After Nintendo claimed that it had a right to all revenue earned from Let’s Play videos featuring its games – which they aren’t invoking now, thankfully – Minecraft developer Mojang revealed that it recently met YouTube to see if they were in line for the same thing.
In short: Yes, Mojang could’ve claimed revenue from all videos that used Minecraft in some shape or form for profit. They thankfully refused though, as stated on Twitter:
We had a meeting with YouTube and got told we could get a cut of all Minecraft video ad revenue. It was tempting.
— Markus Persson (@notch) May 16, 2013
The developer also revealed on Reddit that video site Machinima demanded a cut of their revenues, stating that, “their videos were driving sales for Minecraft, and that they should get a cut.
“While that was almost certainly true, and that this is one of the reasons we allow videos (another one is that I personally love watching gameplay videos, especially speed-runs), they’re also making money off our work. It’s the perfect example of a win-win situation, and them asking money from us was just offensive.”
He went on to state that Machinima has “amazing engineers and passionate directors, but their business practices are insane.”
