Nintendo is under fire for its harsh punishments against hackers, with popular YouTuber Charles “MoistCr1TiKaL” White leading the charge.
Recently, Nintendo started trending online when the Japanese company went after a YouTuber named Eric “PointCrow” Morino that’s known for his Legend of Zelda streams and mods. On April 6, Nintendo demanded his Breath of the Wild videos be taken down but PointCrow attempted to appeal it, claiming he was “in line” with “content guideline policies.”
In response, Nintendo hit PointCrow’s YouTube channel with multiple copyright strikes. PointCrow reached out to Nintendo to inform the company that it was putting his livelihood “in jeopardy.” He asked to discuss the situation with Nintendo, adding that the company issued the strikes without an explanation.
After he sent the email, Nintendo went after 24 more videos.
“These takedowns may have started with modded content, but they’ve spiraled into something else entirely,” PointCrow said.
At this point, the Nintendo community was terrified at the implications. Other content creators came forward to claim that Nintendo had deleted their gameplay videos as well. Nintendo’s actions had fans worried that the company had too much control over the type of content that can exist about its games. PointCrow pointed out that Nintendo has been targeting the most “passionate” fans by lashing out at YouTubers.
“You’re stifling that imagination and punishing those who want to share it with others — when they do it in the way that you have outlined for us creators,” PointCrow said in a recent YouTube video pleading for Nintendo to back down.
Nintendo comes after hackers even harder
As the situation continued to gain momentum, popular YouTubers like Moist started to cover the drama. The big esports content creator and commentary YouTuber shared his frustration with Nintendo, stating: “Nintendo, for a long time, has historically shown that they hate their fan and absolutely despite when people play their games or enjoy their games in ways that they didn’t plan of.”
While it initially seemed like Nintendo just didn’t care about its community and creators, MoistCri1TiKaL pointed out that Nintendo decided to “up the ante” and ruin the lives of anyone who wants to hack or mod Nintendo games.
A man named Gary Bowser has been released from prison after being involved in hacking the Nintendo Switch. But apparently serving 40 months in jail isn’t enough. Now, Nintendo wants him to pay the company over $14.5 million, essentially making him indentured to Nintendo “for life” by giving them around 30% of his pay every month.
Said Moist: “That is a legitimate life-ruining obligation that he will have to fulfill.”
MoistCr1TiKaL called the punishment “absurd.” While Bowser is not a saint, Moist argued that he served his time and that the punishment fit the crime. Why would this giant company want Bowser to pay them back forever when they are a multi-million dollar company that would find this amount of money “meaningless.”
Many in the streaming community agreed with MoistCr1TiKaL, feeling that Nintendo’s punishment was over the top. Some joked that they were surprised Nintendo hasn’t sued Italian plumbers or the peach fruit. Others simply called Nintendo “heartless” and claimed they were no longer interested in paying for games that would benefit such an “evil” company.
