Microsoft Paying Machinima YouTubers To Promote The Xbox One

Just saw the massive thread on GAF about this http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=754946

This weekend, word started leaking of a new promotion offering Machinima video partners an additional $3 CPM (i.e., $3 per thousand video views) for posting videos featuring Xbox One content. The promotion was advertised by Machinima's UK community manager in a since-deleted tweet, and it also appears on Machinima's activity feed on Poptent, a clearinghouse for these kind of video marketing campaigns. The Poptent page also mentions an earlier campaign surrounding the Xbox One's launch in November, which offered an additional $1 CPM for videos "promoting the Xbox One and its release games."

To qualify for the campaign (and the extra payments), Machinima partners had to post a video including at least 30 seconds of Xbox One game footage that mentioned the Xbox One by name and included the tag "XB1M13." A YouTube search for that relatively unique term turns up "about 6,590 results," but a quick scan of those results shows only a few hundred that actually seem to be tagged for the Machinima promotion.

That's not the case, however. According to a leaked copy of the full legal agreement behind the promotion, video creators "may not say anything negative or disparaging about Machinima, Xbox One, or any of its Games"and must keep the details of the promotional agreement confidential in order to qualify for payment. In other words, to get the money, video makers have to speak positively (or at least neutrally) about the Xbox One, and they can't say they're being paid to do so.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/s ... -mentions/

Sounds pretty shady.

Doubt anyone will be surprised by this. Two evil companies working hand in hand. Not that it would do them any good. Everyone knows by now that the Xbox one is flawed. Some videos of bought praise on YouTube won't save it.

I knew there must have been a good reason why I hardly ever bother watching Machinima's stuff on YT. Any time I'm looking for something on a game I'll opt for an independent channel over Machinima's gooseberry fool. This seems a really good reason to carry on as I am.

They are paying a gaming company to promote them?! The audacity of it all.

You know what the issue really is, Manny. Quit acting dumb, you rubbish.

You do many Youtubers do this? Only some of them decide to say it is paid promotion, I don't really think MS should be hated on too much for this.

1cmanny1 wrote:They are paying a gaming company to promote them?! The audacity of it all.

Try reading more than just thread title next time.

You're pretty much saying it's okay for people to promote something and not tell the viewer they're being paid for their views. How do we know they're being honest with their views? I'm fine with it if they're being paid and they tell us. And just because it's a common practice doesn't make it an okay thing to do and is actually a great reason to hate everyone involved not just Machinima and MS.

Gillette Fusion ProGlide is the best, closest shave I've ever had.

Gillette Blue > all that other fancy, unnecessary gooseberry fool that leaves your face covered in a thin film of slime.

I think it is fine, it happens all the time.
I wouldn't like a youtuber doing it, because it sort of seems like you are tricking your fans. But I don't see why MS should be attacked for doing it if some scummy youtubers are happy to do it.

They want you to buy it because you see people you look up to use it. If a SC player says "This is a great mouse", you probably wouldn't be too offended if they didn't say "That was a paid promotion".

KKLEIN wrote:Gillette Fusion ProGlide is the best, closest shave I've ever had.

PLANT!

Great ad

Is it a thing over here?

1cmanny1 wrote:I think it is fine, it happens all the time.
I wouldn't like a youtuber doing it, because it sort of seems like you are tricking your fans. But I don't see why MS should be attacked for doing it if some scummy youtubers are happy to do it.

Because they're the ones tempting the idiots in to begin with? Because they're the one insisting on it being kept secret?

I like how this story broke around the time Larry Hryb called for an end to online console hate. I agree with him to the extent that fanboy bickering needs to end, but perfectly legitimate criticism of shitty policies, like this one, needs to continue.

There a bloke that was mentioned here sometime ago called Brian P Shea "a games reviewer". The amount of times he is wrong on every issue gaming related is just stunning. He is wrong on this issue as well! :lol:

Machinima are basically the biggest schills on the internet, anyway. I didn't need to know this to know their content is basically advertising.

Can anyone make money from youtube vids or is it some kind of 'selling your soul to the Devil' kind of deal that certain companies do?

Anyone can, but in the world of gaming everyone who isn't attached to someone like Machinima is getting hit by content ID strikes which Google are too inept to manage appropriately.

I spend my evenings playing fantastic games on my whisper quiet Xbox One, while enjoying cool and refreshing Mountain Dew. When my bro’s come over, we share tangy, crunchy Doritos to really get into the mood for the whisper quiet Xbox One games.

Now where is my money?

Microsoft Paying Machinima YouTubers To Promote The Xbox One

Who is online

Affiliates