PewDiePie Unhappy With Nintendo's YouTube Ad Sharing Policy

Felix Kjellberg, the creator of the most subscribed channel on YouTube, has published a blog listing his concerns with Nintendo's new ad revenue sharing policy.

Better known as PewDiePie to his 34 million subscribers, Kjellberg claims Nintendo is making a mistake by taking ad revenue from YouTube videos that feature its games. He also branded the move as a "slap in the face" to other YouTube channels that focus on Nintendo games exclusively.

"What Nintendo are missing out on completely is the free exposure and publicity that they get from YouTube," he wrote.

"What better way to sell or market a game, than from watching someone else (that you like) playing it and enjoying themselves?"

PewDiePie joins a group of prominent YouTube personalities that have criticized Nintendo's new revenue sharing rules. Those against the policy include Boogie2988 (video above), Ohmwrecker, and Jim Sterling.

Pre-Approval Process

On Wednesday Nintendo announced its YouTube Creators Program, which was created following backlash against its previous policy to take all ad revenue from YouTube videos.

Generally, a YouTuber that enables monetization of their channel will get roughly 60 percent of ad revenue from a video. Previously, Nintendo would take this money instead for videos that featured its games.

Now, however, the company wants to take a small slice of the revenue, which in practice gives a YouTuber about 40 percent. However, in order to apply for this cut, YouTubers need to send the videos to Nintendo, which says it may take a few days to approve the content.

In practice, this means that Nintendo will pay YouTubers for videos it approves, and take all the money from videos that it does not approve, or have not been submitted for review.

"I think this is a slap in the face to the YouTube channels that does focus on Nintendo game exclusively," PewDiePie wrote.

"The people who have helped and showed passion for Nintendo's community are the ones left in the dirt the most."

He concluded: "There’s just so many games out there to play. Nintendo games just went to the bottom of that list."