Nintendo clamps down on YouTube game music channels
One channel received over 140 copyright claims against their videos
Nintendo appears to be purging YouTube of all unauthorised music uploads from its various classic soundtracks.
YouTuber GilvaSunner, whose channel features tunes from a wide range of video games and has amassed 300,000 subscribers, shared screenshots of his inbox via Twitter, showing a series of copyright claim notices against his videos.
All of the videos -- 145 shown, and likely more across his channel -- featured music from Nintendo games, including Fire Emblem Awakening, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and various Mario and Zelda titles.
In a tweet, GilvaSunner suggests that Nintendo "started manually with the most viewed content on the channel, and are now going through the playlists one by one."
He added: "Looking at the time of the claims, it seems these are coming from Japan HQ."
Elsewhere, the people behind the channel BrawlBRSTMs3, which specialised in Smash Bros music, has voluntarily shut down. Kotaku reports it was hit by similar copyright claims from Nintendo earlier this year.
"Part of the reason for our voluntary shutdown is out of respect for the copyright owners of all music we've shared," the channel wrote via Twitter.
Nintendo has been particularly active in clamping down on violations of its copyright via YouTube, to the point where it built the Nintendo Creators Program -- an initiative that ensured all videos featuring Nintendo games, including Let's Plays, were approved (and partly monetised) by Nintendo.
The platform holder shut this program down last year to enable content creators more freedom in using Nintendo games in their videos, but posted strict guidelines for their usage. Essentially, it cannot be raw Nintendo-owned material, but must have some creative input.
"Mere copies of Nintendo promotional trailers, tournaments, music soundtracks, gameplay sequences, and art collections are outside the scope of the Guidelines," read said guidelines.
The policy has still been met with disappointment from both channel hosts and their viewers. Nintendo's soundtracks are currently unavailable via music platforms such as iTunes or Spotify, so accounts on YouTube such as these were the only way fans could listen to them outside of playing the games.