Puyo Puyo Tetris: SEGA’s strict streaming/video uploading guidelines… that will not apply to the English version

Update: SEGA has sent a statement to Polygon, revealing that the guidelines would not apply to the English version of the game. Here’s the statement in full:

We highly encourage our American and European fans to stream Puyo Puyo Tetris when it comes out (there are no PS4 share button restrictions). We want them to share their experiences with the world, but we do ask them to please be conscious of revealing Adventure Mode story cutscenes.

Crisis averted!

***

In the past few days, there’s been a lot of debates regarding Atlus’ rather… drastic guidelines for Persona 5 streaming. If you thought this was an isolated case, you’re wrong: SEGA has equally strict guidelines for Puyo Puyo Tetris (impacting all versions of the game, not just the Nintendo Switch version).

Right now, the restrictions listed below only apply to the Japanese version, and it’s not clear whether the European and North American version will also be impacted. Since the restrictions for Persona 5 (remember, Atlus is a SEGA company) were the same in Japan and in the west, it’s highly like SEGA will have its European and North American branches enforce similarly restricting guidelines.

First of all, here’s the places where you are allowed to post recordings of Puyo Puyo Tetris:

• personal website/blog (must be non-profit), social networks, etc
• video hosting websites

So far, so good. But here comes the nasty bits:

• the website/blog must be completely non-profit, which includes ad-revenue. SEGA simply doesn’t want you to make any revenue off their game, directly or indirectly;
• the website/blog must not feature any sensitive content (think pornography, extreme violence, and any sort of content SEGA might be uncomfortable with);
• the website must not feature content defaming SEGA or the game itself.

What’s more, you cannot upload/stream about anything. Basically, footage from pretty much all modes are ok, with the exception of Adventure mode, and more specifically the cutscenes or anything that may contain spoilers. What’s more, you need to be the owner of the footage (aka: you recorded it yourself and didn’t just re-upload official videos from SEGA for example).

What’s more, you need to include the following mention either in the video itself, or in the description:

© SEGA Tetris ® & © 1985 ~ 2017 Tetris Holding

This isn’t the first time SEGA has such strict guidelines, as Puyo Puyo Chronicles also has similar ones. But it’s certainly interesting that SEGA only made them public on April 4th, even though the game has already been out for over a month in Japan on Nintendo Switch… and for over 3 years on other platforms (such as the Nintendo 3DS).

Source: SEGA
Thanks Cosmo Clock 21 for the heads up.