Oh, Nintendo… can’t stop yourselves from copyright-striking people, huh? Yep, Nintendo’s out to bury more attempts to preserve games or look at lost history. This time around, it centers on YouTube and the channel DidYouKnowGaming in what could be considered an affront to journalism. Let’s break down what happened.
Earlier in the week (as hectic as it already was with The Game Awards 2022 and all of that), YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming uploaded a video named “LOST Zelda Game for Nintendo DS: Heroes of Hyrule – Ft. @Zeltik”, meant to shine a light on Retro Studios project that was pitched nearly two decades ago, which ultimately got rejected.
As fun as they always are with topics like this, Nintendo filed a copyright takedown, removing the video from YouTube three days ago. DidYouKnowGaming mentions this on Twitter, which you can see below.
Let @NintendoAmerica know what you think. pic.twitter.com/o9FM8ytey0
— DidYouKnowGaming (@didyouknowgamin) December 8, 2022
It gives off the idea that Nintendo has certain series that they completely protect under every possible circumstance, silencing those who wish to talk about them… This is odd, given that not even two weeks ago, a similar video on F-Zero’s general future and lost projects was released by DidYouKnowGaming. Yet, that video is still active on YouTube.
Nintendo hasn’t exactly been keen on letting certain things happen to their IPs on YouTube. At the beginning of the year, a YouTube channel named GilvaSunner was sent over 1,300 takedown notices in relation to video game soundtracks, including titles like Kid Icarus Uprising, Luigi’s Mansion, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and more.
Effectively, this nuked the channel from orbit due to how YouTube’s copyright strike system works (once you’ve accrued three of them, the channel is deleted). Ultimately, if Nintendo can just stomp out the history on old products that never got greenlit, what’s to stop them from doing it more, or better yet, other developers and publishers doing the same things?
This story is currently developing, and we’ll provide updates where available.
