Anybody who is overly positive about almost anything in the gaming world is almost instantly hit with accusations of being bought by a publisher. Most of the time, statements like these are completely outlandish and unfounded. On rare occasions, though, these accusations find the mark.

Recently, it came to light that Microsoft was paying Machinima content creators for positive coverage of the Xbox One. Now, various outlets on the internet have revealed that EA has also been paying YouTubers for positive coverage of its games.

In emails to Machinima content producers that were leaked last week, the multi-channel network offered an additional $3 per thousand video views ($3 CPM) for videos that featured Xbox One gameplay footage and a mention of the console. The stipulation was that the videos could not say “anything negative or disparaging about Machinima, Xbox One, or any of its games.” That’s a direct quote from the reported terms and conditions of the promotion.

While a number of YouTube personalities that I follow do paid promotional work, the vast majority are very good about noting that they’re being paid. (Okay, they put it in the description rather than preface the video with it which irks me slightly but there is some disclosure.) The Machinima promotion didn’t have any such disclosure as part of it.

For their part, Microsoft admits to having paid Machinima for promotional content but deny any restrictions on the nature of the content. They claim not to have any editorial power over the content and blame Machinima for there not being any indication of Machinima videos being part of a promotion. Microsoft has also said that they have ended this current campaign with Machinima. However it appears that the promotion ended mid-January and the advertising buy had ended when Microsoft announced the end of the campaign.

And it’s not just Microsoft that’s paying for positive videos on YouTube. EA does the same thing through its Ronku program. This program pays registered content creators $10 CPM ($10 per 1,000 video views) to produce footage meeting certain criteria. One such criterion that is universal to all EA Ronku promotions is to never highlight major glitches in the game.

A leak on NeoGAF indicates that the Ronku program has been used to promote several games including Battlefield 4, Need For Speed: Rivals, Madden NFL 25, NHL 14, FIFA 14 and Plants vs. Zombies 2. In the correspondence sent to Ronku members, it appears that EA may have told content creators to not disclose the advertising programs which is a violation of FCC regulations about paid endorsements in advertising. EA insists that it requires disclosure but that NeoGAF post calls EA’s statement into question.

While I don’t like people buying and selling editorial content, I can live with it as long as it’s blindingly obvious and explicit that the content has been bought and paid for. However, it’s not always explicit and sometimes completely hidden as is the case with these Xbox One and EA ad buys.

I don’t think that any sort of universal protocol for disclosure of paid content can ever really be enforced. A Stanford style honour code for YouTubers would the closest we ever get. Given that people are trying to make a living, I won’t begrudge them a way to make a living. I will begrudge them if they lack integrity and sell out without telling the people who trust them that they’ve sold out. A little integrity and transparency never hurt anyone. Okay, the NSA. But apart from that…

Sources: IGN, NeoGAF, Verge