nintendo's biggest fans. Now, Nintendo has partly walked back their position: they've agreed to share some of the advertising profits with the streamer. It's still hostile to the people actively putting Nintendo game playthroughs out there for others to watch, but it's a step in the right direction."
Streaming and lets play (Score:2, Interesting)
Gaming videos and streams are huge right now. Just immense. There are dozens of streamers and youtubers that have better ratings than many television shows. One obvious example is VanossGaming. One guy that makes funny game videos on youtube with seven million subscribers. No one would have expected these videos to be so popular a handful of years ago. The sheer volume of free advertising these people give out is an incredible opportunity.
Really Nintendo should be sponsoring these people, not taking away from them. It just shows how stuck in the past Nintendo is. When that cultural inertia dies down, so will Nintendo. They will be relegated to the same realm as Sega and Neo Geo. Some quaint thing that is looked on with nostalgia and disappointment for their refusal to use their vast opportunities.
Re:screw that (Score:5, Interesting)
output of a game being played != a copy of the game.
Its clearly a derivative work; and when published to the internet with ad revenue attched to it, then it becomes a commercial 'for profit' derivative work.
Its a no-brainer that Nintendo has all kinds of rights over not only the gameplay videos but any profits from them.
It's the same as someone buying a book, and then publishing ad-supported audio of them reading it.
Nintendo allowing the gameplay videos and sharing the ad revenue to the creators of the videos really is about as reasonable an outcome as it gets.
To be completely honest, its more lenient by far than the law requires.