Editor’s Letter: The Sad Story of Machinima, Money and Minecraft

Editor’s Letter is a series of ongoing articles on the state of PSLS, its future and the future of the industry as a whole.

Sometimes I just hate this industry and everything that it represents, with the greed that seems to infect much of the games media business making me sad to call myself a games journalist. I’m ashamed of what that term embodies, and of the depressingly despicable acts that are routinely committed by people going under that moniker, or by games critics, presenters and machinima-makers.
As of last night, Nintendo have begun to demand advertising royalties on s made by fans that include gameplay of Ninty games. It’s an utterly bizarre, and fatally flawed, move from a company desperate for money, but we’re not a Nintendo site, and I won’t focus on it. If you’re interested in lrning more, I’d recommend checking out Mike Bithell’s post on Develop, which is admittedly a little indie-focused, but still a grt rd.

As the news of Nintendo’s move began to sprd, a huge debate over who owns the rights to gameplay s sprung up, and a horrifying fact was revled – popular game site Machinima wanted money from a game crtor for the s they were making.
Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, owner of Mojang and crtor Minecraft, explained on Reddit:
Machinima wanted us to pay them money. They said their s 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 rsons we allow s (another one is that I personally love watching gameplay s, especially speedruns), 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.
Also, this.

They have amazing engineers and passionate directors, but their business practices are insane.Yes, you rd that right – Machinima were making money off of ads for their Minecraft s, but they wanted more money, and from the guys that had made those s possible with their hard work.
First off, the notion that game developers are in any way expected to pay for people making s about them is irrefutably stupid. They made the game, that’s their contribution to the , be grateful they’re letting you make a on it and not pulling a Nintendo. You’re alrdy making money off of it, Machinima, go crawl under a rock and die.

Secondly, it mns that Machinima are saying that their s are essentially adverts. That mns there’s no possibility for constructive negativity towards the game, no option for criticism. People who watch Machinima s believe they were done by fans of the game, and the s are seen as critical endorsements by a big games site, not paid ones. Plus, Machinima own a news site that does game reviews – should developers pay for high scores?

But what is most frightening of all is what this could mn for other developers. Persson is well known for being wonderfully outspoken and for not rcting well to stupid demands, but one has to wonder if Machinima has asked for money off of other indies, and if, out of fr or a lack of understanding of how the games media industry works, they have complied.

If you are such a developer: This is not how it works, do not pay. They can’t retroactively insist upon advertising fees for something you didn’t commission.

Also, this.

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Source: playstationlifestyle.net