Everyone Wants To Know Why PointCrow's Zelda Videos Are Being Taken Down
Nintendo has developed something of a reputation for taking down YouTube videos that might even slightly infringe upon its copyrighted IPs. The gaming giant has been involved in a number of legal disputes over the years, but in more recent years it has become known for copyright striking content creators who modify and upload footage of its games. VideoGameDunkey, GilverSunner, and other names — both popular and lesser-known — have felt the wrath of Nintendo's legal team at some point. In the last month alone, two prominent "Legend of Zelda" creators — Croton and Pointcrow – have had multiple videos taken down by Nintendo for reasons that are still unclear.
YouTuber Eric "PointCrow" Morino is well known in the "Zelda" community for his multiplayer "Breath of the Wild" mod, which features other addons for the game. On the other hand, Croton almost exclusively does challenge runs of "Breath of the Wild" without using mods, but received a strike nonetheless. Earlier in April, both began to receive copyright strikes from Nintendo for videos on both modded and unmodded gameplay footage.
Incredibly disappointed that @NintendoAmerica has decided to block my videos on Breath of the Wild. It's the love for the community and the innovation that we bring to it that has kept it alive & brought new people to love the Zelda series. I hope you reverse your decision soon. pic.twitter.com/CtvjpmBrs3
— eric pointcrow (@PointCrow) April 7, 2023
According to PointCrow, most of the copyright strikes were on "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" videos, but a few non-"Zelda"-related games were removed too. PointCrow has been forced to take down the multiplayer "Breath of the Wild" mod as the situation develops. The YouTubers' fans are dumbfounded that Nintendo would pull such a move on some of its most well-known creators. As one fan put it, it's a "nice reward for advertising a company for free."
Nintendo has yet to reveal a reason
In a video taken of their YouTube home page on April 11, Croton shows a dozen new notifications that videos have been taken down. Some, like one that involves the multiplayer "Breath of the Wild" mod, fall into the category of videos taken down because of addons. But the majority of their videos that received copyright strikes from Nintendo were merely challenge runs that didn't alter anything about "Breath of the Wild."
Nintendo just nuked 10 of my streams and 2 of my videos off the face of the platform? @NintendoAmerica
No answer's, no context, just a copyright removal. And one of these videos has literally nothing to do with mods and was simply a Zelda challenge run
I'm very saddened pic.twitter.com/HLc9yADoYu
— Croton 🍞 (@CrotonZelda) April 13, 2023
PointCrow's videos mainly were taken down because they featured modified gameplay, but one — titled "Marrying Sidon & a Bookshelf to create Hyrule's First Car" — was actually done in the base game without any modifications. Others had nothing to do with "Zelda" and instead show "Mario Odyssey," "Pokemon Violet," and "Wii Sports." Fans believe this is because "Tears of the Kingdom," the follow-up to "Breath of the Wild" is coming out soon, but that doesn't explain why Nintendo is bringing down its iron fist. Indeed, Nintendo has yet to respond to PointCrow or Croton's requests for an explanation.
Just put a video out going over the take downs that @NintendoAmerica has issued on my YouTube channel. Please go give it a watch, it's incredibly important! pic.twitter.com/EHD6E7yCP3
— eric pointcrow (@PointCrow) April 14, 2023
Confused by Nintendo's heavy hand in this matter, fans are calling the gaming giant out for similar missteps in managing the modding community — and its fans in general — over the years. As Nintendo's silence continues to fill the room, some wonder if the company's longtime aggressive stance towards content creators will ever change — if nothing else, the shady side of Nintendo has now been revealed to more than before.