MS paying YouTubers for Xbox One mentions

[DeViLzzz]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/stealth-marketing-microsoft-paying-youtubers-for-xbox-one-mentions/

 

[Ryan Leech]

The Glorious Overclocking Master Race>

[qwertywarrior]

linus needs to make random mentions of "xbox" in the middle of his stream just for lolz

[MikeTz]

wow....

Microsoft sucks

[Hazy125]

"Xbox One content"

 

So, Xbox royally screwed up their UI and doesn't really cut it in terms of graphics performance. I'll take that extra $3 CPM now thanks

[SpaceSquid]

Watch linus never speak of xbox again.

[HelloItsPersonalHD]

PC master race. Nuff said

[DeViLzzz]

Officially blocked Machinima on YouTube.  I can't remember ever blocking anyone's channel before.  Now onto Microsoft.

[EricX2]

Wow, people really hate Microsoft... they are doing the same exact thing that just about every large company does but when they do it people get real mad. You don't think Sony/Nvidia/AMD do this as well?

[DeViLzzz]

Wow, people really hate Microsoft... they are doing the same exact thing that just about every large company does but when they do it people get real mad. You don't think Sony/Nvidia/AMD do this as well?

Proof then we will talk.

[Grave]

Officially blocked Machinima on YouTube.  I can't remember ever blocking anyone's channel before.  Now onto Microsoft.

It took you this long to block Machinima?

Dissapointed.

But really, I don't see why people care about this at all. I really hate Machinima for everything in the world, but it's not like Microsoft was doing anything bad. In fact, genius idea right there by paying extra for a limited # of views. Maybe they overpaid on advertising and the extra views make up for it but as far as I'm concerned, they got more than their money's worth.. I can see this happening more often now that it's public but be real, please.

Tons of people on Youtube get paid to mention specific content, services or games. Others are paid well to review them. The scummy people/places are the ones that try to act like the door-to-door salesman or a Jahovas witness and have pamphlets on how much better your life would be with their product. Most of the time, these people are lying about it and that's why I really hate channels that try to "sell" the product to you. Linus' videos feel like that sometimes but he's been objective in reviews too many times for me to act like he's being paid to say good things about everything he reviews.

It just pisses me off when a guy with 344,973 subs is like "Hey guys, just got my new ROCCAT EXTREME PROSKILLZ KILLSTREAK 400 KILLER.1 SNIPER KEYBOARD AND MOUSE and I must say, these products gave me 30 more frames per fps and increased my Call of Duty rank from low Platinum to high Grandmaster. By the way, sub to my channel - I'll be giving away one of these every month for 12 months to one lucky viewer out of hundreds of thousands and never say who won so you probably won't even know if someone actually got anything. Anyway, good luck, and can we hit 25,000 LIKES?!?"

[/rant]

Edit: Forgot to say that Syndicate is a punk.

[ThePointblank]

In with my video... er parody.
 

http://youtu.be/WgVxTuDsk6U

[Akolyte]

Well... I can't say Microsoft is being good doing this, because it really is cheating I guess.  But I think that channels are being even worse, a gaming channel is expected to be honest, fair and to be very critical on things.  People go to Machinima on Youtube to hear HONEST information on games and on consoles! I think its SICK that Machinima didn't decline this contract, because they know damn well that people rely on them to provide quality information!  and I think that Microsoft did something horrible too! I think that stopping a channel from saying bad stuff about their product is SICK!  Its exploiting innocent people to get money, and they should have been smart enough to know after all these years, news article after news article that the bad guys ALWAYS get found out! But out of all honesty, I expected a company like Microsoft to do something like this, I think its the Gaming Channels Faults.  They should have known better, they should have called up their mother first before answering. 

[martinrox1568]

Lol. If Linus got this offer, he should have created a fanboy video of the Xbox one. Ironic enough for viewers to know that it's not real. Or since they are required to be at least neutral, make a video that shows all of the features and just have him say they are OK. And at the end for the rating, just have him say "it's neutral"

[LAwLz]

Wow, people really hate Microsoft... they are doing the same exact thing that just about every large company does but when they do it people get real mad. You don't think Sony/Nvidia/AMD do this as well?

Innocent until proven guilty.

I am more mad at Machinima. Do they not have any integrity?

I don't get why for example boogie just goes "everyone does it so it's OK". Just because more companies *MIGHT* be doing it doesn't make it right.

[LinusTech]

snip

I am more mad at Machinima. Do they not have any integrity?

snip

 

Machinima was never even on my radar when I was looking for an MCN...

[Grave]

Machinima was never even on my radar when I was looking for an MCN...

What's your take on the situation? Pretty standard for Youtube, or what?

Would just like to hear it from someone who is actually pretty popular on Youtube and has dealt with sponsorships. I mean, this type of thing used to be really big when the Xbox 360 first came out with all the booming FPS channels. I don't know why this would be an issue to people now or why it's news at all. CPM boosting from sponsorships is pretty open, I think TotalBiscuit is a fan of educating people on what he deals with when reviewing new games (sarcasm btw). People get their panties twisted up every time it seems like this type of thing is happening with his channel, thinking he's a sellout and whatnot (I've heard it on your channel as well).

My point is that this isn't a bad thing. If it ever looks bad, it really only looks bad on one side or the other. Not everyone straight-up sells their soul to get a few extra bucks. Machinima, however, is soulless. Large network with lots of complaints and screwing over their partners. In other cases, it's the people paying the channel that look bad. They refuse to pay or flag for X reasons to get the video taken down if it makes them look bad. TB has dealt w/that tons of times, but they never succeed and he always makes them look worse just by being honest about the situation. But that's because he's with Polaris and he's big, not every channel can get the support they need to prevent their video, or sometimes their channel, being taken down.

[ivhyn]

"Xbox One sucks"

Atleast I mentioned it

[EChondo]

TotalBiscuit just posted a video;

 

Here's Boogie2988's video as well;

[fade]

I think the problem here is not that they are paying for mentions but that one of the stipulations is that they can not say anything negative about the product.

 

 

 

2. You may not say anything negative or disparaging about Machinima, Xbox One or any of its Games in your Campaign Video;

[Imaginaerum]

I think the problem here is not that they are paying for mentions but that one of the stipulations is that they can not say anything negative about the product.

That's what I thought but everyone seems to be forgetting that. Machinima, IGN, and other networks often pay for promotions for any number of things, and I don't know why this is a big deal. The Xbone promotion lasted a grand total of two days.

[Warcony]

That's what I thought but everyone seems to be forgetting that. Machinima, IGN, and other networks often pay for promotions for any number of things, and I don't know why this is a big deal. The Xbone promotion lasted a grand total of two days.

 

Yes but this is the Internet, we MUST (and will) make a big deal out of everything! 

[Skyhawk Delta]

Machinima was never even on my radar when I was looking for an MCN...

 

Nor should it have been.  Machinima is widely known to have scummy business practices as well as treating their directors like crap.  Avoid them like the plague.

 

It doesn't suprise me at all that this may violate FTC regulations.  What do companies as big as Microsoft care?  The real shame should be for the YouTubers taking this money.  They are being blatantly dishonest with their audiance to get paid under the table.

[EChondo]

Yes but this is the Internet, we MUST (and will) make a big deal out of everything! 

But isn't that the whole purpose of the Internet? Having groups of people unite on a single or multiple issue(s) to raise awareness of the problem?

 

I see no problem with paid promotions, but I do have problems with concealing it and saying it's your own opinion and it isn't swayed by any means. For example, a new game is about to come out, most say it's a great game, they have no problems with the game and it runs great, so people pre-order or pre-"buy" it. When the game does come out, it's complete crap and people are pissed off because they were fed false information.

 

This is why you shouldn't buy games before release, technological items, or anything really. You should try the product out if you can, read and watch reviews of said product. This is why demos were created for video games, now many games don't have demos and they are complete crap. This is why torrenting exists, to try the product before you buy it. Unless you can get a refund for the item, you shouldn't buy it on the day of release, Hell maybe not for a month.

[applebook]

wow....

Microsoft sucks

 

Still not as bad as Samsung paying for slander against HTC!