Be Excellent To Each Other

Dunno if you've seen this story.

Seems Microsoft have been paying YouTube gaming "personalities" to promote Xbox1 & its games.

Basically, Microsoft have said to these people, "We'll give you some cash if you only say positive or neutral things in your gameplay / Let's Play vids. Saying anything negative is a no-no if you want to get paid !"

Crucially, these "YouTubers" are not allowed to tell their trusting viewers about this arrangement.

I'm sure this sort of dodgy practice goes on all the time, but this time they got caught & it's being widely reported on.

I probably haven't explained this very well (knackered - been a long day) so here are some useful links :

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... one-report

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=754946 (first post contains links to the many sites that have reported on this)

I'm surprised that people are surprised that this goes on.

"I'm surprised that people are surprised that this goes on."

Same here (at least among people on forums such as this).

Always fun though when someone gets caught red-handed & it gets widely reported to people who have no idea about the dodgy practices that exist in video-games PR (and loads of other industries to be fair).

No doubt dodgy stuff goes on behind closed doors, and always has, but I think most conspiracy theories about games press in general are pretty unfounded. I've done my share of writing words about games for money and never encountered anyone taking/offering bribes.

Publishers do exert influence over the press, but it's not an overt case of offering money in exchange for positive coverage like this.

$3 EXTRA per million views.

100,000 views = $300 On top of what they already make


No wonder everyone and their dog are trying to push their "let's play" videos in an attempt to become a youtube celeb.

Paying people to endorse your products has happened forever, this is not the issue. The problem is that Microsoft have gagged those who are paid to endorse their products. I'm not a lawyer, but I was under the impression that in the US and UK it was a requirement to declare when you were being paid to promote something.

Your lack of concern for this is a bit worrying.

Huh, I looked through the agreement. I could do that. I could even satisfy their excessive profanity thing too:

00:01: "Hi, I'm MrD, and I'm playing Ryse for the Xbox One Gaming Console."
00:02 - 00:58: "Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff...."
00:59: "uck."

Microsoft now say

"Oh we didn't realise people were doing this - that's bad and you shouldn't do it - make sure these are all marked as paid advertising"

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/01/21/r ... e-coverage

Can you edit your post MrD? It really ballses up the mobile theme.

What's it worth to yer??

(Sure thing though.)

Not surprised they need to pay people to be positive, there is nothing new for the console really, games are still the same, and the apps are still the same and in many cases are mile off their PC\IOS versions in terms of functionality (Skype)

The on demand is overpriced, how they think they can sell films for £10.99 that are on Netflix is beyond me, games are a rip vs buying them on Amazon.

Would also love to know what I get from my gold subscription aside from being allowed to use fucking apps on a £400 piece of hardware that I can use free on anything else, so far they offered up a free film some shite remake of I spit on your grave.