Nintendo Begins Beta of YouTube Partnership Program; Zelda Games Eligible

Nintendo has had an iffy history with gamers using their IPs on YouTube, to say the least. After vocally establishing that they did not condone this, they turned around and announced they would soon be building a program through which YouTube content creators would be able to share advertising profits with Nintendo. After several months,the company has finally opened a beta of its program, and has begun accepting applications.

Anyone can apply to the Nintendo Creators Program through their Google account and the full instructions are as follows:

• Use your Google account to log in.
• Read the terms of service, and click on “Agree and Continue” if you accept.
• Enter your country and language, and then enter your PayPal ID.
• Once you are done with preregistration, we will send a confirmation e-mail to your Google account.
• Click on the link provided in the e-mail to finalize your registration.
• Next time you log in, all channels and videos associated with your Google account will be shown so you can register those that you want to include in this program.

Those who are accepted to this beta, however, will have to follow certain registration rules, outlined below:

• You can register single videos or entire channels.
• When you register a channel, you will be eligible to receive a share of advertising revenue from Nintendo for all videos included in that channel, regardless of their content. If you only want some videos to apply to this program, please register each video individually.
• You can only use channels or videos that contain copyrighted content related to game titles specified by Nintendo, and they must be your original creations. Be sure your videos do not contain copyrighted material from third parties or content from unconfirmed game titles. See here for a list of Nintendo game titles specified for use with this program.
• It can regularly take up to three business days for your registered content to be reviewed and finalized.
• The advertisement revenue share is 70% for channels and 60% for videos.
• (This rate may be changed arbitrarily. )
• In order to comply with applicable laws and regulations, and as a condition to participating in the Nintendo Creators Program, you must include the following disclosure with any videos you create that contain Nintendo content:

  I have a license to use Nintendo’s content in this video through the Nintendo Creators Program. This video is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, but any advertising revenue from this video will be shared with Nintendo.

• This disclosure may be spoken (e.g., in the YouTube video) or written (e.g., in the YouTube caption or as on-screen text in the video). Regardless of format, you need to make sure the disclosure is prominently presented, easy to understand, and clearly visible and/or audible to anyone who views your video.

Although the games presented in one’s footage must be among those listed as eligible, the available titles extend all the back to the NES and, as such, all first-party produced Zelda titles are eligible; everything from The Legend of Zelda to A Link Between Worlds. Unfortunately for those who were hoping to take part by using footage from Hyrule Warriors, its status as a third-party title prevents its eligibility, Nonetheless, this presents over a dozen possibilities, provided that you are accepted to the program.

If you’d like to learn more about the partnership program, check out the official site for further details. While its hard to say how this program will change once it moves past the beta stage, it’s certainly encouraging that Nintendo is being more supportive of individuals’ efforts to celebrate their content. If nothing else, it’s a step in the right direction. What are your thoughts? Will any of you with YouTube channels dedicated to Zelda or other Nintendo properties be applying to be a part of this partnership?

Source: Nintendo.com