Is using video game assets illegal on YouTube?

[John B]

Hello all! I had a question for the community about using assets from games in videos? And what I mean by assets are things like sound effects, 3D models, textures, sprites and such elements...

The reason I ask this is because I am a bit of an animator and more so a VFX artist and want to use these assets in my videos, I've also asked this elsewhere and have been told it's fine as long as I am not monetizing my work (which I don't plan to any time soon anyway) but I'm wondering if I do ever monetize my work, should I still be fine?

I've seen a few channels that do this and they seem to be getting off fine, one example I remember was a channel called "CorridorDigital", in their video titled "There's An Alien On Your Head!" they made a behind the scenes video for it on their other channel, "samandniko" and in it they mention using tools to extract 3D models from games, so I guess if they do it, why couldn't I as well? (might as well mention that I'm pretty sure that they have put ads on their videos)

Thank you all and I would like to hear what you think!

 

[LJay]

Hello all! I had a question for the community about using assets from games in videos? And what I mean by assets are things like sound effects, 3D models, textures, sprites and such elements...
and in it they mention using tools to extract 3D models from games, so I guess if they do it, why couldn't I as well? (might as well mention that I'm pretty sure that they have put ads on their videos)

I mod various Video Games like Skyrim, GTA5, L4D2 and so on and one thing you must always be careful about is using another Developers or Mod Authors assets. If you are ripping 3D Models, Textures and the like from games for a Mod or Game, you could face some serious repercussions. A few weeks ago on the Skyrim Nexus someone uploaded a Mod that took various assets from the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD game and ported them into Skyrim. This Modder was immediately banned from the website and had Nintendo known about this they probably would have taken legal action against the website and/or the Mod Author.

When it comes to videos, I don't know. As long as you are not publishing the assets anywhere you should be able to get away with it but it doesn't make it okay in some cases because Developers and Video Games have whats called End-user license agreement's and other stuff which protects their Video Games from having their IP, Software and Assets taken/ripped by Users. I'm sure if some of these Developers knew what was going on behind the scenes and what it takes to make videos like the one's you mentioned they'd do something about it.

Machinima is one thing because you just take Game Footage and turn it into a Movie or Skit but extracting textures, 3D models and other assets from a game you own doesn't give you the right to do so but the fact they aren't publishing the assets anywhere and are just uploading footage is probably a loop hole.

 

[LionWaffles]

Normally no, but there are a few companies that will nail you if they find out you are using their games. Some are Nintendo, Konami, etc.