[BLOG] Nintendo's affiliate program isn't as good as it looks
Posted: 30 Jan 2015, 22:20
This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here ยป
After hearing that Nintendo might be thinking of releasing an affiliate program for Youtube creators, it's fair to say some were optimistic. After all, Nintendo's crackdown and claiming of revenue for Let's Plays of Nintendo games has become fairly well-known and criticised. Now the program has launcher, details of how it's going to work have been made clear and... well, if it's a step up it's only a tiny one.
Under the program content creators can sign up either individual videos or their entire channels if they want to be devoted to just Nintendo content. Nintendo will then take some of the ad revenue for the video, 40% per video or just 30% if your channel is signed up. Sounds okay right?
Problem is, they aren't the only ones who take revenue. When a video receives money from ads placed in the video the first to take a cut is Google themselves, who claim 50-55% of the revenue so that's already half of the money gone. Then if you're part of one of the big multi-channel networks like Fullscreen or Polaris (and in order to be making monetised game content you kind of need to be), they can take from 10-40% of what's left. Most creators will see only 20-35% of the original 100% of the money made from ads in the first place, so why sign up to have even less of it come your way for your work?
Then there's the fact that Nintendo are going to 'okay' each and every video in the program. This could take around 72 hours they estimate and in terms of the Internet, that's like a month. Content sent to Nintendo one day won't be as relevant 3-4 days later when Nintendo finally release the video for publishing. And that's not even to get into the business that is, what if they use this process to reject videos that say things they don't like? Point out bugs or a broken game? Journalistic integrity is enough of a thorny issue on Youtube without one of the biggest gaming companies in the world getting involved.
Nintendo seem at first to be trying to win back the Youtube gaming community with this program. Maybe a little revenue and the freedom to play Nintendo games for content again will be good enough for some, but many I've heard from have already said they won't be playing Nintendo games for videos anymore after looking at exactly what the program would mean for them. After all, many creators are making very little money off their hobby/job already.
And we at The Sanitarium.FM are going to follow them and say that we will not be signing up for this program, and therefore will not be making videos based on Nintendo content. We'll use official videos and post trailers, but that's all.
If you want to hear this explained much better than I could do in text, I suggest you watch the first part of TB's latest Content Patch video below:
After hearing that Nintendo might be thinking of releasing an affiliate program for Youtube creators, it's fair to say some were optimistic. After all, Nintendo's crackdown and claiming of revenue for Let's Plays of Nintendo games has become fairly well-known and criticised. Now the program has launcher, details of how it's going to work have been made clear and... well, if it's a step up it's only a tiny one.
Under the program content creators can sign up either individual videos or their entire channels if they want to be devoted to just Nintendo content. Nintendo will then take some of the ad revenue for the video, 40% per video or just 30% if your channel is signed up. Sounds okay right?
Problem is, they aren't the only ones who take revenue. When a video receives money from ads placed in the video the first to take a cut is Google themselves, who claim 50-55% of the revenue so that's already half of the money gone. Then if you're part of one of the big multi-channel networks like Fullscreen or Polaris (and in order to be making monetised game content you kind of need to be), they can take from 10-40% of what's left. Most creators will see only 20-35% of the original 100% of the money made from ads in the first place, so why sign up to have even less of it come your way for your work?
Then there's the fact that Nintendo are going to 'okay' each and every video in the program. This could take around 72 hours they estimate and in terms of the Internet, that's like a month. Content sent to Nintendo one day won't be as relevant 3-4 days later when Nintendo finally release the video for publishing. And that's not even to get into the business that is, what if they use this process to reject videos that say things they don't like? Point out bugs or a broken game? Journalistic integrity is enough of a thorny issue on Youtube without one of the biggest gaming companies in the world getting involved.
Nintendo seem at first to be trying to win back the Youtube gaming community with this program. Maybe a little revenue and the freedom to play Nintendo games for content again will be good enough for some, but many I've heard from have already said they won't be playing Nintendo games for videos anymore after looking at exactly what the program would mean for them. After all, many creators are making very little money off their hobby/job already.
And we at The Sanitarium.FM are going to follow them and say that we will not be signing up for this program, and therefore will not be making videos based on Nintendo content. We'll use official videos and post trailers, but that's all.
If you want to hear this explained much better than I could do in text, I suggest you watch the first part of TB's latest Content Patch video below: