Some Game Companies Pay for Play on Conan’s “Clueless Gamer” Skits

EXCERPT: "The gaming world has been good to Conan O’Brien in the past year and a half. The late-night talk show host’s glib (and often hilarious) videogame reviews, 'Clueless Gamer,' have become a viral sensation, racking up millions of views online."

[Snookies12]

Well... He's Conan. He's just awesome enough to generate all those views and anyone who disagrees is just jealous they don't have his hair lol.

Seriously though, the guy is pretty entertaining to watch. The Tomb Raider one was my favorite, when he kept impaling Lara again and again.

[Abash]

Isn't Xbox one of Conan's sponsors?

[Snookies12]

I'm not too sure on that one, I always see him playing on one though so it most likely is.

[ITPython]

Wouldn't surprise me, MS is in just about every companies pocket.

Just today I got an email from my credit card company talking about how I can spend points I have earned. And guess what, the picture they show has a XB1 in it front row and center.

Really sad MS can't sell the XB1 without throwing money at anything and everything possible to try and trick the consumers into thinking it worth purchasing. PS4 managed it (I have yet to see a single PS4 ad anywhere), and it currently leads the pack by a mile.

Just goes to show, better product > crap product with an infinite amount of advertising and bribes. Although the numbers are closer than they should be, so it definitely does work.

[nix]

^^^ words of mouth = still the best viral in the world. if you are true to your promises and have a good product people will talk only good things about it.

i've heard about dads buying 5 year old kids PS4 because the kid's friends are also buying PS4s. i think that's absolutely stupid thing for a dad to do because it's too expensive a toy to buy for the 5 year olds but what surprises me is how the 5 year olds are talking about PS4. it's just baffling how big this PS4 thing has become.

[bakasora]

duh~

[Heisenburger]

My favorite part was when Conan got fed up with him failing and started punching him repeatedly. Lmao

Team Coco!

[fluffydelusions]

This should be pretty obvious anyway. All that late night stuff is paid deals mostly

[maniacmayhem]

"One source familiar with the show’s practices said about a quarter of the games that were featured on the skit were paid endorsement deals. None of these deals are disclosed to the public."

Uh Oh!! Will N4G show the same outrage for Conan O'Brian as they did Microsoft? Or by reading the comments above it's okay because it's obvious or it's Conan.

[Kivespussi]

Well, the difference is he is not paid to say good things about the games he plays. He's paid for just playing them and doing what he does.

[maniacmayhem]

The youtubers were also not paid to say good things. There's no where in the Machinima document that says the youtubes had to say good reviews for the game.

Also this article states that games were the company did not pay received negative comments from Conan and games that companies did pay for Conan to review were reviewed highly.

So there is no difference from what folks on N4G are accusing MS and Machinima of.

[nix]

maniacmayhem,

"2. You may not say anything negative or disparaging about Machinima, Xbox One or any of its Games in your Campaign Video;"

line no. 15 for you.

http://pastebin.com/vec6vjv...

i think you should google before you comment.

[maniacmayhem]

@Nix

uuuuh, that says not to say anything negative...the same way a person sponsoring any product wouldn't say anything negative about the product.

But where does it say to ONLY say or you MUST say positive reviews for the game.

The document says to mention you are playing the game on Xbox One and to show game footage. No where does it say you MUST say positive things about it.

That person under this agreement could have been showing a walkthrough, easter eggs or How To type of video and all they would have to do is mention they are playing this game on Xbox One and show footage of the game on Xbox One.

One must not only google but also read.

[JasonKCK]

Amazing how attitudes suddenly change now that it's Conan.

[MonChiChi]

Hmm sec, checking attitude..... yep.. wait nope, still the same Love team coco hate MS's practices attitude.

[JetsFool3500]

Still hate em both conan took my boy George lopez off TV & MS Is only in it for the money

[moodymofo]

i dont know if i would pay for that kind of exposer cause he allways mocks gamers and the game they are promoting and he acts like its the stupidest thing alot of times

[Heisenburger]

I think a lot of gamers appreciate being treated like adults. Allow me to explain..

On the clueless gamer segment featuring Resident Evil 6, there are a lot of stupid barriers that keep you from exploring the environment fully. There's a scene where there is literally a chair blocking his progression and Conan looks right at the camera and points out how stupid it makes the main character look.

It's the sane reason I enjoy the Zero Punctuation(Yahtzee) reviews. The more I like the game he's tearing into, the more I enjoy the mocking.

These companies know that getting people laughing/feeling joy in direct relation to their product is * good publicity.

Some of them may just like the idea of their game being shown on Conan. Not all developers are rock stars. Some would kill for attention from someone like him.

[Tapani]

He's Conan and I approve all his methods blindly as I am a follower of his Coco cult.

Have you guys seen the Spanx scetch where Andy is bleeding? It's one of the funniest things I've seen in a while :D

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[WeAreLegion]

Completely different than being paid to say the game is good.

[ElementX]

The terms of the Machinima campaign didn't require any review of the game or console. All you had to do was say you were playing on Xbox One. You could do a "lets play" style video and talk about the story or what you were doing in-game. The campaign terms didn't have any requirement of a review or praise of any sort.

[ELpork]

I want more!

[RogueSmurf]

You seriously didn't know...? This is news?