A quote from PewDiePie is being used by Techland for Dying Light‘s poster, and many people are not happy about it.
The quote, which reads “I love this game. It’s sooo awesome!” was taken from the incredibly popular YouTuber’s playthrough of a demo of the game during VGX 2013, which appeared to be an advertorial video solicited by Techland themselves.
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Watch the video below:
Usually box and poster quotes are taken from reviews/previews of games, and while using a PewDiePie quote wouldn’t be questionable in and of itself, pulling one from a seemingly paid-for video is undoubtedly shady.
This points to a grey area for YouTubers in general. With them being independent from traditional games media, gamers have increasingly taken to the video creators as an alternative source of news and reviews, though this presents problems.
With an ongoing debate surrounding the supposed “bias” of games media, YouTubers are often overlooked given that they’re typically an individual, playing a video game from the comfort of their own bedroom to their selection of fans. Them not being part of a wider company leads to less finger pointing, though given the size of PewDiePie’s fan base (34 million subscribers and counting), he should still be held accountable for producing misleading content.
Dying Light may very well be an “awesome” game, and PewDiePie may have enjoyed playing it, but using a quote taken from advertorial content designed to promote the game is not acceptable. It’s uncertain whether Techland asked PewDiePie whether this quote could be used on the game’s poster, or whether it was a decision made without his consent, but it’s a questionable move either way.
