Capcom recently received negative attention when a naked Chun Li appeared in a Street Fighter 6 tournament, leading to the collective removal of videos showing mods for the Japanese publisher’s games from YouTube. Now another company may be joining in…
Tekken 8 has become a very popular game. No wonder there are so many mods being made. You have to think about things like how the characters or their models can look in the fighting game. These are often made into demonstration videos on YouTube, and Bandai Namco has taken them on. Despite targeting popular modders, the Japanese publisher’s goal is clear: to scare the public away from modded games.
A modder from South Korea, Umin, was the first to report on Twitter that Bandai Namco had removed several Tekken 8 modded videos from YouTube in response to a copyright claim. This led him to consider switching to Patreon (which could be a problem because of the payment for mods, and could get him into trouble), and a few hours later he reported that YouTube would be deleting his channel in April due to Bandai Namco’s claims: a hidden video had been removed from his channel, and he had said goodbye to Google’s video sharing platform.
Okay, My channel will be deleted in April.
Thank you Bamco.They banned the unpublished video at least three hours ago. Thanks to them, my channel will be deleted in April.
Goodbye Youtube… pic.twitter.com/b50hCEF625
— UMIN(우민) (@_UMIN__) March 26, 2024
Just checked, I also got hit for a mod compilation and a boss move set showcase (this isn't even a mod and doesn't have any download links)
I wonder if they will copyright strike any gameplay videos that has mods or visual changes now? https://t.co/dco05WgC0I pic.twitter.com/V2rJmEGLgw— IAMOP (@_IAMOP) March 26, 2024
Another Tekken 8 player, Iamop, also took to his YouTube channel and also received a copyright claim for a mod collection and a boss move tutorial. The latter is not even a mod, and there is no download link anywhere, leading him to believe that videos containing mods or visual changes may now be targeted by Bandai Namco.
It is not yet known exactly who has stepped on Bandai Namco’s toes, but it is likely that these copyright claims are happening because the Japanese publisher considers mods to be a threat to the company’s wallet, as the Tekken Shop allows you to buy cosmetic items for the fighting game’s characters via microtransactions.
If someone had copied something from the Tekken Shop one by one, such an action might be understandable. Otherwise, what Bandai Namco is doing is unfair.
Leave a Reply