Warner Bros. paid YouTubers for positive game reviews

It apparently paid PewDiePie and other YouTubers for good reviews of 'Shadow of Mordor.'

Warner Bros. has settled an FTC complaint accusing the company of paying YouTubers "hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars" to make positive review videos for Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. FTC filed the complaint back in 2014, after the studio ran an online marketing campaign for the game. According to the the commission, Warner Bros. required (PDF) the online influencers they hired to make a video that "promote[s] positive sentiment about" Shadow of Mordor. That video should "not show bugs or glitches that may exist" and should "not communicate negative sentiment" about Warner Bros. These influencers also had to promote their videos on Facebook and Twitter. The commission didn't release a list of the YouTubers the studio paid, but it did name PewDiePie as one of them. Since those influencers received payment for videos praising the game, their creations are classified as sponsored content.

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That wouldn't have been a problem if they disclosed it, but the FTC says the company didn't require them to do so within the video itself. Warner Bros. only instructed them to place disclosures in their videos' description boxed, and most of the time, you can only see the entirety of what's written in there by clicking "Show More." In PewDiePie's case, you'll see a line that says "This video was sponsored by Warner Brother" when you view the video's whole description. Some of the reviewers didn't even say that their videos were sponsored, only that they received a free copy of the game. In all, the paid reviews raked in 5.5 million views, 3.7 million of which came from PewDiePie, who has over 46 million subscribers.
It's worth noting that Shadow of Mordor was well-received and won eight out of the nine DICE awards it was nominated for. Warner Bros. probably didn't even need to pay people to get good reviews. If you're wondering what kind of penalty the company got, well, let's just say it got off real easy. The commission only wants the studio to make sure the influencers it hires clearly and conspicuously disclose that they received payment from Warner Bros in the future. It also has to review those videos for compliance and withhold payment if they don't contain the proper disclosure stating their status as sponsored content.

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Pokemon go adds billions to Nintendo's market value

Pokémon Go is the latest hotness in mobile gaming and Nintendo is basking in its glow -- to the tune of $7.5 billion in additional market value. Nintendo stock closed up 25 percent on Monday, and by the end of last week, when Pokémon Go hit mobile devices across the US, Australia and New Zealand, the company's stock was already up 9 percent.

Nintendo added $7.5 billion to its market value on Friday and Monday alone, Reuters reports. Nintendo didn't directly develop or publish Pokémon Go, but it holds a large stake in the series' licensor, The Pokémon Company. Pokémon Go was developed and published by Niantic Labs, Google's former AR division that was responsible for the Ingress mobile game. Nintendo and Google invested an estimated $30 million in Niantic while it was working on Pokémon Go.

The stock boost is great news for Nintendo, which has been struggling to save face and money since 2011.Its living room console, the Wii U, hit shelves in November 2012 and it didn't sell nearly as well as the company expected or needed it to. Nintendo executives predicted they would move nearly 100 million Wii U consoles, but they've sold just 13 million since 2012. Nintendo lost money annually between fiscal years 2011 and 2014, largely banking on legacy titles like Mario, Animal Crossing and Super Smash Bros. Of course, market value doesn't translate directly to profit for Nintendo, but rising stock is a sign that investors still believe in the house that Mario built. Nintendo will need all the support it can get ahead of its next console launch, which we expect in March 2017. The Wall Street Journal reports that Pokémon Go will hit Europe, Japan and other Asian nations within a few days, citing people with knowledge of internal plans.