Nintendo striking down YouTubers just for showing emulated games
NintendoYouTuber Retro Games Corp revealed he was hit with two copyright strikes from Nintendo just for showing emulated games on his channel.
Nintendo has always been extremely particular about content creators sharing footage or audio from its games, so much so that they have now forced a popular Nintendo Switch emulator to close its doors and a popular YouTuber to remove all Nintendo-related content from his channel.
In March 2024, Dexerto reported how a Call of Duty YouTuber received a strike against their channel after Nintendo took issue with a seven-year-old video uploaded to their account that included footage of Call of Duty’s Pokemon mod.
Furthermore, the company has singled out multiple YouTube accounts that showcased footage of Breath of The Wild’s multiplayer mod.
However, Nintendo has now struck again with YouTuber Russ, who goes by Retro Games Corp on the platform, posting that he was hit with two copyright strikes from Nintendo and has been “specifically targeted” by the gaming company.
The YouTuber, who has over 550,000 subscribers, has built a name for himself by reviewing old Retro consoles designed to emulate titles from previous generations. Sharing the news on X (formerly Twitter), Russ noted that his “worst fears” have come true and he will now completely change how he “approaches future videos.”
While he admitted that he is considering a counterclaim, he further noted that he is “reluctant to open that can of worms with a multi-billion dollar corporation.”
Popular Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx also targeted
Russ is not the only one Nintendo is targeting as part of this new wave of crackdowns. Ryujinx, a Nintendo Switch emulator development team, confirmed that it would be shutting down operations after Nintendo made contact and ” offered an agreement to stop working on the project.”
This was confirmed via the emulator’s Discord server and shared on X (formerly Twitter) by a user called OatmealDome. As a result, all downloads and the GitHub repositories have already been removed.
Nintendo is clearly making even more strides to minimize emulated content from its games appearing on YouTube and across other platforms. However, the company has not yet issued a statement regarding these crackdowns.