The Gaming Mega-giant Has Elected to Take Revenue Generated By User-Created Videos
For those unfamiliar with Let’s Play OR LP videos on YouTube, these are videos created by recording gameplay footage during a play-through, and usually feature audio of the player themselves, either commenting on the game, or just capturing their thoughts and reactions. The experience of watching the videos is like sitting on the couch next to someone else playing a game. Usually, the value of LP videos is to introduce other players to the game to get a sense of what it’s like to play it, or simply to be entertained, as some of the LP players are incredibly funny.
Nintendo has asserted their rights to the material per YouTube’s policy– which means that the players who created the videos can no-longer monetize the videos for themselves. Said another way, this means that the money those players used to make by creating those videos will now go to Nintendo, instead of the LP’er. Naturally, this has created a backlash and a profound sense of disappointment amongst that community, which takes the view that the reason people are watching the videos is not as much for the gameplay footage as to what the video creator is bringing to the gameplay footage. It’s also widely accepted that the videos serve as a powerful form of authentic word-of-mouth advertising for the game.
This follows on a fairly bad week for Nintendo, following an announcement by Electronic Arts that it has no plans to release and new titles for Nintendo’s foundering Wii U console, and Activision remaining silent as to whether the Wii U will see versions of their flagship titles, either. This is a far cry from the kind of reception the Wii received when it was the hot console at the time of its release in 2006. And, reportedly the original Wii is actually outselling the Wii U.