• Kichae@lemmy.ca
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    28 days ago

    This is not about the legality of emulation, unfortunately, but about whether people have the rights to publish lets plays without a license.

    Many suits in the gaming industry see lets plays as theft. They see people making money using their games and believe lets players should have to pay to license thst content, and that they should have the right to revoke that license if they don’t like what people are saying about or doimg with their games.

    I work in the industry, and I know people who work or who have worked at studios owned by every major punlisher in the west. This is a thing they all habe someone of import chomping at the bit for.

    It’s just that none of them want to be the one singled out as the first or only one attacking lets plays. Nor to be the one that shoulders the costs of having their position challenged in court.

    • Kissaki@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      27 days ago

      From the article it sounded like they were doing reviews, not let’s plays. Reviews are inherently and substantially more transformative. They’re not merely appending the content as it is played. They’re supporting their assessments and reasoning with footage and proof.

      • Kichae@lemmy.ca
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        27 days ago

        Just to be clear, publishers don’t like reviewers, either. They’re seen as gatekeepers of audiences and people to be managed and bribed, and that means keeping the reviewer market small. They want reviewers to be PR people with a fascade of being impartial, and few enough to count on one hand.

        This is also somwthing that’s happening, then, because Nintendo sees a pathway to victory. Not only are their games licensed only for their own hardware, but they can claim the reviews are misleading and invalid because the games aren’t designed to run on the platforms they’re beinf reviewed on.

        Like, none of this is Nintendo coming for your emulation catalogue. It’s them coming for people trying to generate an income from their games. And all of the big publishers are going to line up behind them on this, because they also hate anyone who’s making coin using their creation.

        That’s capitalism. That’s what it means for something to be capital, and to own it. It’s what owning the means of production is all about.