PewDiePie is not feeling the proposed Nintendo Creators Program. The company is pushing a new initiative to try and create a relationship with YouTube vloggers. The new program would see Nintendo taking a cut in the ad shares. PewDiePie and other vloggers are thoroughly against this.
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PewDiePie took a stance against the profit sharing aspects of the new program. Basically, if you are part of this program, Nintendo gives you a 60-70 percent share of the ad revenue when you make a video that features footage from one of their games reported MCV.
Basically, to put it in other terms, Nintendo is saying they want vloggers to start paying them for the use of their footage. Not outright, but the company still wants to see a profit.
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Pewds admits that it is their right to do so in his blog on the matter. He's still opposed to the program because he believes that even though, yes he profits greatly from the use of the material, that the company gets a less tangible benefit in publicity.
"But what they are missing out on completely is the free exposure and publicity that they get from YouTube / YouTubers. What better way to sell / market a game, than from watching someone else (that you like) playing it and enjoying themselves," PewDiePie's recent blog post stated.
The thing about that is, this isn't some small indie company that they're dealing with. This is Nintendo.
Nintendo's profit margin isn't failing due to lack of exposure (if it was, then Pewd's argument would be valid). Nintendo has other separate issues that are contributing to its trouble however, it's still at the top of the pile when it comes to revenue.
They've been in business longer than PewDiePie's been alive and almost twice as long as their largest competitors. I imagine that Nintendo doesn't see YouTube as a way to get free exposure but more as yet another platform they need to advertise on.
This is very much a case of the old guard meeting the new guard. Neither side is wrong but in order to reach an agreement, both sides are going to have to look at the business of marketing games in a slightly different way.
