Nintendo Creators Program IMG

Nintendo has revealed it will close its controversial creators program at the end of this year. The website for the program will also be shutdown on 20th March 2019.

Replacing the program are new guidelines, which are intended to make it easier for creators to monetise their Nintendo videos. They also won't have to submit their content to the NCP anymore. These new guidelines have been uploaded to the Japanese website. Nintendo has included a short message as well, reiterating how content creators are required to abide by a few basic rules:

We are humbled every day by your loyalty and passion for Nintendo's games, characters and worlds, and respect that you want to be able to express yourself creatively by sharing your own original videos and images using content from our games.

As long as you follow some basic rules, we will not object to your use of gameplay footage and/or screenshots captured from games for which Nintendo owns the copyright ("Nintendo Game Content") in the content you create for appropriate video and image sharing sites.

Here are the exact guidelines:

  • You may monetize your videos and channels using the monetization methods separately specified by Nintendo. Other forms of monetization of our intellectual property for commercial purposes are not permitted.
  • We encourage you to create videos that include your creative input and commentary. Videos and images that contain mere copies of Nintendo Game Content without creative input or commentary are not permitted. You may, however, post gameplay videos and screenshots using Nintendo system features, such as the Capture Button on Nintendo Switch, without additional input or commentary.
  • You are only permitted to use Nintendo Game Content that has been officially released, or from promotional materials officially released by Nintendo (such as product trailers or Nintendo Directs).
  • If you want to use the intellectual property of a third party, you are responsible for obtaining any necessary third-party permissions.
  • You are not permitted to imply or state that your videos are officially affiliated with or sponsored by Nintendo.
  • We reserve the right to remove any content that we believe is unlawful, infringing, inappropriate, or not in line with these Guidelines.

Below this list was a brief message explaining how the guidelines would be updated if necessary:

Please understand that we will not be able to respond to individual inquiries regarding these Guidelines. Also, we may update these Guidelines from time to time, so please refer to the latest version before sharing your content.

There's also an FAQ you can read, helping to clarify these new guidelines. We can only hope relations between Nintendo and content creators improve from this point onwards.

What do you think of these new rules? Tell us below.

[source nintendo.co.jp, via r.ncp.nintendo.net]