Is this even surprsing at this point? Reviews are pretty much useless these days. You can get a general idea about the game and maybe find out some bugs but you really you just need to play the game.

This is gonna be one of the biggest scandals of youtube history if true.

This was exposed about 2 years ago, so that's ships already sailed. As they are not actually "reviewers" it's not THAT big of an issue.

That's not true:

"While the videos were sponsored content – essentially ads for Shadow of Mordor – the FTC alleges that Warner Bros. failed to require the paid influencers to adequately disclose this fact. The FTC also alleges that Warner Bros. did not instruct the influencers to include sponsorship disclosures clearly and conspicuously in the video itself where consumers were likely to see or hear them.

Instead, according to the complaint, Warner Bros. instructed influencers to place the disclosures in the description box appearing below the video."

Taken from https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/07/warner-bros-settles-ftc-charges-it-failed-adequately-disclose-it

They advised them to disclose, just not in a sufficient manner. If they had specifically told them not to disclose they would be in a far worse position and wouldn't have got off as lightly as they have.

i didn't knew the person that is almost the face of youtube was involved in this, was that known before?

Pewdiepie doesn't even do reviews so I don't see the problem. He simply could not "express negative opinions about the game". It wasn't required of him to lie.

Solution: Ban Metacritic and Gamerankings :D

Bye bye corruption.

Coup De Grace.

The End.

Back to Donut.

If you have a product, you will want to sell it. If you have a voice, you can be bought.

There isn't actually anything wrong with paying for positive views. It's been happening for decades.

I would just like to know who / what channels exactly were hiding the fact that they were being paid.

It is disappointing that youtube gamers are in a position to work so closely with companies and got so much money from it when all they do is record themselves playing a game. Buts that's a whole different story.

OFFTOPIC

It's really sad to see that my friend got PERMABANNED because he shared HIS opinion. I think vgchartz has become a dictatorship by the mods who are probably all butthurt, delusional and braindead Nintendo fanboys who can't live with anybody who has a different opinion. These mods should go to prison but should not be mods of a huge internet forum like this.

#FreeGamemaster87

LMAO talking about braindead.^