Microsoft's New YouTube Policy - A Step Backwards

[Kerotan]

fireburn95 said:

Kerotan said:

MS are getting free advertising for the lets plys and other videos such as funny/best moments or a plethora of other types of vids like in game easter eggs, funny glitches, secrets, tips and tricks. Or even people analysising a game trailer they release. 

Games like The Last of US became a cult hit due to guys like Pewdiepie and many others playing them. Sure you will get a lot of people who don't have a ps3 watching it and never buing it but it has a huge effect on people with the console and people who just need 1 big reason to buy it. And 99% of these people won't watch a walkthrough with nocommentary. They subscribe to pewdiepie because they like him and watch the episodes to see his reactions. 

I work in this industry and it's a well known fact many gaming companies pay huge money to youtubers to play their games. and it covers almost every genre under the sun. 

It doesnt MATTER that it is 'arguably' free advertising. It's their game that someone is potentially experiencing for free and money is being made off their hard work.

Microsoft didn't sign an advertising deal, so they can claim all the money, since they could legally say "This video made ad money because people watched it for the game we published"

Would PewDiePie get 2 million a year if every video was purely his dramatic reactions? No, no one would watch that, so it's both the reactions, and moreso, the game, that people tune into.

And even morals, ethics and code aside, at the end of the day, a game has the same legal rights as a movie. Microsoft have chosen to pursue those legal rights, and hell, smart of them, no one is gonna not upload halo 5 gameplay because microsoft are taking a percentage.

you know that legally you are right. Some publishers are smart enough to let it happen though because they know the benefits. EA and Activision prime examples. Ubisoft maybe too. Sony are all for it and I've personally dealt with people from SOny looking to get YouTubers to play Planetside 2 for them when it was in beta. EA paid all the COD guys to come and play Battlefield 4. 

End of the day they have every right to claim these vids or remove them but they will only hurt themselves. 

 

EDIT:

The end game is nobody makes vids about "insert game". Game loses a lot of hype and publicity. Other games prosper. Money from claimed videos dwindles due to lack of new uploads from popular youtubers. Game sells less.