A prominentLegend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildmodder has criticized Nintendo after several of their YouTube videos were issued copyright strikes by the company. WhileBreath of the Wild’s modding sceneis relatively small, Nintendo clearly doesn’t want players to see the game being played in new and unintended ways.WhenBreath of the Wild wasfirst released in 2017, it became a runaway hit and an early system seller for the Nintendo Switch, with players praising the game for its remarkable open world. For years,Breath of the Wildwas considered the open-world benchmarkto which others should strive to reach, and this greatness has manifested itself in an active online community that remains excited about the game to this day.RELATED:Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Fuse Ability Hints at Interesting Weapon CombinationThe tweets come fromBreath of the Wildmodder PointCrow, who has had several of his videos copyright claimed by Nintendo on YouTube. While the videos were initially blocked upon the original claims, an appeal has seen them reinstated. Despite this, the videos remain unmonetized until the claims are released. PointCrow’s videos focus on completing challenges inBreath of the Wildusing their own modded versions of the game. PointCrow deems himself to “significantly transform their work” as part of this process, meaning the videos would qualify as fair use.
While the move is unfortunate, it’s not a huge surprise to see Nintendo take this approach. In the past,Did You Know Gaming suffered from Nintendo’s copyright strikes, and the company is known for its strict protection policy around its games online. Interestingly, the videos from PointCrow that have been claimed by Nintendo are all several months old, and no clarification has been given by either party why these older videos in particular have been targeted now, and not upon release. It will interesting in the coming days to see if Nintendo has any comments to make on the situation, although the company has tended to remain quiet on these issues in the past.
The timing of the decision is interesting. WithThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomreleasing next month, PointCrow’s videos are exactly the type of content that could draw in brand-new players to the series, so it’s interesting that Nintendo apparently does not feel they’re a beneficial piece of free marketing. One user in response to the Twitter thread proposed the theory that it could be due to PointCrow’s use of emulators that Nintendo has taken this step, although another user pointed out that other channels have been making emulatedZeldacontent for years without issues.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis available for Nintendo Switch and Wii U.
