A Call of Duty YouTuber has become the latest content creator to run afoul of Nintendo’s tough copyright policy after their channel received a strike for a seven-year-old video showing footage of CoD’s Pokemon mod.
The Pokemon Company are continuing their hard line crack down on fan made content, Nintendo’s commitment to shutting down fan made games well documented at this point. And, since the company set their sights on YouTube in 2022, fans have found themselves increasingly at risk of earning strikes for more innocent content.
On March 20, Call of Duty YouTuber, NoahJ456, posted to X/Twitter, informing followers about a strike against their channel. The strike relates to a video from seven years ago, featuring a Pokemon mod that was briefly popular in Call of Duty gameplay.
“Warning to all content creators,” they opened their post, sharing a screenshot of the official strike notice from YouTube. “If your videos feature any sort of modded Pokemon content, I would delete/unlist it ASAP.”
WARNING TO ALL CONTENT CREATORS!If your videos feature any sort of modded Pokemon content, I would delete/unlist it ASAP.Just got a manual strike for a video I made 7 years ago featuring Pokemon modded into COD Zombies.2 more strikes and my channel gets deleted.😐 pic.twitter.com/vEYpM8hdIf
— NoahJ (@NoahJ456) March 19, 2024
The latest strike caused fresh concern for Pokemon content on the platform. YouTuber Sacred Almighty also weighed in on the issue in a video. “It’s looking spooky for Pokemon content creators.” He said, discussing the strike against Noah’s video. “Pokemon company are coming after these fan games, and ROM hacks, and modded videos.”
The Pokemon Company have famously taken seriously heavy-handed actions to protect their IP. Back in 2021 they issued DCMAs for a massive 397 fanmade Pokemon games. Then in 2022 they slapped Twitch streamers with DCMAs for sharing audio of the end credit theme from Scarlet & Violet after completing the game on stream.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
They’ve also targeted YouTube creators who focus on analyzing the Pokemon anime series through their publishing house for the Pokémon animated series, ShoPro.
The strike sprees seemed to have slowed down. But, since the release of Palworld earlier this year it seems like Nintendo is doubling down on its approach.
So far, no legal action has been taken against Palworld developer Pocketpair. But, the Pokemon Company and Nintendo did say they’d “investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokemon.”
Since making that statement, they’ve issued a takedown notice against Palworld fan content directly. Sending a strike to a fan who made Sparkit design.