The Divisive Nintendo Creators Program Will Shut Down In 2019

The controversial Nintendo Creators Program is now coming to an end. Launching back in 2015, Nintendo’s unique attempt to monitor YouTube content that featured their products will close all its operations on March 20, 2019. The announcement was made on the Nintendo Creators Program website with the key message around the cancellation being to make it “easier for content creators to make and monetize videos that contain Nintendo game content.”

Game publishers have often struggled to find ways to benefit from online video and streaming websites, especially given how big an influence video games have on social media. The Nintendo Creators Program was designed as a solution to this problem and a way for Nintendo to protect their own intellectual property. However, the initiative was met with backlash as its policies were seen to suffocate the content creators. It raised several ethical issues around Nintendo’s controlling presence in the agreement and how that would affect the authenticity of the content in the program.

Essentially, registered channels would get 60% of advertising revenue from their videos that featured Nintendo content. Unregistered channels could still be flagged by YouTube and later adopted into the program if the user wanted to keep their videos live. However, even those channels that worked in the program had to have their videos approved by Nintendo before they could be published. This created an environment where Nintendo had complete reign over the execution and distribution of their content on YouTube and limited the creative freedom of those who wanted anything to do with their games.

With the announcement of the Nintendo Creators Program being shut down, Nintendo is handing back some of that freedom. In its place, Nintendo has issued a series of guidelines that creators have to follow – which includes the requirement of “creative input” or “commentary” for a Nintendo video to be uploaded.

Nintendo concluded their statement by thanking the content creators “for their dedication to helping us create smiles”.