Nintendo Continues To Target Streamers
Critics love Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity for its combat, and its story (but not its technical performance). If you want to play the game, go right ahead — you will probably enjoy it. However, if you want to livestream Age of Calamity's 30+ hours worth of content, that's where Nintendo draws the line and starts invoking the power of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Reports are coming in that Twitch partner streamers have received numerous DMCA takedown notices, and their accounts have been temporarily banned. Not even Nintendo Brand Ambassadors such as MissKyliee were immune, as she has also received a Twitch ban notification. Each notice claims the videos infringe on copyrighted work, specifically Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. You might wonder why Nintendo would take such drastic action, and while nobody knows for sure, one major theory is that Nintendo didn't want anyone to stream the game prior to its official U.S. release date.
At first glance, this nuclear option sounds like a continuation of Nintendo's previous seemingly anti-content creation measure. On Nov. 19, Animal Crossing: New Horizons received a huge update that added new features such as visiting random Dream Islands and transferring islands between consoles, as well as an unexpected addition to the game's guidelines that states gamers "are not allowed to obtain any financial benefit from using the game." This includes selling custom designs and earning advertising revenue. However, some streamers think the DMCA takedown was a mistake. To be clear: they fully believe Nintendo intentionally sent the notices, but the reasoning behind them was a goof.
Two content creators hit with the takedown, Linkus7 and Reversal, theorize that Nintendo forgot about a little something called time zones. The game launched worldwide Nov. 20, but days come earlier for countries in the Eastern hemisphere. In Sydney, Australia, for example, Friday, Nov. 20 rolled around while New Yorkers were still enjoying an 8 pm Thursday dinner. Because of this time difference, some gamers got to buy and stream Age of Calamity before Nov. 20 dawned on the U.S. To add credence to this theory, Linkus7 claimed that a Japanese streamer also got a face full of banhammer, even though the game was legally available in Japan a full eight hours before the U.S.
Whether or not this is actually the case, Nintendo still banned numerous streamers for 48 hours, and many are furious. Nintendo has yet to release any official statements.