OPINION: Warner Bros. caught paying YouTubers for positive reviews

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Warner Bros. has been caught paying YouTubers for positive reviews. It’s a shame that many gamers out there now go to gamers who get paid to praise titles the whole day for their purchasing decisions. They should adopt independent website instead who aren’t affiliated with these companies because it’s quite a corrupt system. Either ways, that could be a whole essay in itself. Ars Technica published a report on the ruling. They said:

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement on Monday with Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Inc. over the studio’s alleged failure to properly disclose that it had paid top YouTube “influencers” to promote the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. While the FTC’s complaint against Warner Bros. (PDF) does not mention any specific influencer, the commission’s press release calls out PewDiePie, the world’s top-earning YouTube video creator, as one of the so-called influencers that took the studio’s money.

When people like PewDiePie—the lesser offender out of them all—take funds from companies like Warner Bros. can they really be trusted even if they disclose it? It’s one thing to get entertainment from these people, which is great, but it’s another thing when they actively promote games without telling viewers that the content is being sponsored by Warner Bros. clearly. Many gamers think that sponsored means that the YouTubers were just given early access to the title which isn’t the case. People have to realize that praising a game actually gets you paid. It’s just not right. The FTC needs to go further though. There are many other practices like this in the industry that need to be exposed. I’m glad more of these issues are coming to light. Hopefully this will lead to more transparent games journalism and coverage so gamers know who to go to for entertainment and who to go to when it comes to making purchasing decisions.

Source: Ars Technica

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