Au🥃stralian YouTuber Woo🐟d Hawker is no longer a part of Nintendo’s Brand Ambassador Program, and no one knows why.
The confusion began when Hawker received an🍌 email asking him somewhat blithely to remove all Nintendo branding from his YouTube channel. The channel's content almost exclusively consists of reviews and gameplay of Nintendo titles, so the news naturally came as a blow to Hawker. “It feels like a slap in the face,” he confessed in a thirty-minute explainer video.
Hawker ꦐcontinued, detailing how his lifetime support and admiration of Nintendo products has made the last five years of serving as a Nintendo ambassador a dream come true. “If I were to tell little tiny kid me that one day not only would I be a successful YouTuber making content about all these games you grew up with and more but that Nintendo themselves would want to send me their games to talk about, I think my little kid heart would explode w𓂃ith excitement. So, to lose that is pretty upsetting.”
Upon receiving the email, Hawker released an amicable statement on Twitter, thinking that other YouTubers must have received similar emails as Ni✃ntendo trades in the Brand Ambassador Program for an unidentified “new program.”
The tweet quiಞckly picked up steam and, sudd𝓰enly, everyone had questions that no one—not even Hawker—had answers to. The principal question was simple: why? BeatEmUps is undoubtedly one of the most popular Nintendo-focused channels on YouTube, with close to 1 million subscribers. Hawker also seemed to be the only content creator that received this kind of message from Nintendo. Stranger still, the original email from Nintendo stated that they would continue to send Hawker game codes and invitations to events, but does not wish to be connected to his brand in any way.
Fans speculated that a Breath of the Wild mod posted a few days prior could have triggered Nintendo’s actions. Nintendo is known to file copyright claims against modded content, but Hawker is confident that, based on his existing relationship with the brand, Nintendo would have reached out to him if they had a problem with it. Additionally, the original mes𝔉sage from Nintendo stated that Hawker’s content wasn't the issue.
Searching for answers, Hawker emailed Nintendo a series of questions. “Content creators for the program are evaluated for several things,🃏 including their passion for Nintendo, their social media following, and the quality and brand friendliness of their content,” responded Nintendo, adding to Hawker’s confusion.
Without a clear answer, the BeatEmUps community is left to come to their own conclusions. Hawker theorizes that perhaps Nintendo doesn’t trust him and, as someone whose videos are intertwined with his persona, one “Pewdiepie on a bridge” moment could send everything crashing down. He also suggests that it could be his strong advocacy for mental health issues. “Mayb𒊎e I’m overthinking it,” he concluded.
Hawker finished his video with a statement about how, at the end of the day, none of this is going to affect his content. He loved being associated with Nintendo, but assures fans that he’s not going to stop playing Nintendo games out of spite. “My little kid heart beated an extra beat for the last five years. I’m working like crazy to get all these reviews done, and I’m loving it. I will always love it, and I will continue to do what I do untꦕil someone physically forces me to stop.”