You Can Keep Making Halo Videos, You Just Can’t Make Money From Them (Except When You Can)

Kotaku - Fans really like making stuff based on the games they love. We feature fan-made videos, costumes, artwork, and more here at Kotaku pretty much every day. The companies that make the games that fans love, though, are not exactly always eager to see third parties profiting off of their copyrighted work.

[LuridShadowX]

So my plans for uploading a playthrough+commentary of Halo 4 when it hits shelves and having it bring in revenue is shot? Well, damn.

I'll still upload it anyway, without the revenue. :P

[Septic]

Out of curiosity, how do you bring in revenue with that kind of video? I know its loosely based on advertising but I don't know how it operates specifically.

Cheers in advance :)

[LuridShadowX]

YouTube allows users to make a profit off of videos of gameplay only if said gameplay is either instructional or educational--and commentaries do, in fact, fall under those categories. After "monetizing" the video, ads will appear within or around it. It goes a little deeper than that, but that's it in a nutshell. The problem now is that Microsoft doesn't give people permission to make a profit off of those types of gameplay videos (which is news to me), so we're shit out of luck.

[xpgINSANITY]

That's my plan as well.... along with 1000s of other people. Sucks we can't make any money from it though :(

[Straightupbeastly]

I'm surprised they give out ad money like they do. I've watched a million YouTube vids and cannot remember one ad, it's because I turn the volume down. How are they ever able to tell people are watching ads? I bet most people pay no attention to them

I honestly think we're starting to see a crackdown once these corps found out youtubers who sit on their ass and upload 2 vids a day make more than the developers. They have every right to be upset and want to put an end to it.

[GroundsKeeperJimbo]

View counts are only part of it. You get a quite a bit extra for clicks on the ad.

Oh and do you have a link to your popular youtube channel? You make it sound so easy...

[Hufandpuf]

I hope this means no more ads from youtube on gaming videos tied to this.

[aviator189]

That'd actually be a relief, imo.

[Soldierone]

Kinda stupid. Someone goes through the effort, overall ITS ADVERTISING YOUR GAME, and they hate it? Everyone wants their hands in everyones money.

I wrote a comic book, I get people coming up to me all the time "look at my fan art I did for you" I tell them to go ahead and sell it, and some of them sell well. I don't want any part in it, because overall they are telling people "its based on HIS comic"

Honestly, if you said you created the game, then fine thats against the rules, but really this is an issue? It's not like every person making a few dollars (if that) off youtube walk throughs have the ability to contact you and get permission.

[AO1JMM]

Doesn't Rooster teeth and such make money of of the games?

[Summons75]

Rooster Teeth at this point has a partnership with MS and 343I so they would be able to keep making money. I'm sure MS gets a small chuck of what they make.