Recently, some people have found themselves unable to view Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X videos on SEGA of Japan’s Youtube channel (which we’ve been including in our articles). The videos in question have been region-locked to prevent people in the US from viewing them. While this may be old news, it appears there’s still some confusion about who’s actually responsible for this. I’d like to point out that, at least in this case, SEGA doesn’t have anything to do with the region lock. Instead, it’s actually Youtube who have started region-blocking these videos ever since they started rolling out their new subscription service, Youtube Red. This new $9.99 monthly subscription allows people to view videos without any ads and download them for offline viewing.
Here’s the message you’ll get when you try to view the latest Project DIVA X video from the US.
However, companies who have not agreed to the new terms of use for Youtube Red, and who are currently earning ad revenue from their Youtube videos, will find that their videos are now being blocked in the US. In this case, the Project DIVA X videos contain content from labels such as EXIT TUNES and Incstoenterinc. But like many other Japanese companies, they have not yet agreed to the new terms. At the moment, Youtube Red is only available in the US, which is also why the videos are still available for viewing elsewhere. That said, Youtube plans to make Youtube Red available for other regions as well in 2016.
It’s of course disappointing to see this happen. It has been difficult enough to get Japanese companies like SEGA to allow their fans to upload their gameplay videos on Youtube. This move from Youtube only complicates matters further. That said, Vocaloid music composer Chrusher-P noted that Exit Tunes are doing their best to resolve the situation, so let’s hope they and other parties involved can iron things out with Youtube. In the meanwhile we’ll be including links to the NicoNico version of Project DIVA X videos in our articles, since those aren’t region-blocked. If you want to read more on the matter, here are some helpful articles: