Popular YouTube Channel 'Did You Know Gaming' Receives Copyright Strike For Heroes Of Hyrule Video

Nintendo makes it hard to want to support them sometimes. Between this and their handling of competitive Smash lately among other things, it becomes more and more evident all they really care about is having complete control over their IPs, even if that extends to trying to erase and manipulate history regardless of whether or not it actually harms the company in any way.

Is this the new thing now where every mediocre youtuber cries on twitter how the big corporation is after them as if they even know who they are? Been seeing this with Fortnite streamers lately...

The last time this happened, wasn't it someone impersonating Nintendo? Maybe let's wait and see how the appeal process goes before automatically assuming again.

Nintendo, once again being ultra protectionist. It is good to a point but these content creators are preaching the word. They are building more diehard fans. Nintendo proving again that they are way too slow to adapt.

It keeps getting harder and harder to defend Post-Iwata Nintendo.
Every business decision they've made since has just felt like soulless corporate nonsense.

What bothers me most, is they KNOW they have fans like me (including me) in a vice, hook, line, and sinker. Because where else are we gonna play Zelda, and Pokémon, and Metroid? They know this. They PREY on this. It's really sad.

Wow, Nintendo is like that dog that keeps biting the hand that feeds it.

@Rika_Yoshitake "mediocre youtuber"? LMAO, Did You Know Gaming has been around for many years (joined Youtube in 2012), has 2.39 million subs and is highly respected across the gaming industry. They're more than just a "mediocre youtuber", ha ha ha.

@CharlieGirl The new fella running the company feels like he's two steps behind Iwata.

@Kilroy Ok so what you're saying is that a massive youtube channel is encouraging their audience to harass Nintendo Employees... that's actually worse... GG

Nintendo is like the wizard of oz. They will do everything in their power to make sure you don’t look at what’s happening behind the curtain.

Man, that's very out of touch. Perhaps they're in need of younger leadership, but Japan's hierarchical system stands in the way of that.

@Rika_Yoshitake Voice opinions and harass are two totally different things, but if you want to go the completely negative route here, fine, you have fun with that. I'll be over here being less miserable.

@Rika_Yoshitake what on earth are you talking about?

Gotta protect their brand! After all, imagine if a video documenting a piece of video game history in a way that clearly falls within fair use doctrine was allowed to stay visible to the public. Think about what that would do to their brand! Clearly people thought that video was an Official Nintendo© Product™. We wouldn't want anyone to harm Nintendo's image more than they themselves do by constantly having negative headlines written about them for doing stuff like this! But hey, it's Nintendo! Their malicious, baseless copyright trolling will be forgiven because, hey, that's just how they are! A little quirky and old fashioned. You know, I'm actually glad Nintendo burned my house down, I wanted to move anyway!

Seems worth pointing out that this is a Nintendo of America copyright claim, which is technically not the same organisation as Nintendo of Japan.

Of course, the current protectionist policies (which aren’t exactly new) could well be the result of explicit orders from NoJ, but there’s likely more nuance to the picture than Shuntaro Furukawa sitting in his office, personally shooting down YouTube videos with a Famicom Zapper.

It’s not entirely clear where in the corporate chain these decisions are being made. Perhaps it doesn’t matter, as the result is the same. And the result is very much not A Good Thing.

Honestly, it's times like this I want to leave Nintendo for good...

Wow so someone makes a informative video, and Nintendo still takes it down, honestly it’s hard to tell if you love us or hate us but I do know your fans are the former.

@Rika_Yoshitake Far from a mediocre Channel mate.

I don't watch Youtube myself but I do wonder what their reason for this is.

Who cares? People acting like this was a bigger thing than the Ukrainian war just to bash Nintendo as always.

To be honest, I could not even imagine a more trivial subject than this no-news.

@Rika_Yoshitake Nintendo is notorious for this kind of thing. They often flag what most other companies would see as free PR. Legally this video would like game streaming, quite possibly count as transformative or other protected uses of IP by a non-owner.
YouTube (like any company) will not however defend a posters content outside of them not being responsible for it. It makes sense (they can't review and fund every possible lawsuit; it would be a very poor decision Buisness wise), but it means they will roll over if a DMCA is sent to them.

What Fortnight complaints are you seeing? I don't frequent Twitter much, but haven't seen much on Epic sending DMCA notices.

So they copyright striked a video...about a game that they shut down? Sometimes I just wish what goes on in their brains. 🤦‍♂️

Why Nintendo why? You're breaking my heart. I've been a fan since the NES. I got so mad about this I just threw my controller at the TV during a Christmas party. My family is now yelling and I now the kids hate me. I'm not longer a Nintendo fan boy. I'm going to team Sony. At least they know how to run a company.

@Greatluigi Generally subpar buisness decisions. See thier responses to streaming, tournaments, and refusal to set up a decent network service like PSN or Xbox Live have had for years.

@N8tiveT3ch you know they sued the company selling game genies during that time, right? Like them creating bad PR over nothing (and over things they may not be able to win in court) has been a long time thing.
I also had an NES as my major console for a while to be clear. I do like thier products in general. But they definitely fail to support/deserve thier communities love for them quite often.

@N8tiveT3ch
Pretty good sarcasm there.

@Cia
Huh? You expect NintendoLife to write articles about Ukraine, and not Nintendo? Brother I think you're on the wrong website

@Cia sports trolls on Twitter post something similar when their team loses. Felt like the right time here.

Why is Nintendo always regarded as this singular minded monolith? Their legal team exists to viciously defend their property and has no care about video game history or the fan communities. They're always going to be a toy company, selling on brand power at maximum profits with the most superficial of care for the people who buy their products. Kind of stinks they hold some incredible talent with endless buying power for more but that's life . Enjoy what we get from them.

Nintendo is a hater. Nintendo hates the fans.

I am in piece. I like Nintendo but I give more money to Steam...Microsoft and Sony than Nintendo.

God Nintendo has such a petulant legal department.

@Rika_Yoshitake I'm with the other guys... if you don't know DidYouKnowGaming you've been living under a rock the past decade.
They are a pretty popular channel ... and I don't even follow streamers, influencers and such.

I don't know of the content on Did You Know Gaming because most of the videos I've been pointed to were stuff that, in fact, I did know. So, why watch?

@Rika_Yoshitake clearly someone that works for Nintendo knows who they are or the video wouldn't have been copyright striked 🤣

as much as I love nintendo games , the archaic board and directors are too old fashioned and rarely open minded these days in its business politics. Yes there's always a core fanbase that will always support them but eventually copium runs out and most people grow a brain. They need fresh blood with fresh minds. Most frustrating is its online capabilities on switch have gone even further backwards - lack of socialised gaming friends list you can''t even message to play a game makes me baffled. Their mobile app a huge flop that doesn't support games that need online communication like Diablo 3. Theres clearly some areas the need to polish up. The latest pokemon obviously was made to meet a launch date and not Quality standards. I'm not sure if things will get better after Iwata's sad parting. I do hope so but I have yet to see signs.. hopefully the first sign for me is a new switch pro with better hardware specs. revamp of its online service model to have proper social integration for online games etc.

Well it is their IP and I am sure Nintendo owns any concept art shown and at the end of the day Nintendo is well within their rights. Just make a different video and move on. Or ask for Nintendo’s permission.

@Cia yeah nintendolife should be writing articles about wars & not ya know Nintendo related gaming 🤡

@Would_you_kindly
I was merely referring the stupidity of complaining about something THIS trivial.

"Let @NintendoOfAmerica know what I think"? I think it's silly and unnecessary but would be faster dead if all the appropriate efforts were directed at adjusting the related legislations (instead of, say, encouraging some populist politicians to parasite on other fan buzz like MTX) and faster toothless if content creators and audiences stopped treating corporately owned platforms like YouTube as the be-all and end-all of all possible exposure. But I'm not sure if NoA is a useful addressee for either of these messages.

Or, for that matter, if such discussions are a good excuse to reiterate our vocal pretense of "supporting Nintendo" (and "how much harder it grows to do so"). We are consumers and audience members (and, much worse yet, fans). We don't "support" a corporate business - we engage with its output as long as it sufficiently aligns with our demands and financial capabilities at a given time... but still insist on simulating some kind of loyalty and expect real one in return.

This ***** is getting out of hand

So instead of crying publicly about the issue, go solve it! Man, why does everyone has to publicize all their first world problems -.-'

They could host it on their own website. No reason it has to be on Youtube.

Most of those game pitches are bound by NDAs, so I could see why Nintendo did this.

I really don't understand why Nintendo hates it's fans so much.

Keep up the good work Nintendo.

Anyway I bet this youtuber is pleased that it's happened to them, they know there'll get more clicks for this than any video they make.

@Rika_Yoshitake ..... what?

This isn't some nobody trying to upload and monetise Nintendo soundtracks or anything like it. It's a decent YouTube documentary about an interesting piece of history that never quite was.

Youtube is full of interesting content like this that's too niche to end up being aired (And likely immediately forgotten) on mainstream TV but is good enough to be worth randomly bumping into and watching one day on YT.

Self hosting the video isn't really a solution either outside of making it so obscure that Nintendo (and everyone else) never finds it. Web hosts will still generally respect DMCA takedowns.

Nintendo of America are, I'd imagine, simply blindly following doctrine from the head honchoes in Japan to protect Ninty's intellectual property. Anyone with a degree of sense would appreciate this is in no way harmful to the company's brands or image, but sometimes the letter of the law is easier to uphold than the spirt-especially when your job's potentially on the line. I wonder if this sort of thing travels the other way with companies based in Western regions being perceived as draconian tyrants in Japan.

@KingMike
Hey, did you know? Did you know that the phrase "did you know" is a question? This means that you either know it or you don't.
If you already know the facts displayed in their videos, then that's great! But otherwise, you're running under an assumption that these videos should be tailored in a way which specifically caters to you and what you personally do not know. There are many people out there which don't know these facts, and Did You Know Gaming has always been the source of that knowledge for them. In the end, your comment only comes off as obnoxious just because you've discovered your favourite company was in the wrong or whatever.

@Rika_Yoshitake
Your mental gymnastics are worrying at worst and confusing at best. You're basically seeing that Nintendo did something bad and inexcusable so you're deciding to twist the intentions of the victim in order to make it sound like they want to cause harm one way or another. The multi-billion dollar corporation isn't your friend and I regret to inform you that no individual working at the company is being targetted. Try to understand the situation beyond "my friend nintendo is being attacked by bad press".

it was probably breaking some ndas anyway, so not surprising at all

@McBurn I don't know if you're new to the internet, but problems like what happens on Youtube don't actually get solved until there has been large public outcry about it.
You can say whatever you like that comforts you, but the fact of the matter is that only those with the luxury of a larger audience have been able to resolve issues like these because big companies will not care about a single person complaining. Big companies only take action when they see that the issue is damaging their public image.
Telling someone to "solve something quietly" is akin to just telling someone to sit down, shut up and take it without action.

I'm getting caught in the trap again of responding and trying to reason with diehard Nintendo fans who thinks Nintendo will pat them on the back for taking the bullet for them.
I do miss the Iwata era of Nintendo, but of course no one can bring that back. His legacy will be stuck in the past until someone who values his philosophy steps up to the plate.

It's just a shame that some people truly feel that they have to keep making excuses for the big N just to save them face and ruin their own.

But guys, NINTENDO DOES LOVE THEIR FANS!

only the ones that buy their games and keep their love for nintendo exclusively in their own head, and absolutely not share it to the world.

I like Nintendo a lot, but stuff like this feels like being stabbed with a knife, it is so unnecessary to do, even if you want to protect your IP.

Stuff like this makes me miss the Iwata era even more.

@Jim_Wakelin I'm sorry but I really don't think it's relevant to compare what's happening to this excellent Youtube channel with the esports drama on Smash.

Did You know Gaming simply does journalistic work, information videos, which are of general interest. What is happening to them is therefore a scandal that deserves our indignation towards Nintendo.

We are not going to compare an unacceptable attack on the press with the fact that people do not have the right to appropriate intellectual property to make money by organizing competitions.

A disgusting decision by Nintendo... -_-

So the general consensus on here is that it's ok for a YouTuber to monetise other companies assets?

@Zisssou
It's literally journalism. I'm going to assume since you have an account and have commented here on NintendoLife, you'll realise NintendoLife literally does the same that they "monetise other companies assets". Or is there a new double standard that's okay for some but not others now?

Unannounced titles fall under NDA and are not supposed to be public knowledge, it's perfectly within Nintendo's right to request for this to be taken down.

Nintendo being unnecessarily garbage to fans, what an absolute surprise.

@McBurn Because as sad as it is to say, making a fuss on social media actually often expedites the solutions to people's problems in a way that wouldn't happen otherwise.

People get up in arms about something, the company in question's PR department seeks to damage control, reparations occur. If this person went through the 'normal' routes so solve their issue, the quiet routes, absolutely nothing would happen for months, if ever.

I like their channel a lot, but I'm honestly surprised they haven't gotten shut down by now with how often they try to dig up this kind of stuff. They recently almost got ahold of some footage from a cancelled F-Zero game, and the only reason they didn't is that the dev double checked with someone who told him exactly how bad an idea handing it over was.

@Kyranosaurus I wasn't debating for/against. Get off your high horse trying to start an argument.

Lol at the comment above saying Nintendo is "preying" on them...like can we take it down a notch?

@Kyranosaurus:
@LinkSword:
I'm just tired of everyone with a bit of an audience complaining publicly about the smallest things - hoping for some outcry - instead of just trying to solve the issue themselves. I always solve MY problems by myself. It's not that hard really.

And I don't have anything against the guy here specifically, in fact I'm always more for the small guy and against the big corporations by default (cause all they really care about is profit). It was just one too many I saw this week and made me loose my cool for a bit -.-'

People should rock up to NoA headquarters and protest if they feel strongly about this stuff. Nintendo obviously calculate that the PR problem isn't bad enough to warrant not taking excessive copyright strike action as is. So the solution should be make the PR problem worse.

“A slap in the face for video game history”

Jesus could you blow it out of proportion a little more?

Games are unsuccessfully pitched to Nintendo ALL THE TIME. Doesn’t mean they all need covering by an arrogant YouTube channel for the purpose of history.

I haven't seen the video, and now I probably won't, but if the video had anything related to the project, be it concept images or even concept gameplay screens, that wasn't made public by Nintendo then Nintendo has legal grounds to issue a copyright strike since this is clearly a break of NDA.

Even Sakurai has to ask permission to show things on his own channel.

I know people like to point fingers at Nintendo but sometimes Nintendo is right, like it or not.

Yeah ok this seems poopy and unnecessary, but we don’t know the reasoning so let’s try and keep a level head shall we?

There are many reasons it could have happened. It could have been another auto-accident, though we’ve not had them for a while. It could be an over zealous new person at Nintendo. It could be that there were NDAs broken in here that if not kept under wraps (as best they can be now) would weaken the relationship between Nintendo and Retro or other partners. It could be they’ve picked it back up again so don’t want all the details out there. Or it could be another case of the usual “this instance is harmless but if we let it slide now we have no legal ground for much bigger things” which is why most fan projects are shut down.

Honestly we don’t know. It could be a poopy reason, it could be a reasonable one, it could be a good one even. Ultimately this info was locked up under NDA and the person who blabbed, should not have. Rightly or wrongly that is the legally binding contract that was signed and broken.

Game studios make pitches all the time and 75-90% won’t get picked up or made even into a prototype. That’s how it works. This is one of many, many games Nintendo would have chosen not to make, and it that sense it’s not that special.

This one is just fun as it feels like it could have influenced BotW many years later. And that is why they keep these things under wraps, rarely is anything completely shut down it’s often just shelved and can be used elsewhere or brought back later.

Other studios and publishers would likely have done the exact same thing as Nintendo is really.

thats nintendo, lol! its better to just shrug things like these off and stick to the games. the company itself has never been very friendly to begin with. Recently I got an email with a quesionaire for persona5royal - 30 bronze coins were offered as a reward, I was like wtf? is this how they value my time?, deleted, lol. I even stopped collecting gold coins from physical games long ago. Just felt stupid to partake in that lackluster rewards program. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and there will always be fanboys who will defend everything because they can and why not? right?

I get it, someone is profiting from something of yours, you'll want to stop it.

But the backslash you get when that someone publicly calls it out. Is the damage control worth it?

NoClip is a documentary company 'preserving gaming history' by actually professionally communicating with all of the parties if they're happy to show footage or concepts of the game which was cancelled. If an employee/employer is unhappy they will not show the footage. This is the proper way to run these kinds of deals.

DYKGaming never asked for such things or bounce through such hoops to make their videos.

It really shows why NoClip videos stay unflagged while this one got removed. Invest more time and energy into actually getting approval for showing something you don't have the rights to.

Then again, we need some weekly Twitter drama, let's all jump on the rage campaign again because none of us miserable internet dwellers have any other emotions anymore.

Remove your brain and rationale and jump in for the hits.

i will never understand why stuff like this gets ***** storms. their Copyright is protected by law for a reason. and even though we dislike it, it is ok

@CielloArc @Switch_Pro @sanderev @Bustacap
Except if noone involved in the making of the video was a part of the NDA, then they didn't break any contract and are instead reporting on information that was available to them and should be free to do so.

@Maxz I'm just guessing lawyers of the American arm full are looking around to justify their paycheck.

The channel either has a legitimate use of the content in their video (in which case take it up with YouTube), or they don't (in which case they've embarrassed themselves by trying to stir up support despite their illegitimate position).

@shaneoh and how did they get the information? That being said, this could also just be an automatic music detection thing. I don't know why "did you know" isn't collecting their thoughts before urging fans to fight with Nintendo or anyone here for that matter before going all "Nintendo are an evil corporation". Like, it doesn't say why it was taken down, we don't know why it was taken down. We know nothing... just like... everyone chill... could be a mistake, could have a legitimate reason. Just wait guys, wow

So... I guess Nintendo Life gets a pass because they are journalists, allowing them to have fair use as their defense?

The fact that most of us, including the knee-jerkers, are speculating why Nintendo did this shows that maybe, just maybe, we should hear both sides of the story first before reaching for the pitchforks.

@nhSnork I could do the same song and dance I do every time that this needs to go through the proper channels at YouTube and if deemed fair use it will be restored. Or how this could be a misunderstanding caused by over enthusiastic intern or jr lawyer. But, I agree with you 100%. If people are actually passionate about changing the copyright system to reflect 21st Century media they should vote at the poles for politicians who will get the job done.

I'm tired of this discussion every time it comes up. People need to stop this "vote with their wallets" nonsense and start voting with their ballots and get politically active.

End of discussion.

I really can't understand why people feel entitled to get mad at stuff that Isn't theirs to begin with. Its like someone enters your home takes all your valuable stuff and they do whatever they want with it, would you be ok with it? Im pretty sure you would like to keep your own stuff protected in your home. Anything related to Nintendo belongs to Nintendo and they have all the right to do as they seem fit. Youtube is flooded with lots of copyrighted Nintendo video's and we dont hear all of them getting copyright strikes. Do you all honestly believe that Nintendo is the only one doing this? People attack Nintendo the most because they see it as a Child friendly company and demand that they can do whatever they want with their IP's and want Nintendo to sit back and do nothing.

I have seen videos by this folks, they make some quality content and it is indeed unfortunate, and about Nintendo being Nintendo, can't say im surprise.

i hope Spoiler Ending youtuber need to be banned.

@Rika_Yoshitake you remind me of the guy living in the bunker from the movie Parasite.

@Ogbert The never-fully-canceled idea was my first thought at a potential reason why. I don't remember where I read this (might've been the Iwata book or a 1101 article or something), but supposedly Miyamoto was invested on developing software for the famicom of face/character creation which ultimately got brought back up over time until it was actually turned into Mii's on the Wii. Similar thing with Yoshi being drafted up during (I think) SMB 1's development but not implemented until SMW.
I'm really curious to hear if the ex-Retro employee who spoke with DYKG actually broke an NDA or not. I could easily see a game with as unique of a premise in both mechanics and story being shelved by Nintendo to use bits and pieces of for later Zelda games (which would open another can of worms of do they own the work done by Retro and can they implement elements of it into new games without further compensation or credit?). My guess is that the NDA was indefinite and the ex-Retro employee just kind of figured it's been long enough, though I could be wrong.

I'm also quite curious as to why they didn't take down the Metroid one as well. Was this Zelda takedown faked like other ones recently? Is there a whole process to confirm a takedown and the Metroid one will be gone soon?

Nintendo hates its fan and its own history. Not surprised

Nintendo sucks so bad. So out of touch with people who play and care about their games

@Ogbert not really, Nintendo does this quite literally all the time. Pretty cut and dry.

Nintendo lawyers had to be extremely bored to strike a completely fair use video

I'm glad I saw the video before the takedown. Very interesting.

As for those who would like to see it, I'm sure it'll bop around some part of the internet in mirror form. Just look around and it should turn up eventually.

Won't pass judgment on Nintendo's legal ninjas, they're doing as they should. Nintendo be doing this all the time, so why the shock, awe and ire?

How much of the video was showing Nintendo's IP? Fair use - especially when reporting - will protect you to some degree, but how much of something you show does matter. My dad worked in television broadcasting and he always told me the rule of thumb was you could show about 5 seconds of something copyrighted safely when reporting on it.

@Browny I think in light of recent smash controversy and the fact that DYKG is effectively the face of of video game history online, it’s a perfectly reasonable reaction. DYKG probably plays a huge part in people being interested in retro gaming. Nintendo should be FEEDING DYKG, not putting the clamps on it over something so insanely petty

I don't see the problem. Nintendo strikes a video containing their existing IP - that someone else is money making from.
Regardless of what Joe Public thinks, this is all Nintendo property and for theirs to do (and protect) how they see fit.

Although the angle of the video (I think - from memory) might be these are old ideas that never came to fruition, Nintendo may think differently and have ideas up their sleeves for the future...

@Cia So it’s trivial that their channel could get shut down (only takes 3 of these) and people could lose their jobs?

That's what they get for trying to make easy money from Nintendo. Though I like their channel they did do a lot of these videos without giving proper credit to the very source they got their info from. A lot of these stuffs may still be confidential information such as the case with Metroid Dread, a long overdue game that people thought once got cancelled but was revive in 2021. Who knows maybe Nintendo would revive Heroes of Hyrules or Metroid Tactics too.

@Zisssou if you think this boils down to a Youtuber monetizing assets of a corporation, then I guess all journalism is copyright infringement. Should we never speak of a company or product unless the company itself approves? That's Soviet Russia thinking, where only opinions or research endorsed by the state are allowed.

Sorry, but I support freedom of speech, expression, and the press. Discourse is not infringement, and looking into the past is not infringement.

To the people defending Nintendo, do you believe Nintendo has the right to silence any review or discussion video simply because it "contains their IP?" If so that is worrying.

@Crockin Not why sure why you're complaining like always, you know what they're like. Should had expected it sooner than later. Did You Know Gaming should had known better that this would happen. Being a big or popular channel on YouTube doesn't mean you could freely use other companies info to drive your channel. They got what they deserve. A majority of the stuff they put on their channel we know already anyways, most are just info taken from other lost or archive source.

This kind of stuff always makes it easier to just play old Nintendo games where they get zero money from me. It causes them no harm to allow this video to exist, but by blocking it they immediately kick down so many fans who are truly on edge with them already. As an older gamer who has way more options to play games, Nintendo easily makes the decision to skip their games and consoles with actions like this. I said the Switch would be my last Nintendo console, and the last game I bought was Metroid Dread. Stuff like this makes me just want to move on already. Between this and Sony crying about COD, I am not sure who is worse here. I'd rather just exit the console wars and retire into neutral PC land lol. BOTW 2 is the only thing that keeps me holding on at this point.

DYKG are of questionable historical accuracy and authenticity anyway. Multiple times I informed them very clearly and in detail about massive factual inaccuracies in among other things their "Wii hack" coverage - I was there - and the comments were simply ignored and deleted. I guess correcting mistakes when they are made isn't of interest to them.

@Serpenterror yeah this is an aggressively unserious response. Please, grow a little bit of a backbone and engage in some critical thinking before next comments.

So instead of me going 'GAH NINTENDO YOU ARE EVIL' in a knee jerk response I have some questions and thoughts.

1) Was this information cleared to be released by Nintendo? I ask because it is a known fact that Nintendo reuses ideas.

2) When did you know covered a game where a artist uploaded concept art of a cancelled game they noted the artist deleted their account when it blew up. Hell when GT did a video on Persona an insider who confirmed information didn't want to he named. Just because someone knows something when working for a company doesn't mean they can just talk about it.

3) To the people talking about Journalisn and Freedom of Speech. This was about people breaking NDAs. Fun fact just running your mouth about something isn't a cut and dry thing. Even between departments in the same company. l

@ERIC_MACK yeah it’s curious that the Metroid one isn’t down which is why it could be a mistake. Though this one did gain a lot more traction in the news so perhaps they’re just more aware of it. It’s unlikely they would actually check the rest of their content, if they do a whole lot more could get removed.

The person who spoke about it was definitely under NDA. Even small studios will have this as part of your contract, you don’t get to start revealing stuff after you’ve left, the NDA is forever. Otherwise it’s be a massive loop hole for journalists and such to take advantage of. That might sound extreme but I have worked in the industry and there have been some ridiculous things people have tried to do to get info. Not NintendoLife to my knowledge, I must clarify.

Honestly I know how it all sounds, I know people are going to be calling me a corporate simp and saying I’m protecting the big guy at the cost of the little. But honestly, it’s a game that didn’t get made. It’s not really a huge part of gaming history it’s a fun tidbit of info at best and the YouTube is no worse off for it being removed.
We all love Nintendo products and this sort of thing is ultimately what protects them and allows them to do what they do. It might seem unfair, unnecessary or mean but in most cases they have to do this to keep their legal rights for when someone tries to do something actually malicious.

We should all just be happy we got to know this fun little fact that we weren’t ever supposed to hear, that nobody got hurt and not worry about preserving the hundreds of ideas that didn’t happen and we don’t know about and work on preserving what did.

I mean if Nintendo owns it then why is it wrong to take down there stuff they didn’t want in a video.

@Ogbert I think people get a little obsessive about the idea of "game preservation" rather than what actually is game preservation.

A random game pitch that a team at Retro made and Nintendo declined is not historically significant at all. This isn't like Metroid Dread which was in development, talked about by Nintendo, teased in Prime 3 and shelved before being revived by Mercury Steam. That is historically significant and saving information about the original DS version of the game is preservation. This really isn't.

If we tried to "preserve" information about every game pitch (which there are thousands of daily) we'd never get any actual work done (like finding prototypes, preserving development documents, dumping and preserving rare games and accessories). Not every little detail ever randomly talked about is worth preserving.

I mean this is a cool bit of trivia and neat to know, but we can go our entire lives not knowing this and nothing of significance is lost. The reason we preserve the personal writings and unfinished manuscripts of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Ayn Rand is because they are historically significant. We don't preserve the half finished manuscripts of Joe Smith in Tuscan, Arizona who has never published anything. It's not significant to preserve. It is sad to know this, but if gaming wants to be taken seriously they need to actually get serious to preserve the meat and potatoes of their industry before they preserve the fluff.

I will now get off my soapbox. This was less about this specific video and more the mindset of the average gamer.

From Nintendo’s perspective I do understand that you can’t just enforce action on one NDA and ignore another, even if the news is ancient. If an NDA says you stay silent on something forever and any related materials stay confidential forever then that’s an agreement that’s expected to be upheld, so to see consequences like this isn’t surprising.

I am in no way saying I support Nintendo in this decision though. It’s fascinating to see stuff like this and for a company as secretive as Nintendo it’s always nice to see glimpses behind the curtain. I’m not sure what the harm this specific video could’ve done if it were left alone

The real tragedy here is that a video featuring ZELTIK of all people got taken down. I don't think I've seen it yet. You guys don't realise what a major loss this is to humanity.
But speaking seriously for a moment, this does suck. And doesn't make sense because both Zeltik, DYKG etc. have documented unreleased video game titles before and never got strikes. So why this one? Two possible answers
A. It was just someone posing as Nintendo to have the video taken down. I've heard of this happening before, even on sites besides YouTube. YouTube usually just takes videos down first and asks questions later.
B. Nintendo's lawyers use their own judgement and one of them decided this video in particular should be taken down, not realising how many similar videos are around on YouTube. Like do they a quota they need to meet? It's the only reason I can think of as to how random it all seems. Like if they were super serious about this we'd see video game OSTs and Nintendo history videos taken down WAY more often, but that's not the case. If this is Nintendo's doing they really need someone more down to earth leading the legal team, or better guidelines.

Oh, and third companies can't break an NDA, right? It's between the participants that signed it. I doubt DYKG has signed anything with Nintendo so I don't know why they're bringing it up. Also, just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Even if Nintendo is within their rights to take down the video, why should they? What does this achieve? Researching video game history and turning into an interesting video takes time and effort. I don't think people realise that having videos like these taken down for no good reason feels like a slap to the face after all the work you put into it. And it disappoints your audience too.

This is why i dont buy their stuff anymore 😒

It's right cause it was based on stolen information. You can't make "journalism" with classified material

@Zisssou There's no high horse. You posted a flippant and quite frankly ridiculous comment and you think absolutely no one would take that as picking a side, especially one as snide as that? I'm not looking for a debate if one can't be helped but in this case I can only say "get real" to baiters like you. Have a good day.

@LillySantos

"It's right cause it was based on stolen information. You can't make "journalism" with classified material"

Found the politician.

Kind of silly but NDAs exist for a reason. Just weird that they are so picky about a DS game that doesn't even exist?

Usually there's a solid reason for this stuff but we don't see that. This is not game preservation to just record every game idea that was ever pitched.

@Kyranosaurus this is why this comment section is full of hypocritical people, no questions asked they will keep buying their games no matter what and even die for them let alone take a bullet, it's odd and out of character for the Nintendo fandom to go about defending YouTubers like this 🤔🤔

Nintendo makes amazing games but they can really be an awful company at times. They are very anti-consumer

@LillySantos this is the most patently false statement with numerous historical examples against it and i'm absolutely baffled someone can believe it

@huyi I think it's based as can be. DYKG sucks and should have been taken down ages ago.

@Scapetti
It doesn't matter, they aren't beholden to a contract someone else signed.

@LouisaFerre That's it; best comment. You've done it. Let's pack it up we've seen the peak.

@shaneoh that's not how copyright infringement works...

@Scapetti
Probably because in this instance it isn't copyright infringement.

@shaneoh wow, are you a lawyer? I'm impressed!

“This is an attempt by a large corporation to silence whatever journalism they don't like…”

Welcome to 2022.

I don’t know. One time might be a miscommunication between NoA and a YouTube channel. Twice, with the same two parties? I’d probably side with Nintendo’s army of lawyers knowing what is legally acceptable.

@RunninBlue … you think large corporations manipulating media is a new thing? Let me introduce you to my friend Ralph Nader.

@Dragmire No, I don’t. But, this is not the platform to detail the history of suppression. I was just highlighting that it’s the most rampant it’s ever been at this moment and the quote I quoted seems to imply that this person thinks this is an aberration. It is not.

@Wexbert

Many of us are BIG Metroid buffs (I have been tracking down Metroid merch on ebay to literally see if [insert merch here] still is around in Canada.

For the Metroid fans, this IS important. But not very important.
I mean, who knows? Maybe Retro are tweaking it to make it for another console under a NEW name!

@TheCrabMan Sorry but this was a documentary video using small bits of the game under the legal protection of fair use. They have the same standing as your local news broadcaster or film maker.

Only difference in this case is that the material was on Youtube. Nintendo was playing nasty. They know they can get away with this stuff, because Youtube doesnt have time to arbitrate cases like this.

News programs and documentaries about Nintendo have existed for decades, but Nintendo doesn’t bother them, because they legally dont have standing to do so. They are basically attacking people who cant fight back, and attacking their audience. I love Nintendo, but as many others have said above, this is wrong and its self injuring. Completely ignorant and morally corrupt.

@DestructoDisk

I stand with the little guys, but at the same time, even as a Metroid fan, I agree with @Wexter .

This was not very important, so there. I looked in the ENTIRE NDA, and Nintendo was within their rights to do what they did.

Well that sucks. Console clones can exist because they don't make the hardware anymore or get around it no idea? But you can't have something that's 20 years ago and not going to be used and 'in their vaults and not open to the public because we say so' so we can have info from tv shows/movies/book/music and our own cultural histories because they couldn't ask nicely to take it down just copyright striking who they don't like. They really are a difficulty company sometimes.

the dude that runs "did you know gaming" used to also have a channel about "did you know food" or some such nonesense. he blatantly stole footage from my and other YouTube channels and used it uncredited. then when confronted about it he didn't take it down and acted like he had the right to it. screw that guy, he's a thief.

@Scapetti
As much of a lawyer as you. It's a journalistic piece and is covered by fair use

@shaneoh who is liking our comments on here? Haha

@Scapetti
Someone wanting their drama fix have a +1 from me

@shaneoh right back at you 😂

Sounds like half a story to me and everyone is buying it.

@Tasuki so according to you Nintendo owns the rights to knowledge? Your comment makes literally zero sense, the video on question was a documentary about a project that a third party developer pitched to Nintendo as a proposed game which Nintendo shot down 20 years ago and was never made nothing about that actually violates copyright laws in any way, according to you every single video that mentions a Nintendo product that has ever existed or not existed should also be removed to protect poor little Nintendo.

Yhea, Nintendo gonna Nintendo!

Everyone in the comment section suddenly trying to cancel did you know gaming! 😂

This video most certainly falls under fair use, so Nintendo is technically breaking the law by issuing this strike.

No sweat off my back. I’m not addicted to this company, so I no longer give them money for their games and hardware to enable their ridiculous litigiousness.

@Serpenterror Honestly grow some spine.

@Kyranosaurus That wasn't meant to be. It's simply that the video topics I've seen have been things that I understand many people who are not interested in retro games may not know. It's fine if the videos are for those people, the titles come off as sounding like topics not for me.

@shaneoh They didn't break any contract, which is why they are not getting a lawsuit but only a takedown notice.

Not sure why Nintendo just now had a problem with them. They've covered countless Nintendo games, so why is it now a problem.

@Switch_Pro
Which is still highly unethical, using copyright laws to take down content they don't like and doesn't breach copyright law.

@strollin_stu It's to preserve the reputation or the public image of a branding. Either that or they have plans to use the concept for a future project and they like to surprise their audience, which isn't as doable as it was before.

@shaneoh That's in the eye of the beholder, they have the right to do this and that's a fact, whether it's unethical or not is a matter of opinion.

@Switch_Pro
Except it's not in the eye of the beholder. Fair use clauses in the copyright act allow people to produce this sort of content; journalistic pieces. If you're not willing to concede the point then I won't discuss this further. Considering NintendoLife produce similar sort of content, then you should be operating under the premise that Nintendo will be issuing a takedown notice for the site.

@N8tiveT3ch Not to defend Nintendo but Sony isn't any better and you obviously didn't throw your controller.

Faith restored. Funny thing, I'm gonna go watch that video now. Probably did when it first came out but don't mind if I give myself a refresher.

Nice. Gonna watch it later.

Nice. A middle finger rubbed right in Nintendo's face!

So it's not negligence or incompetence that Nintendo is so bad at preserving gaming history. It's deliberate.

@Thief
It says right in the article: "Also, YouTube confirmed to us that it was indeed Nintendo and not an imposter."

Hooray, I’m glad it got restored! It’s one heck of a video; I got to watch it before its initial takedown.

I think I may download it in the event it ever gets removed again lol

Good for them but this isn't the end just yet. Nintendo will still come back later for other videos. Their ninjas are just on holiday break, once they return it will get ugly again. You continue to do Nintendo stuffs, you will be subjected to Nintendo's continuous harassments and like it. Have a nice day.

@k8sMum Now it does, in update to the article from today. The comment you replied to was from 21 days ago.

Well seeing as this channel still has lots of Nintendo related content, now and at the time of the initial video take down, I think the channel, this site, and many posters on here, are getting all riled up about nothing.

It's Nintendo's IP's at the end of the day, and it's up to them what they deem appropriate and what's not, as someone said a YouTuber cries on Twitter and everyone is up in arms about the injustice of it all, and how Nintendo do not want to preserve their legacy content etc etc...but as yet nobody is offering a compelling reason why this does all that much in this respect.

@RunninBlue,

True, but this seems awfully one sided, somebody basically saying Nintendo will not let them do this or that, blah blah blah, even after the video says the developer made three Metroid Prime games, which may I remind everyone sold pretty low numbers outside of the original which itself only managed 2.84 million sales, regardless of these games quality etc.

So I would suggest Nintendo does indeed know what was best for Retro studios and their own Zelda franchise, but as I said the video only seems to want to show the story from one side, and people use this as another reason why Nintendo do not have the fans best interests at heart.

This is of course not true, as for example the Metroid franchise though much loves has never been a great seller, the 2D games biggest seller was the NES version with 2.7 million copies sold, and one of the most cherished games in the series Super Metroid only shifted 1.4 million copies, yet this series still got a sequel on the Switch which has now sold around 2.99 million copies. Elsewhere with the Prime series the original Cube game sold around 2.84 million as I already stated, echoes sold 1.10 million copies, and corruption did not even manage a million copies, yet the franchise and Retro are still getting a shot at a sequel, which will come at some point.

This hardly strikes me as a company never doing anything for it's fans, as these series of games are never ever going to make Nintendo lots of money, but of course it always people on here complaining about what Nintendo don't do, and ignoring the things that they do as pure fan service imho, without of course any sales data to back any of this up, as Nintendo should exist as a charity to cater for their own personal whims and wish lists.

Of course if Nintendo did as they suggested they would be out of business, even though certain fans are convinced they are leaving money on the table, and literally refusing to take peoples money.. yea right.

Comments section is even funnier now the video has been restored. Nintendo wouldn’t do it if they couldn’t, their legal team is best, they don’t make mistakes, it’s their duty to “protect” their IP. NDAs are involved.

Lmao

The well informed Nintendo gatekeepers making one or two bold statements that turned out to be hogwash as usual.

I’m no fan of the influencer model of reporting but the people that defend Nintendo whatever even thought stuff like this happens over and over. Perhaps learn from your mistakes and don’t quote legal nonsense you have no idea about on the next article that’s similar. You look like a fool at this point.

@PewnyPL
Sorry about that.

Humanity restored

Very rare that a Youtube Channel gets their video back from a wrongful C&D, so this is great to see.

I'll keep buying their systems as long as they keep making zeldas, basically. all other first party stuff on switch has been somewhat disappointing to me, and my "love" for them is long dead.

Defund Nintendo.

So taking down a video makes them the worst company ever? I mean sure it's not cool but y'all like to blow things out of proportion🤣
Anyways doesn't matter either way, still gonna buy their systems and games. Nice combo with my pc.

@sanderev As the first one in this post that mentioned the term "NDA" you earned yourself the aged like milk award LMAO

@johnvboy I'm inclined to agree. I'm reminded of an old video where a developer asks a room full of them if they can find their development documents, code or any information about a game they developed a year ago. No one raises their hands. Most developers and publishers are awful at preserving their work...

Yet, Nintendo is apparently deliberately destroying game history when we know that is not the case. Based on leaks we know Nintendo has development documents, source code and more for games as far back as their 80s arcade games. During the advertising campaign for Super Mario Maker they even pulled out Miyamoto's original level design documents for the first Super Mario Bros (even to his own shock). Compare this to Square Enix where we know they lost the hi quality renders for their PSOne RPGs and the source code for the original Kingdom Hearts (a PS2 game). Or Konami which didn't have the finished builds of Silent Hill 2/3 and had to get the HD Development team a historic build and forced them to fix bugs the original Team Silent already fixed for the original versions over again for the HD port.

Fact of the matter Nintendo taking down 1 video does not equal them destroying game preservation when we know they're one of the best publishers at archiving their legacy content and development information. They don't share it freely (for obvious reasons), but, they do preserve it.

@Wexter
Nintendo feels like it can be very odd when it comes to its older content, Them releasing the original fire emblem in its original form in english then delisting it relatively shortly later, comes to mind, and the inability to buy their older games on nso is a personal pet peeve but they definitely feel like they are a lot more careful with things like their source code as you mentioned.

Though if they ever released a compilation like rare replay or atari 50 their stories would make for some amazing extra content. (i loved the rare replays look at things like project dream)

@Wexter,

Some people just like to find any reason, no matter how trivial to hate on Nintendo, sure the company is not perfect, but far from the evil empire some are suggesting.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika harm the reputation? Meh, most people don't even know about this drama...they don't know about the C64 Mario game, they don't know about the various hack (roms) taken down only because Nintendo lawyers think it's piracy (technically they piracy, but hacking and modifying old games it's not a big deal), and much, much more.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika well I know about what Nintendo does and did, but at the end of the day, I still buy their games, because they are good.
There's not much we can do to send them a message unfortunately. I'm glad at least in this case the video was restored.

Funny saga, eh?

Wow, what a comment section. I think I'll stay out of this one ...Just want to wish everyone a happy new year and hope you'll have a great new year's eve celebration tonight. I'm having turkey myself.

Welcome, 2023!

Does that mean the copyright strike is gone too?

@Mgalens that I'm more fine with. Nintendo is very odd... Despite doing a good chunk of the leg work with the retro revival with the Wii and Virtual Console they are probably one of the most inconsistent companies in making their back catalogues available for purchase. I love NSO in principle, but the execution can sometimes leave me wanting.

But, as far as preserving the meat and potatoes of this industry they're probably one of the companies to be the least mad at. Then again I dislike how DYKG went about this. Not every copyright dispute needs to be flamed online and they come off as very arrogant here. But, now I'm just getting into personal waxing and that is less productive.