There was a fair bit of controversy over Warner Bros’ promotion of the then-upcoming Middle-Earth Shadow of Mordor. WBIE was very selective about who they gave early access of the game to and who would be able to post video about it before release. This was part of a promotional effort with YouTube influencers to promote the game in the run up to launch.

The US Federal Trade Commission doesn’t have a problem with paid promotional videos for video games. They do have a problem when those videos try to hide or not disclose that they were paid advertisements as was the case with the Shadow of Mordor videos. The FTC and WB reached a settlement over the matter and WB got off fairly lightly.

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