Gamasutra has put up a very interesting survey of sorts – not the kind that tells you what your spirit animal is, or what Disney villain you are (because we all love those, right?). Mike Rose of Gamasutra conducted the survey, where we polled 141 video game Youtubers, i.e. people who are making real money off recording videos of them playing video games.
Some of these Youtubers are actually taking handouts from developers for covering their games. You read that right – popular Youtubers are getting paid by the developers or publishers themselves to basically advertise their game for them.
Out of those 141 Youtubers, 70% percent of them (roughly 99 in real numbers) had fewer than 5000 subscribers, while the remaining 30% percent (roughly 42) had anywhere from 5000 subscriptions to as many as a million.
So let’s break that down a bit more, of the Youtubers who have 5000 or more subscriptions, only 11% percent openly said they took handouts from developers or did so “only when a developer offers.” Another two percent had declined, opting for the “prefer not to say” response.
The interesting thing is that of the Youtubers with less than 5000 subscribers, almost all of them – 98% percent to be exact, denied receiving money from a developer or publisher for covering their games. Rose elaborated a bit in the article:
“So clearly as you move up the subscriber scale, the bigger YouTubers are being offered cash for coverage or asking for cash to cover games, and at least a quarter of them are taking it. However, that doesn’t answer whether the smaller YouTubers would partake in the act if they were given the opportunity.”
Rose made a point of saying that his survey was meant to scrutinize the ethics behind getting monetary compensation in a field where there isn’t really any standard, to be honest. The land of doing “Let’s Plays,” or “Long Plays,” and so on is a bit of a strange one, with viewers despising advertisements (the main form of income), IP holders wanting a cut of the pie (or the removal of their videos), and so on.
The survey also revealed that 40% percent of Youtubers with more than 5000 subscribers were totally fine with the concept of getting paid directly by developers or publishers, but at the cost of publicly disclosing said monetary payment. Lastly, more than half of all of those surveyed were completely against the concept, saying that it undermined the medium, but also Youtube itself.
What do you guys think? Should Youtubers get paid (theoretically) big bucks from developers and publishers to advertise their games? Would you trust a Youtuber who was paid to endorse a game?
