YouTuber Angry Joe Says He's Done Reviewing Nintendo Games

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

The gameplay and commentary are transformative. It's not nintendos creation.
Adobe won't come to me, wanting a "slice of the pie it baked" if I publish a picture made with photoshop or a photoshop video tutorial.

That's not a good comparison. Adobe Photoshop is a legit tool used in professional work places that have paid for the license to use it to create works. Just recording what you've played of a game and slapping it on Youtube is not no matter how much unscripted commentary you put on it. The closest you can use is a walkthrough; like if you did a video showing how to find a certain object in a game or a strategy to defeat a boss.

What LPs are clearly trying to be is MST3K....but MST3K actually got the rights to use the films it was riffing, either because they were public domain or because they were so cheap it didn't matter.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

It does seem Nintendo is losing a lot of free publicity for this. Especially as Joe was giving the WiiU glowing praise. Granted Nintendo can do what they want with their IP but I think a clever company would weigh up the pros and cons and leave those vids to help promote their console. Because now, there will be no more vids for Nintendo to get money from but also they have lost a massive amount of free advertising. So blocking it wasnt worth their while.

 

[senordesol]

This is the kind of arrogance I can't stand with YouTube "content creators" and their bizarre entitlement that they, and only they, deserve 100% of the money they make recording someone else's IP. I mean, their entire fucking job would not exist if it wasn't for the games, and now that companies are saying "You know, I would also like a slice of the pie I just baked", everyone's acting like they're all evil greedy overlords who don't want people to spread the fun these games provide for people.

It's not so much a 'piece of the pie' as it is a piece of crust that broke off in the box.

As I pointed out before; a single video monetized might make a few thousand dollars for the creator, but a few thousand subcribers who watched the video stand to make a company MILLIONS if they decide to buy a copy of the game. That seems like a pretty equitable trade.

True, the Tuber's job may not exist if not for the content; but if not for the Tuber, that avenue for the company to earn additional revenue based on sub action wouldn't exist either.

It's a mutually beneficial relationship is what I'm saying. By drying up a Tuber's revenue stream, no one's really being helped. Not the Tuber and not the company. The $1,600 Nintendo might pull in "taxes" does exactly NOTHING for them, but does a damn sight to pay for equipment, rent, food, power, water, and additional games (maybe even NINTENDO GAMES) for a content creator. Whereas the creator won't see a DIME of the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars he convinced his audience to spend on a particular company, but can at least be kept afloat through views alone.

 

[Lightknight]

Angry Joe is right here, Nintendo is being dumb. They do have a right to do this but it's insane to do this. Angry Joe and other youtubers are free marketing for Nintendo. It's crazy of them to do this.

At least this came from a fan of the system.

This really made it to the news? Getting a copyright strike was his own damn fault, he starts sobbing after not following the rules that he knew that was in effect. Either that or I underestimate Joe's PR.

Yep, one of the most influential youtubers has decided not to cover the most famous video game publishers due to a very controversial copywrite campaign.

It's highly relative to this site and its fans.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I'm sorry, but I don't think Nintendo will consider this a big deal. Joe and his fans might, but Nintendo is soooo much bigger than Joe realizes. Sure they may act petty, but they aren't going to lose more than a single sale(that of Joe himself) with this. The Nintendo fan base is so enthralled with that company that there is nothing, nothing they could do or critics could say that would stop sales.

Props to Joe for drawing a line in the sand, but it'd be about as effective as you or I telling Nintendo we're gonna stop talking about their new games of drinks with the guys over the weekend. They could not care less.

 

[Lightknight]

I'm sorry, but I don't think Nintendo will consider this a big deal. Joe and his fans might, but Nintendo is soooo much bigger than Joe realizes. Sure they may act petty, but they aren't going to lose more than a single sale(that of Joe himself) with this. The Nintendo fan base is so enthralled with that company that there is nothing, nothing they could do or critics could say that would stop sales.

Props to Joe for drawing a line in the sand, but it'd be about as effective as you or I telling Nintendo we're gonna stop talking about their new games of drinks with the guys over the weekend. They could not care less.

Nintendo is exactly as big as Joe realized.

Maybe Joe and the marketing power of youtubers aren't as big as Nintendo realizes.

 

[loa]

What LPs are clearly trying to be is MST3K....but MST3K actually got the rights to use the films it was riffing, either because they were public domain or because they were so cheap it didn't matter.

Well games, no matter how "cinematic" are not in fact so passive that they are indistinguishable from movies since the whole thing about them is interactivity so that's another bad comparison.

 

[Soulrender95]

I love Nintendo games but damn Nintendo just doesn't get it, it really is a company of old men unsure how to act in the modern world, they've already put me off buying any more systems of theirs with really shoddy customer service on a return for which I'm still waiting on a refund for six weeks later.

I honestly don't know they think the NX will fix anything when they've already driven off third party support and the overly restrictive Nintendo youtube network means that anyone who could make a video about the system will have a pro-Nintendo bias towards it that I cannot trust.

 

[rcs619]

What LPs are clearly trying to be is MST3K....but MST3K actually got the rights to use the films it was riffing, either because they were public domain or because they were so cheap it didn't matter.

Well games, no matter how "cinematic" are not in fact so passive that they are indistinguishable from movies since the whole thing about them is interactivity so that's another bad comparison.

Exactly. As someone who watches LP's and still plays the actual games, it is two completely different experiences. If I wanna play Dark Souls and enjoy the depth, and lore, and atmosphere... I'll just play Dark Souls. I watch SuperBestFriends play Dark Souls because I enjoy their personalities and commentary. I still bought, and still play, Dark Souls either way because I like the game, but I watch the video on youtube for the youtubers.

You could *maybe* make an argument about commentary-less walkthroughs being less than legit. They are, basically, showing off the whole game without any original input of their own. But with Jim Sterling, BestFriends, GameGrumps, whoever... the videos are about them. The games they play are largely secondary.

Also, being totally honest, I don't buy *any* games sight-unseen any more. Rental is basically dead, reviewers and metascores can be hit or miss, and I've been burned too many times by modern games. So, unless I watch a Let's Play, and see it in motion with some honest opinions, I don't buy it. I would be really interested to see some actual numbers on whether or not Let's Plays increase sales or not (I am almost certain they do. I know indie sales skyrocket when a big name plays a game). Because, unless there is verifiable proof that these videos hurt the industry, Nintendo, or any other million or billion-dollar company doesn't have a leg to stand on trying to legally silence them.

 

[Li Mu]

This really made it to the news? Getting a copyright strike was his own damn fault, he starts sobbing after not following the rules that he knew that was in effect. Either that or I underestimate Joe's PR.

His reaction makes his channel seem like Whining Joe.

Indeed. While I understand that he is upset, he does come across as a whiny kid. If I uploaded a video of myself bawwwing I should expect people to frown and call me up on it, even if I am justified.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Well games, no matter how "cinematic" are not in fact so passive that they are indistinguishable from movies since the whole thing about them is interactivity so that's another bad comparison.

No, you're still putting the content on up despite not having the rights to do it. That LP needs the game, it is derivative work of an IP you do not own. In fact, if I remember right, the Youtube Partners EULA prohibits the use of LPs. The only reason more of them haven't been taken down is because Youtube is simply to huge to scour on a daily or even weekly basis.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Yeah, Nintendo's policies suck. And it took him long enough to do this. I don't like Angry Joe. Not only is he too emotional and downright whiny, but he's also not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Hell, I can't just leave it at that. It doesn't paint the accurate picture. Angry Joe is stupid. Maybe that's why he's so popular. He caters to a very large demographic because of his inferior intelligence.

 

[senordesol]

Well games, no matter how "cinematic" are not in fact so passive that they are indistinguishable from movies since the whole thing about them is interactivity so that's another bad comparison.

No, you're still putting the content on up despite not having the rights to do it. That LP needs the game, it is derivative work of an IP you do not own. In fact, if I remember right, the Youtube Partners EULA prohibits the use of LPs. The only reason more of them haven't been taken down is because Youtube is simply to huge to scour on a daily or even weekly basis.

Mmmm...no. Maybe not "every LP ever" and maybe not lesser-known titles, but people with subs of 10K+ playing AAA titles are fairly noticeable even if it's just one guy checking for it.

 

[Meinos Kaen]

Sadly, Nintendo has never evolved past the limits of Japan, and it shows.

Japan as a nation is decades behind most of the world when it comes to marketing, and it shows in how most of its corporates are performing -most don't have a marketing team, it's not studied in universities, hell Japanese doesn't have a WORD for marketing-. Nintendo are content with thinking of themselves and themselves only, thinking that they only need to make a good product to sell. It doesn't matter how you treat your customers in the process or how you talk about it.

From region locking consoles to artificially rising up product prices by keeping them scarces -first WiiU and then Amiibos-, to making consoles that are the bane of third parties, to their relationships with Youtubers... Nintendo has had one year over Microsoft and Sony to build their library, they have the strongest lineup right now, and yet they haven't broken the ten millions WiiU sales. They're dead last in the home console race.

Sony has only now starting to pull out some great games, and yet it's leading the race. Why? Because they capitalized on that E3 of 2013. When Nintendo was being Nintendo and Microsoft went out bat swinging saying 'We're going to screw you all over', they changed the script for their conference overnight to go: we're doing the complete opposite of that. We think of you the customer first. That's the message they were sending, that's what they got the standing ovations for, that's what kept the system afloat and keeping its demand bigger than its offer for more an year and a half, now.

 

[loa]

Well games, no matter how "cinematic" are not in fact so passive that they are indistinguishable from movies since the whole thing about them is interactivity so that's another bad comparison.

No, you're still putting the content on up despite not having the rights to do it. That LP needs the game, it is derivative work of an IP you do not own. In fact, if I remember right, the Youtube Partners EULA prohibits the use of LPs. The only reason more of them haven't been taken down is because Youtube is simply to huge to scour on a daily or even weekly basis.

The "content" would be the game binaries.
Lets players don't upload that, people at piratebay do. Big difference.
A video record of a 3d model is not equal to the source files of the 3d model.
You think its derivative I think it's transformative.

Bottom line is, it is a huge and muddy gray-ish area the law hasn't caught up with yet and is in no hurry to do so any time soon.

 

[killerbee256]

If nintendo wants to shoot themselves in the foot then so be it. But it's funny, as angry joe says, EA is smart about this while Nintendo is messing up.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Surprised he didn't take a stance like this sooner. The writing was on the wall for Nintendo to start doing this sort of crap.

 

[xaszatm]

Waitwaitwait, how is this news? Like seriously, how?

OT: I'll say what I said in other forums: as much as I like Joe, he's honestly just a drop in the bucket here. Yes, 2 million subscribers sounds like a lot, but when you look at how many views any Nintendo video will get, from people who are more than willing to comply to Nintendo's wants, he honestly doesn't matter here.

 

[KDR_11k]

Basically Nintendo is saying "we're going to run ads on the ad you made for us and if you bend over we might give you a bit of the revenue we make from the video itself while the video drives sales towards us that you're seeing zilch of".

Let's Plays are a modern form of word of mouth. Sure, Youtube's systems allow suppressing that but what good does it do you?

As far as getting Youtube's systems to be more fair, forget it. That stuff is dictated by the movie and music industry who have no interest in letting anybody else have any money or rights.

 

[gigastar]

In fact, if I remember right, the Youtube Partners EULA prohibits the use of LPs. The only reason more of them haven't been taken down is because Youtube is simply to huge to scour on a daily or even weekly basis.

That cant be right, or the likes of PewDiePie and DarkSydePhil would have been shut down the moment they gained notoriety.

OT: I'll say what I said in other forums: as much as I like Joe, he's honestly just a drop in the bucket here. Yes, 2 million subscribers sounds like a lot, but when you look at how many views any Nintendo video will get, from people who are more than willing to comply to Nintendo's wants, he honestly doesn't matter here.

Considering that WiiU sales apparently havent surpassed 10m (most recent figure i can find dates to 31/12/2014) thats a potential 20% increase in buyers that wont be seeing anything Nintendo puts out.

Even if we were to assume that even only a quarter of Joes 2m subscribers dont already have a WiiU, theyre certainly not going to be getting one based on what Joe says now.