Microsoft allegedly made deals with Machinima video partners to pay them extra if they promoted the Xbox One, but only if those video producers kept the agreement confidential, reports Ars Technica.
Under the terms of the promotion — which Machinima's U.K. community manager highlighted in a now-deleted tweet — Microsoft would pay content producers a $3 CPM bonus (an extra $3 per thousand video views) if they posted a video with at least 30 seconds of Xbox One gameplay footage in the first two minutes, and verbally mentioned they were playing on an Xbox One. In order for the creators to get paid, the videos had to be labeled with the tag "XB1M13" and posted between 3 a.m. ET on Jan. 13 and 2:59 a.m. ET on Feb. 10.
However, Microsoft included the following stipulation in its agreement (viewable in full here): "You may not say anything negative or disparaging about Machinima, Xbox One or any of its games in your campaign video." And the campaign was set to end after a total of 1.25 million views across all XB1M13-tagged videos. What do you think about Microsoft paying Youtubers to promote the Xbox One.
Thanks, Polygon
