YouTube is a huge source for online content. From online web series to one shot’s, anyone can be a video creator. Naturally the gaming community has been actively uploading onto YouTube with reviews, walkthroughs, gameplay and more. The great thing about YouTube is that anyone can partake in the fun however; Microsoft has been caught with a bit of a bribe. News broke recently that Microsoft was actively paying YouTube partners through Machinima to highlight the Xbox One and avoid saying anything negative about the console.
A leaked copy of the document has shown off that video creators would be able to earn $3 CPM bonus just by including 30 seconds of the video highlighting the Xbox One or a video game being played on the console. This was labeled as a promotion and limited to the first 1.25 million video views. This isn’t necessarily even playing field if consumers are looking for actual videos discussing the Xbox One verses the PlayStation 4.
Microsoft has yet to comment on the recent leaked document. The promotion has since ended on January 16th. Regardless of the promotion, PlayStation 4 is still in the lead of sales as Sony has managed to sell over 4.2 million units since launch with Xbox One only selling 3 million units.