People who post game demonstrations such as walkthroughs and speed runs on video websites certainly put in a fair bit of effort in them. And for some part they’re acknowledged by those who view the videos. Heck, thanks to them I could find every pigeon in GTA:IV and finally get back to my busy life of eating pudding.

As such it’s not unreasonable to say they deserve some compensation for their efforts – just as long as it doesn’t come out of my pudding budget. But because they are working with copyrighted source material, it’s not always easy for these creative game enthusiasts to get paid.

Now, game-maker Nintendo and video site Niconico Douga are working together in the Creators Incentive Program in which rather than punish those who infringe on copyrights from holders like Nintendo, they will be given incentives based on the number of views they can rake in with their works.

The program started back in May, when Nintendo announced that they would be allowing users to post copyrighted content but would be splitting the ad revenue between themselves and YouTube, leaving the creator themselves out of the loop. However, they added that they would be putting this revenue towards an “affiliate program” that would benefit the creators.

Months later, this same affiliate program seemed to have jumped from YouTube into Niconico’s camp somewhere along the way with the Creators Incentive Program. Through this, people who create works containing a certain amount of Nintendo’s imagery and/or sound may be eligible for payment based on certain criteria such as how many views the work gets in certain time period.

So now, if you happened to have gotten the fastest Super Mario Bros. speed run you could probably make a decent chunk of change on Niconico video. This and other Let’s Play content like walkthroughs and commentaries which Nintendo had previously gone after will now be able to receive money. It will be licensed under the program and receive payment through it. The program’s explanation makes no specific reference to Nintendo suggesting that its will be available to other copyright holders as well. However, the influence of Nintendo can be seen by their imagery of money as big gold coins.

Beyond that it’s not clear how far this program reaches in regards to secondary works and how they are deemed “appropriate” by Nintendo or others. I’ll let you know after they finish reviewing my Mario/Yoshi animated story. I’m optimistic as it was tastefully done and (I believe) really hits at the inner soul of man/dinosaur eroticism.

Source: Niconico – Creators Incentive Program via Inside Games (Japanese)