It’s no secret that Nintendo has received its fair share of criticism regarding its fans in the realm of content creation online—specifically when it comes to video content—and especially against its (arguably) unfair rules. If you product videos about Nintendo content, you must subscribe to their program if you actually want to get paid (ie. a cut of the ad revenue), but getting into the program in the first place is another thing entirely.
Nintendo has now changed its rules and added restrictions regarding eligible channels, in response to YouTube’s changes to its Partners Program. YouTube’s changes increased the required amount of subscribers and views for a channel before their content can be monetized. Nintendo has gone ahead and matched suit, changing their standards to come in line with the new YouTube requirements:
Thank you for using the Nintendo Creators Program. In January, changes were made to the YouTube service. This email will explain how this will impact the Nintendo Creators Program.
As YouTube informed the creators, the YouTube Partners Program requirements were changed: New channels require 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers in order to be eligible for monetization. It was also announced that, for existing channels, the same requirements will be applied from Feb. 20, 2018. After Feb. 20, channels that do not reach the requirements will no longer be able to earn money on YouTube.
The Nintendo Creators Program requires agreement to and participation in the YouTube Partner Program, so if channels do not meet the above eligibility requirements, they will not be able to monetize on the Nintendo Creators Program from their videos.
Further, please be aware that if you already have your channel registered to the Nintendo Creators Program, those channels that do not meet the requirements will be deactivated from the Program by YouTube.
Whether this is fair or not remains to be seen—and there’s plenty of debate surrounding the change, of course—but if you’re a content creator, you need to be aware of this moving forward and act/react accordingly.
