Are Sponsored Reviews Okay?
Are Sponsored Reviews Okay?
I‘ve been seeing quite a few sponsored video reviews, where the studio making the game is paying for the review. Here’s a few examples (there’s a lot more):
- Dungeons Of Eternity VR - Gauntlet Style Co-Op Greatness!
- Crossfire Sierra Squad Revived my PSVR2
- Propagation Paradise Hotel Review - The Scariest VR Survival Horror of 2023?
What’s everyone’s take on these?
They're ads. Somebody paid money to intrigue you about a product.
As soon as I see a review is sponsored the video is meaningless to me
I just kinda see them as ads. Now if theyre semt a free key to play the game and talk about it, ill give that a pass.
But paid to play and talk nice? Ehhhhh maybe if the reviewer is known for being hard on games and doesnt pull any punches but i take all reviews with a large pinch of salt anyways.
I don’t know what the financial situation of the people making these is and if they‘re relying on these to keep making content. But there’s something really annoying about the reviews imo, because you never know if they’re actually liking the game or not. And even if they try to be as objective as possible, there has to be a subconscious tendency to please the studio paying for the video/content.
hence why nobody should ever consider these type of reviews to be as objective as possible, and this doesn't just apply to gaming.
I'm not a fan, I guess it could be okay if the the reviewer is up front about it. If these start popping up on lemmy I'd be annoyed, maybe we can make a rule for the community that no sponsored videos should be posted? I tend to not like video reviews, I'd rather read a 1 page review in 3 minutes vs watching a 15 minute video.
I haven’t seen any posted yet, these were just examples because I noticed more of these from the few VR YouTubers