Before you make gaming Shorts: publisher video guidelines (October 2026)

Nintendo’s guidelines allow posting gameplay videos and images and encourage videos that include your creative input and commentary. Mere copies of Nintendo game content without creative input or commentary are not permitted. Gameplay posted using Nintendo system features, such as the Switch Capture Button, is the exception and doesn’t need commentary.

Monetization is allowed only through the methods Nintendo specifies, and the YouTube Partner Program is on that list. Content from before a game’s official release or extracted through data mining can’t be used, and selling videos, music or images made with Nintendo game content is prohibited. The 2024 revision also added that Nintendo may object to content it considers inappropriate or not in line with the guidelines.

Riot’s “Legal Jibber Jabber” policy lets players make videos with Riot’s game assets and earn money through appropriate ads on videos or streams. But it asks you not to just add light commentary to esports matches or other players’ videos, and to make your own original contribution to the community. Using Riot logos or trademarks without a written license is not allowed.

When you share your project, Riot asks you to conspicuously include a notice saying it was created under Riot Games’ “Legal Jibber Jabber” policy using assets owned by Riot Games, and that Riot Games does not endorse or sponsor it. For a Short, put it at the top of the description.

Gaming commentary is strongest when it doesn’t repeat what’s already on screen. Viewers can see you took down an enemy, but not why you saved an ability for that moment or why you took the long way around. Explaining those decisions is both the creative input publishers ask for and the reason viewers stay to the end.

Losses make good material too. A Short that briefly points out what went wrong in a match you lost is immediately useful to people who play the same game. For guide-style Shorts, open with what viewers will get, like “Know this one pattern and this boss is easy,” and show the result in the last line.

Check game music and sound effects as well. Game soundtracks are sometimes registered in Content ID by publishers or composers, so even footage you played can be claimed because of the music. Lowering in-game music while recording keeps your commentary clear and reduces claim risk.

Gaming Shorts work best focused on one moment rather than a whole match. Pick a comeback, a mistake or a strange bug you can describe in one sentence, and keep only from just before it to the result.

Show the situation first, not the result. When viewers first see tension, like “one bar of health left and three players coming in,” they stay to see how it ends.

If you make several Shorts from one match, pick a different story for each. Posting the same moment several times at different lengths can look like repetitive content.

The safest source is footage you played and recorded yourself. Add commentary on why a decision worked or what changed in a moment, and your creative input and contribution become clear. Using pro match highlights or another streamer’s broadcast needs the original creator’s permission, or at least real analysis or critique that adds new meaning.

In Shortsmith, upload your recording as your own video file and use “Brief for the AI” to note the game, character names and moments to emphasize; AI reads the brief before analysis and works it into the script. Telling it names and rules the screen alone can’t reveal makes the commentary far more accurate.

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