Zepla is one of the largest content creators for the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. For the expansion Dawntrail, she was invited by Square Enix to an event. Now she has received a strike on the related video – Square Enix itself is cutting off her funding.
Who is Zepla? The YouTuber and Twitch streamer Zepla is one of the largest content creators around Final Fantasy XIV. According to her, she discovered the game around 2016 when she was looking for an alternative to World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor.
At the start of her career, she published guide and comedy videos. She now has over 304,000 subscribers on YouTube as ZeplaHQ and her eponymous Twitch channel has over 261,000 followers.
In 2024, Zepla was invited by Square Enix for the media tour for the new expansion Dawntrail. At this event, journalists and influencers from around the world are given first insights into the new content of the expansion.
To this end, she released a video with footage she recorded on-site with permission. Eight months later, she reported receiving a copyright strike on it – from Square Enix itself.
Change of heart after the release? Final Fantasy XIV turns off the funding
What kind of strike was it? Specifically, there was a copyright claim on Zepla’s video ALL Job Armors WITH 2 Dye Channels Showcase | Dawntrail Media Tour
(via Youtube). Square Enix notes that the background music is protected and their property. They blocked the monetization of the video with this.
In a stream excerpt from February 5, 2025 (via Youtube), Zepla talks about it and expresses her astonishment: The video was made as part of the media tour. The image and sound were therefore usable. In particular, the fact that the strike
comes about eight months after the video was published is surprising.
Zepla also emphasizes that the video was explicitly not paid for by Square Enix. The purpose of the event was to report on Dawntrail. The video was exactly what Square Enix would have expected from the invited people.
It seems that they wanted the advertisement [through my video], but now that the expansion has been released, they are behaving strangely.
Editor’s note: MeinMMO has requested a statement regarding the situation from Square Enix, which will be added to the article once we have it.
What exactly happened to Zepla here?
In her video, Zepla talks about a copyright strike
. In fact, this is probably not a classic strike, but a content ID claim. This allows copyright holders to block, demonetize, or monitor a video.
Since Zepla’s video is still live and has ads running, Square Enix probably did not issue a copyright warning, aka a copyright strike, but made a content ID claim. However, what exactly happened behind the scenes cannot be verified from the outside.
However, it also happens time and again that rights holders unlawfully distribute strikes and ID claims: The creators behind Dragon Ball Z Abridged reportedly regularly have to defend themselves against unlawful claims from Toei Animation.
One strike too many and the YouTube career is over
What are the consequences? The first consequence of the claim was that Zepla could no longer earn money from the video. In her stream, she announced her intention to contact Square Enix about the issue. Currently, ads are also being shown before the video. However, it is not clear whether the revenue from that goes to Zepla or Square Enix.
But even if the strike
was a mistake – Zepla suspects a bot – it could lead to permanent problems: If a YouTuber receives three copyright strikes within 90 days, the channel and all associated channels are terminated by YouTube. This is stated by YouTube itself in the information regarding copyright violations. Provided, of course, that it is a real copyright strike.
In her video, Zepla also talks about her hope that such strikes
do not become a bigger problem now. She uses in-game music in many of her videos about Final Fantasy XIV. If Square Enix were to manually or via bot issue more strikes
, this could quickly lead to the termination of all of Zepla’s YouTube accounts, if they are indeed real strikes.
Zepla herself has recently criticized Final Fantasy XIV for the declining quality of the main story. According to the YouTuber Larrysaur, however, this seems to be improving again with the current patch and the outlook for patch 7.2 in March is quite optimistic: Final Fantasy XIV is finally getting the popular MMO content that everyone has been waiting for after a long content drought.
content ID claim. We have accordingly updated the news.
