Nintendo-specific YouTube channels may feel YouTube’s new monetization rules

Members of the Nintendo community on YouTube are expressing anxiety after an email was sent out by the company regarding upcoming changes to the Creators Program.

An email posted to Twitter by one YouTuber says that, because those who belong to Nintendo’s Creators Program must also be part of YouTube’s Partner Program, people who don’t meet the new criteria will be dropped from Nintendo’s Creators Program. Nintendo introduced the program in 2015 as a way to work with creators to ensure they would be paid for creating Nintendo-oriented content.

“If channels do not meet the above eligibility requirements, they will not be able to monetize on the Nintendo Creators Program from their videos,” the email reads. “Further, please be aware that if you already have your channel registered to the Nintendo Creators Program, those channels that do not meet the requirements will be deactivated from the program by YouTube.”

YouTube announced last month that it was changing the threshold for creators before they could earn ad revenue from the Partner Program. The changes came in wake of Logan Paul, one of YouTube’s most prolific creators, who found himself at the center of controversy after he uploaded a video containing the body of a man who committed suicide.

Creators must now have accrued more than 4,000 hours of watch time in the past 12 months and maintain at least 1,000 subscribers, according to YouTube. This is a big departure from YouTube’s former threshold, which required creators to have a total of 10,000 hours of watch time under their belt before they could join the Partner Program. This move is expected to hit lesser-known creators with niche audiences the hardest — including Nintendo’s Let’s Players.

Creators with Nintendo-focused Let’s Play channels are concerned that, if they no longer qualify for YouTube’s Partner Program and are subsequently dropped from Nintendo’s Creators Program, a large portion of their revenue will disappear.

There’s some debate among the community as to whether Nintendo has the right to drop creators who already belong to the program, just because YouTube has changed its rules. However, Nintendo’s guidelines specifically state that “in order to participate in the Nintendo Creators Program, you must first enroll in the YouTube Partner Program.” This is despite Nintendo also stating that “Managed Channels or Premium Partners of YouTube” — a.k.a. the platform’s biggest streamers — “are not eligible and should not register for this program.”

Nintendo notes in its FAQ about the Creators Program that:

You can continue posting videos of Nintendo games to YouTube without registering them into the Program. However, if you sign up for the Nintendo Creators Program you can receive a share of the advertising proceeds Nintendo receives from YouTube for your Nintendo-related YouTube videos.

Nintendo’s Creators Program has been a controversial topic among many popular gaming YouTubers ever since it was first announced. YouTubers who participate in the program earn far less revenue than they normally would, as both Nintendo and Google each take a piece of the profit earned (70 percent for channels; 60 percent for videos). If YouTubers decide to not to join, Nintendo reportedly collects any money made from the videos through AdSense.

YouTubers who want to join or remain in Nintendo’s Creators Program have until Feb. 20 to meet the current criteria for YouTube’s Partner Program. More information about that process can be found on the company’s FAQ page.