Home Gaming YouTuber money scandal part deux!

YouTuber money scandal part deux!

2 min read
31

Partdeux

Increasingly, more and more gamers are getting their gaming news and opinions from video content found on YouTube. they, many gamers contend, are real enthusiast, not PR shills interested only in money like the corrupt and crooked gaming press. It wasn’t at all long ago that this was revealed to not be quite so true; game publishers and platform holders were paying Youtubers to play their games and say nice things about their systems. Now it seems that some YouTubers are so full of themselves that they’re actually asking for profit share from indie game developers.

That’s according to Simon Roth, developer of Maia, who claims that YouTubers approached him asking for a slice of profit share. They probably posit that it’s because of their Let’s Play videos that his game is popular in the first place, and thus deserve a slice of his game’s revenue.

Roth didn’t mention any names, though replies seem to imply that Yogscast is involved in this sort of thing. It also seems that Roth is not the only indie dev approached. Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail says he’s also been asked to give up a share of his earned cash to YouTubers.

Essentially,. it seems that some prolific YouTubers are asking indie developers to pay them money to play their games. These are guys who already make a fair amount of cash on YouTube – and asking for profit share just smacks of greed. It’s scummy, presumptuous and just straight out unethical – though it’s a problem I think that’s been bred by game publishers, who do actually pay YouTubers to play their games.

Once again, I’m not painting all of YouTube with the same brush; there are guys out there doing good, insightful work. There are, however, a greedy few who’re making it hard to trust anyone. At some point, these people stop being enthusiast voices of opinion and start being advertising agencies. 

Last Updated: April 30, 2014

31 Comments

  1. Ultimo_Cleric N7

    April 30, 2014 at 10:13

    Ya Angry Joe was talking about this the other day as well…..seriously so sneaky and wrong.

    ISINYOGA!

    Reply

  2. KingKappie

    April 30, 2014 at 10:13

    I’m making A vid tonight can i have a donation please i will give your name shout out

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief in Space

      April 30, 2014 at 10:17

      How much will R3.50 get me?

      Reply

      • Unavengedavo

        April 30, 2014 at 10:19

        But that’s just a tip O_o

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief in Space

          April 30, 2014 at 10:42

          That’s what she said?

          Reply

          • Unavengedavo

            April 30, 2014 at 10:44

      • KingKappie

        April 30, 2014 at 10:21

        mmmm lets say half of your name make it R4.00 and i will only say your name ( ps i have 10 billion viewers)

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief in Space

          April 30, 2014 at 10:42

          R4 it is then!

          Reply

    • Jedi JJ

      April 30, 2014 at 10:29

      I’ll take a full minute for R7000. And obviously I completely trust you, being a random stranger on the internet.

      Reply

      • Unavengedavo

        April 30, 2014 at 10:42

        So are you saying you only need a minute? O_o

        Reply

        • Jedi JJ

          April 30, 2014 at 10:53

          Yes. It only takes a minute for me to do it for other people 😉

          Reply

    • Dutch Matrix

      April 30, 2014 at 10:29

      Before you donate to this cause, please consider mine:
      I am kickstarting a porno. I am looking for donations OF THE FINANCIAL KIND, thank you very much.
      What would your donation get you?
      Why, instead of the actress yelling out obscene expletives and blasphemous yelps of pleasure, she will instead call out the names of the sponsors. For example:
      “Oh Frikkie!”
      “Yes! Pieter Yes!”
      “Drill me Gawie, DRILL ME!”
      The sponsor who sponsors the most cash will get his name yelled out at the top the actress’s lungs during the final climatic scene.

      Reply

      • Gavin Mannion

        April 30, 2014 at 10:33

        I will sponsor that…

        I actually think you’ve come across (sies) a great idea.. you could raise quite a bit of cash for random marketing ideas.. especially casinso..

        “Oh montecasino you always push my buttons so well”

        Reply

      • Jedi JJ

        April 30, 2014 at 10:57

        I’m just a bit worried about the language barrier. Shouldn’t we be broadening it to a larger target audience?
        “Khulu Inyoka” sounds like a much better name for the film than “Die slang maak bang” (that can be taken two different ways)

        Reply

        • Dutch Matrix

          April 30, 2014 at 11:06

          No. This is an art flick, the title is Le serpent dans la grotte
          and stars Snake Pielskin…

          Reply

          • Jedi JJ

            April 30, 2014 at 11:22

            LOL
            I don’t care if it’s not the real Snake Plisken, that’s close
            enough for me since they haven’t released a new “Escape from” movie.

        • Mossel

          April 30, 2014 at 12:57

          Do you know that there already is an afrikaans porno? During a research session back in varsity one of my friends stumbled upon it. It is named “Kwaai Naai.” No jokes.

          Reply

  3. Gavin Mannion

    April 30, 2014 at 10:26

    Is this worse than SNL playing with the Xbox One or daytime TV shows showcasing Disney Infinity or Skylanders?

    What about watching movies and seeing the actors playing Gears of War. When do we have to be told when someone is being paid for something when they aren’t pretending to be journalists?

    Reply

    • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

      April 30, 2014 at 10:35

      Well, yes. This is approaching people after the fact – or pre-emptively, even – and saying ” if you don;t give us money, we won;t do videos of your stuff” It’s akin to extortion.

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        April 30, 2014 at 11:43

        Extortion is the first word that sprang to mind for me too.

        Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      April 30, 2014 at 11:10

      marketing is as marketing does.

      Reply

  4. Matthew Holliday

    April 30, 2014 at 11:08

    Youtube is their business, so much so that theyr looking to charge for their services, considerign the influence certain youtubers have on the internet, this seems pretty viable.

    however, if they start considering themselves as service providers, then they need to be beholden to general business conventions, contracts, accountability, deadlines etc. the devs should expect results, and if they do not recieve them then blablabla

    but approaching a company and saying “gief money or i not play ur gaem.” just sounds bad for business.

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      April 30, 2014 at 14:30

      They earn ad revenue on views don’t they? What would they say if a big publisher came around asking for their cut of that revenue for them making a let’s play video for a AAA title after release? I bet they’d scream blue murder.

      Reply

      • Matthew Holliday

        April 30, 2014 at 14:54

        “viable” doesnt mean its not exploitable.
        its also just dumb, theyv already been charged for the game.
        besides, talking about youtube as a marketing service, you dont charge people to market for you, you pay them.

        Reply

  5. Kensei Seraph

    April 30, 2014 at 11:30

    I think I’ve watched maybe 6 Youtube videos about games.

    Reply

  6. Lardus-Resident Perve

    April 30, 2014 at 11:44

    I actually watch videos from one particular YouTuber, called Chris Smoove. I mostly watch his NBA videos. I think he was perhaps sponsored to play on the PS4, but I am not sure and have no reason to look for proof. I will say though, he is not afraid of pointing out problems and glitches with the games he plays. Angry Joe, seen only a few vids, not much inclined to return yet.

    Reply

    • Jedi JJ

      April 30, 2014 at 11:46

      He paid you to promote him, didn’t he?

      Reply

      • Lardus-Resident Perve

        April 30, 2014 at 11:51

        Cannot hear you over the sound of all this moneys $$$ 😛

        Reply

  7. Brady miaau

    April 30, 2014 at 12:01

    Devs must just tell these so and so’s to take a hike, as they cannot prove that their vids helped sell the game are merlely gave advice to people that already own the game

    Do chess videos count as game videos? Some of those are of a very high quality and standard, analysis if Grandmaster games.

    Reply

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