Former GameXplain members talk about troubles with the company (heavy crunch, low pay) [Update: André Response]

[cw_sasuke]

Sad part of it they all put in so much work into GX and it grew alot thanks to all those work hours - i remember them celebrating all these new sub milestones, probably thinking that some of the higher income would end up affecting there pay as well. Honestly thats what i thought as well - in terms of views they were doing much better than other smaller outlets i follow. Ash not being able to be full time employed was always a bummer, but somewhat understandable since i thought the other guys were at least reasonably well off.

 

[Deleted member 23212]

Well, as more and more information comes out, it makes more and more sense why so many people just left at once.

 

[Lozjam]

I should specify I was paid more than Steve but was still on the low side of game journalists. Unfortunately my hours were all over the place which people could probably interpret from the upload schedule, I needed to put that lifestyle behind me when I learned I was having a baby.

The sponsorship cuts in Steve statement werent ever communicated to me which is a bit disheartening. If I knew there was an a way to make a bit more money I might not have had to juggle 2 channels just to get by.

Frankly I'm not sure why we weren't all paid the same, Steve covered both the PS5 and Series X launches at the same time - including games like Astro Bot and Spider-Man.

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This is just really disheartening. Especially since you were the one instrumental to GX's compounding success. The channel really started to get big after you joined.

I want to say that I love your work with Nintendo Life though. You just seem so much happier, and it shows with your content. I am so glad everyone got out of there, because no one should have to put up with this. I know Nintendo Life has been growing quite a bit too, with your efforts and Alex and Zion's. You will be able to make NL as big or bigger than GX.

Same with Steve too with GVG.

It seems like Andre intentionally mislead all of you, about how the pay works and how much you should all be earning. It's really quite awful, and I am sorry you had that experience.

I really hope we can hold Andre accountable so the same thing doesn't happen with his current staff. No one deserves this.

 

[Merc_]

It's just bizarre Andre would treat them this way when they were all so important to GX's success. He had a good thing going here and seemingly fucked it up by being greedy.

 

[oatmeal]

I wonder if anyone asked for better pay before moving on? Wouldbe interesting to know how Andre responded although if they did it would seem that it was a negative answer.

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Right. That's a big component here.

 

[Deleted member 56266]

I wonder if anyone asked for better pay before moving on? Wouldbe interesting to know how Andre responded although if they did it would seem that it was a negative answer.

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It is strange to think Andre would just let them leave without mentioning a counteroffer or higher remuneration but it feels more like a time put in and schedule thing as well as the money so maybe it just wasn't worth it. Or maybe Andre really did just say ok bye.

 

[Opposable]

Is it an American thing to have different people doing esentially the same work on vastly different salries or bonuses? I have read American articles before about how to negotiate pay etc or ask for pay rises or you will likely stay on your salary indefinitely.

Not saying that should have been happening here, but is it normal?

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Is it an American thing to have different people doing esentially the same work on vastly different salries or bonuses? I have read American articles before about how to negotiate pay etc or ask for pay rises or you will likely stay on your salary indefinitely.

Not saying that should have been happening here, but is it normal?

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if youre referring to like the general concept of unequal pay for employees it's definitely not just an American thing it happens all around the world.

 

[Arkai]

No. Most likely they are contract workers paid per article. They have to develop their own contacts, get their own codes for review and then play the game. To the extent there's crunch, that's less the fault of the site and more the publisher giving keys to long games with little time before the embargo.

I don't know what happened here specifically, but this is how games journalism works pretty much everywhere. It's like this because there aren't many articles but there are a great many looking to get into their dream job.

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I don't see this being the case and doesn't make sense in this particular instance (not that it does anyway). Especially with it being YouTube. But going by comments look it wasn't a per article as suggested. Still terrible overall.

 

[MrGameANDWatch]

I wonder if anyone asked for better pay before moving on? Wouldbe interesting to know how Andre responded although if they did it would seem that it was a negative answer.

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Would you want to work for or with someone who intentionally withheld a living wage from you and only decided to give you a more meaningful wage when you caught them denying you of it?

 

[Noog]

It's really gross we haven't gotten a statement or anything yet. We can't take the heat off, he may be hoping that people just forget.

 

[Zero-ELEC]

Incredibly disappointing to hear this. I hope everyone that is currently working on GameXplain is getting properly compensated.

 

[Dekuman]

GameXplain's social blade shows they peaked at E3 2019

GameXplain's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile) - Social Blade Stats

View the daily YouTube analytics of GameXplain and track progress charts, view future predictions, related channels, and track realtime live sub counts.

socialblade.com

They had a disastrous fall/winter 2020 where their views dropped significantly.

I visited them for the first time in months, last 20-30 videos are clickbait bullshit talking about
- Nintendo rejecting Microsoft's purchase
- Some Reggie news
- Some Iwata news
- MonHun performance issues clickbait video
- MonHun demo

All wrapped in extremely unappealing clickbait thumbnails. Not a single review of new games coming out, or have released. They can't even cover 'current' Nintendo news properly.

GX is totally irrelevant.

 

[Gassy_N0va]

This is so sad to hear, I used to love GX's videos, but it's been years since I last watched any. I assume we haven't heard anything from Andre on this?

 

[IronFalcon1997]

After the mass exodus and seeing some of the crazy ways Andre has acted in the past (getting heated over tiny differences of game opinions, seeming controlling, etc.) I should've known. I'm unsubscribed and will not be following him anymore

 

[Terraforce]

I'm loving GVG as well but I do wonder how sustainable it is. There are so many Nintendo channels right now, For example you have Player essence, Nintendo Life, AndresRestart, Nintendo World Report TV, Switch Watch, Switchforce, Switch Stop, Commonwealth Realm, Source Gaming and of course GameXplain.

Then there are channels that focus heavily on Nintendo and are among the bigger gaming channels. Spawn Wave, Scott The Woz, BeatEmUps, Arlo and RGT 85 for example.

There needs to be some sort of constant flow of content to go alongside the talkshow

Currently only their vids with big guests like Rogers Base and Scott are doing decent numbers. Everything else is around 5000 views. I hope that will grow, same goes for their Patreon number that's not showing that much growth unfortunately.

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They've mentioned it's more of a side hustle. Content is less sure, but they're able to talk about games with their community without having to crunch for time. Like Easy Allies, they're definitely a group that relies more on Patreon more than Youtube for revenue.

 

[IronFalcon1997]

Also brainchild I'm so sorry about the lies you had to endure. That's awful, and you deserved way better for your tech analyses. They were some of the best things on the channel

 

[Giga Man]

I just hope the current GameXplain staff are aware of how Andre treated his former staff so that they aren't taken advantage of like they were.

 

[Zero-ELEC]

- MonHun performance issues clickbait video

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How is that video "clickbait", exactly?

You do noone favours, especially former staff, by implying new staff is incompetent or bad.

I just hope the current GameXplain staff is aware of how Andre treated his former staff so that they aren't taken advantage of like they were.

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Current GameXplain staff seem to be mostly content with their situation.

 

[Dekuman]

How is that video "clickbait", exactly?

You do noone favours, especially former staff, by implying new staff is incompetent or bad.

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Thats' just my take based on their recent content.

 

[BassForever]

Current GameXplain staff seem to be mostly content with their situation.

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That doesn't mean much of anything though, until a few months ago most people thought the old GX crew was content with their situation. If GX is your primary income generator and you're miserable due to lower pay/heavy crunch then you anticipated when taking the job, you aren't going to come into an era thread of go on twitter and rip the company you work for a new one, that's completely illogical. You only start going on the record a few months after the fact when you feel confident you don't need to worry about going back to your old job.

 

[Hermii]

Thats' just my take based on their recent content.

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I actually just checked out that video (mostly to check if people were spamming the comment section about this, which they were).

And it was about a bug that if you have more than 50 friends on the switch, the game stutters like hell,

Hardly clickbait imo.

 

[Zero-ELEC]

That doesn't mean much of anything though, until a few months ago most people thought the old GX crew was content with their situation. If GX is your primary income generator and you're miserable due to lower pay/heavy crunch then you anticipated when taking the job, you aren't going to come into an era thread of go on twitter and rip the company you work for a new one, that's completely illogical. You only start going on the record a few months after the fact when you feel confident you don't need to worry about going back to your old job.

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I am speaking after seeing quotes from current GameXplain staff such as this

Which I deliberated in posting because I did not wish to drag current staff into this topic. I cannot speak to how the new staff is being paid, but at least they seem to not being crunched horribly, per their admittance.

I am not defending GameXplain/Andre. It is genuinely disheartening to learn that the staff was not properly compensated for their work and overworked besides. I hope above all else that current staff is being paid well and are in a better environment.

 

[RainRainRain]

I don't think any of the current staff should be roped into this, aside from hoping that they are being paid at a fair rate.

what really needs to happen is a statement from Andre, which so far hasn't happened yet and is looking increasingly slimy with his lack of any twitter activity and the fact that the reddit account (which was obviously him, it had ring fit posts and matches his overall posting style from twitter) tried to shove this whole issue under the bridge.

speak up, Andre

 

[BassForever]

I am speaking after seeing quotes from current GameXplain staff such as this

Which I deliberated in posting because I did not wish to drag current staff into this topic. I cannot speak to how the new staff is being paid, but at least they seem to not being crunched horribly, per their admittance.

I am not defending GameXplain/Andre. It is genuinely disheartening to learn that the staff was not properly compensated for their work and overworked besides. I hope above all else that current staff is being paid well and are in a better environment.

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And I hope they're all getting paid fair compensation, aren't being asked to crunch crazy hours, and enjoy the place they work, that's the dream of everyone. I'll stand by my "do you really expect any of the new people to speak out against their current employer?" comment though. That said regardless of where the truth lies the people pinging both the old and new gx crew on this site or social media need to stop, this has likely caused more stress for all parties involved when it really didn't need to.

 

[TheCongressman]

I don't think any of the current staff should be roped into this, aside from hoping that they are being paid at a fair rate.

what really needs to happen is a statement from Andre, which so far hasn't happened yet and is looking increasingly slimy with his lack of any twitter activity and the fact that the reddit account (which was obviously him, it had ring fit posts and matches his overall posting style from twitter) tried to shove this whole issue under the bridge.

speak up, Andre

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He does need to speak about this. But we also don't know for sure about the reddit account, apparently other mods and staff use it as well.

 

[mera]

This is super disappointing...I hope everyone here gives Good Vibes Gaming a chance if you haven't yet. Their videos are delightful and I love the hosts Steve, Derrick and Ash. I frequently watch their videos whilst working from home lol

 

[mera]

But for Steve to be paid that amount last year is insane. He became a regular voice like Derrick was. He did the Animal Crossing review and post content stuff. He was there for discussions. To be paid that little is indefensible no matter which way you cut it.


Oh. Big fucking yikes. I really thought you and Derrick were full-time. And like I said, Steve too after he did Animal Crossing.

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Steve's animal crossing review is one of the best and most heartfelt videos on that entire channel.

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Hope we see a statement from Andre soon.

 

[diverit]

Andre's a capitalist

Who knew?

Employees being paid less than the work they put in when compared to bosses

Where have I seen that before?

Welcome to America, China, India, etc., etc., etc.

 

[KtotheRoc]

Andre is getting slammed for this on the GX YT channel and on twitter as well. This isn't going away.

 

[Shoichi]

Until Andre comes out with a statement I don't think this news is going away any time soon. Him hoping to just have this news blow away after a while I don't think will happen.
There's are ways to come out of this with a brighter future and the way he's doing it now isn't the way.

 

[HMS_Pinafore]

Looks like GameXplain removed the ability to view their subscription count on Youtube, I guess having the numbers go down wasn't a good look for them.

 

[VyechnayaSlava]

I've been losing interest in their content any way (especially when losing the best team members and trying to expand focus outside of Switch), but this seals it. I'm done. Unsubscribed.

 

[HustleBun]

I am speaking after seeing quotes from current GameXplain staff such as this

Which I deliberated in posting because I did not wish to drag current staff into this topic. I cannot speak to how the new staff is being paid, but at least they seem to not being crunched horribly, per their admittance.

I am not defending GameXplain/Andre. It is genuinely disheartening to learn that the staff was not properly compensated for their work and overworked besides. I hope above all else that current staff is being paid well and are in a better environment.

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Steve and Tris's statement above were both really strong but I agree that Andre's statement will be the most important one here.

I know that people are angry with his silence but I genuinely hope that it's because he wants to reflect and run the ol' analysis machine over the full situation again.

I joined GX for Andre and came to love Jon, Tom, Ash, Steve, Derrick, Amy, etc. I really hope this is resolved on some level, for all of them.

To Steve Bowling's point, please don't shit on GX fullstop- it's not fair to the crew there that still produces a lot of great content.

I thought Tris was a great hire from Andre, really enjoying their passion for games and their explosive fantaticism for the Zelda franchise. Legit learned a lot of cool Zelda facts from Tris that I never knew during the Seasons game club.

 

[bxsonic]

TheCongressman Handicapped Duck QuixoticNeutral and anyone else who mentions me in this thread:

I'm gonna check out now since I think I've said more than enough (mainly out of frustration and disappointment) but I'm extremely grateful for everyone's support and I'll never be the same after this. Thank you all.

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Personally, I subscribed to GameXplain for your amazing videos. So it's really sad if they paid you little for such great work.

 

[RainRainRain]

Looks like GameXplain removed the ability to view their subscription count on Youtube, I guess having the numbers go down wasn't a good look for them.

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I didn't even know there was an option to do this. But yeah, I can't view their sub count anymore.

Uh oh, we lost a very small amount of our million+ subscribers, better hide the amount of subs rather than address the issue! This is getting increasingly shady.

He does need to speak about this. But we also don't know for sure about the reddit account, apparently other mods and staff use it as well.

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Totally, but you have to understand that current employees are not going to speak against or take measures not advised by their employer, even if the account wasn't being run by Andre at the time. That's why I am also taking Tris' statement with a grain of salt. I do hope the new employees are being treated better, but I don't see any way to verify that at this point in time.

 

[Syriel]

$1-2 an hour?!
That's absolutely fucked

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Holy shit this hurts! Only $1-2 an hour for some much work?! Are you kidding me?! Andre really has some explaining to do!

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For smaller, "fan" style sites this is common. Many don't pay at all.

For professional outlets, this is insanity. Even if talking effective pay.

From old Gamespot and Giantbomb days, I got the message that anyone making videos and write-ups as it happens at E3 has no time to be on the floor.

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Thats what i heard of most outlets, and even GX where open about it: one of the stuff has to be in the room to upload stuff, and the stuff members switch up who has to stay in the room?

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Someone has to be available to coordinate, but usually that person is either on the floor in a mini-office (that's what we used to do when I ran GamePro.com, we just had a working booth on the show floor for editors to drop in, quickly write a story, grab food, and then duck out to the next appointment, while other staff managed the process of converting screens/video, and uploading) or back home AT the office managing it all from there.

Every gaming outlet is always "at crunch". I worked for many years for gaming website - any big game comes out, you think reviewers play the game (even those they don't really like or don't want to play) only in their work hours? Nope. And of course people are not getting paid for the time they play any game (to review it, record gameplay etc) after hours.

You cannot end this kind of crunch. I guess only if you build your fanbase and rely on Patreon. If you want ad revenue you HAVE to have every review/preview/gameplay right on embargo day. And it always requires some level of "crunch".

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This isn't true if you plan your editorial calendar well. Yes there will be the occasional crunch days, but it shouldn't be a rule.

I think people are getting too hung up on "$2 an hour". That's clearly talking about effective rate of pay not actual pay. If I agree to pay you $500 to do a project you get $500 regardless of if it took you 8 hours or 80 hours. If the latter happens it's not really fair to me to say "Bass only pays $6.75 an hour" when we didn't agree on an hourly rate of pay. This isn't excusing what apparently happened at GX over the past few years, just pointing out how effective pay works.

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That excuse falls away once it's past your first month. An assigning editor knows how long something should take, so offering to pay, say $50 for a review, IS intentionally paying a low $$/hr rate.

Do the bigger outlets actually pay their staff for time spent playing a game? I've never been paid for time played, only actually writing a review.

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Yes. One way to help get around it is "internal freelance". This was used by Future US on a regular basis when I did work for them.

Mags scheduled their core work for salaried staff.

Stuff outside the expected workweek was offered up as freelance work (aka do it at home) to staffers of other Future US mags. They got paid a piece rate for this work, on top of their regular salary.

Stuff that still needed doing was sent out to regular freelancers.

 

[Guaraná]

Bullshit.

And brainchild, this may be even harder to hear for you.

So I actually went ahead and did a bit of math here. So I decided to count the amount of views they have in a single month. I went for April, because that was the whole FF7 debacle, the team was still all there, and it was before they started to have the new crew on.

So I counted the viewcounts of april. For the record, I started on Last of 2 Delayed, and I ended on TONS of New Xenoblade Screenshots. Just so people can check my math. I merely counted all of the views from the videos, and man is it staggering. There were a total of 9,252K views. Now this gives us a great baseline, considering that youtube/advertisers grant a certain amount per thousand views.
Now the actual numbers can change and vary, depending on ads and stuff. But the common wisdom, is that a youtube video will make around $3-$5 per thousand views.

Even on the low end, it doesn't look great for Andre. If every video made $3 per thousand views, that means GameXplain racked up a total of $27,756 within the month of April. Alone. At the high end, it means GameXplain racked up a total of $45,260 in the month of April. And yes, advertisers change, so the answer is likely somewhere in the middle, and it stacks up with what Steve's Wife was saying. And this is even before their extra sources of revenue. They have a patreon, are brand ambassadors for Amazon(they get a cut from amazon links in the description), and they also sell some merch. Not to mention donations from streams, and ect. Looking at this.... It is absolutely disgusting that Steve wasn't paid. With this amount of monthly revenue, even on the low end, they would be able to pay each person at GX(at the time) at least 80K a year, with a lot left over. Hell even 40k would be pretty substantial for the "part timers" like Steve and Ash.


This is absolutely disgusting.

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I have a small youtube channel and 3 dollars per 1000 views is not even close to what I make on my videos. Maybe 1/10 of that.

i don't know where you got these numbers, but they don't apply to my channel.

I talk about simracing stuff (factor 2, iracing, assetto corsa, pcars, automobilista 2 etc).

 

[Jannyish]

1-2$/hour is brutal. I have a fixed salary, but if I do the math and divide that down by hours (not counting overtime, cause we don't get paid for that, we're expected to take time off later), I am somewhere between 15-20€/hour. Net income. So I alrd took off the taxes here. And last time I checked exchange rates, it was €>USD.

Now, work-life-balance is hard at my job too. But that's not necessarily because of overtime but because of it being so unpredictable and thus, irregular in its work hours. You could liken it to how, in video game press, if Nintendo suddenly shadow drops an announcement without warning, you HAVE to make a video about that on that day, even if you should alrd be off work. I have those kind of situations too. But as long as I don't have children to raise that is fine, I can usually compensate by coming in late the following day and things are cool, I don't acquire much overtime hours that way.

This however, is not cool. And how does one even finish AND review FF7 Remake in 2 days? I have 80 hours on the clock in that game before I even finished it.

So does GameXplain just pay a flat fee and that's it?

If that's the case and there's no language as to what that pertains, it seems easily exploitable by Andre and the channel. It's kind of a weird monetary set up.

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Flat fees are fine imo if they are high enough and work hours are still being paid attention to. I have a fixed salary too (yes, still a little different from a flat fee but you know what I mean), but we clock in and out of work and HR pays attention so people don't accumulate too much overtime. It can be a good concept if not exploited, for the employed as well, because no matter what, I will get the same income every month even if I work less hours. It's steady and not subject to how much work is actually coming in. It CAN be easily exploited though, that much is true.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

That excuse falls away once it's past your first month. An assigning editor knows how long something should take, so offering to pay, say $50 for a review, IS intentionally paying a low $$/hr rate.

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Do outlets factor in game length to what they pay per review? Does a freelancer reviewing Miles Morales get the same pay as someone reviewing AC: Valhalla?

 

[trugs26]

Oh wow I suddenly feel way out of the loop. I support Gamexplain on Patreon and I didn't realise that these guys have left to form GVG (hadn't heard of GVG until now). I haven't really been very active with their content the past year.

This whole situation is disappointing and I await Andre's reply before making the decision on how I handle my subs/patreon.

 

[MykonosFan]

I have a small youtube channel and 3 dollars per 1000 views is not even close to what I make on my videos. Maybe 1/10 of that.

i don't know where you got these numbers, but they don't apply to my channel.

I talk about simracing stuff (factor 2, iracing, assetto corsa, pcars, automobilista 2 etc).

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It depends on a lot of factors. It's not an even scale for all channels, sub sizes, content categories, etc. For a random example business and make-up focused content earns higher ad rates than gaming content.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

Man i should check some more GVG on my phone while working. The bigger they are, the heavier they fall.

 

[Replicant]

Wait I thought GameXplain was just a youtube channel.

Who's making these decisions? The guys making the videos?

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Yeah I thought this was just a YouTube channel a couple of guys made.

 

[Guaraná]

It depends on a lot of factors. It's not an even scale for all channels, sub sizes, content categories, etc. For a random example business and make-up focused content earns higher ad rates than gaming content.

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yes but 5dollars per 1000 views seems like A L O T to my (small) experience.

Just to give an example: a video with 500 views gives me less than 10 cents. Most of my over 1000 views video never ever gave me more than 20 cents.

like I said, my channel is really small (sub 5k subs), but sim racing (my focus), is a kind of a videogame, so the ads should be similar.

 

[Lozjam]

I have a small youtube channel and 3 dollars per 1000 views is not even close to what I make on my videos. Maybe 1/10 of that.

i don't know where you got these numbers, but they don't apply to my channel.

I talk about simracing stuff (factor 2, iracing, assetto corsa, pcars, automobilista 2 etc).

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Both Jon and Steve's wife confirmed that this estimation is in the ballpark.

Depending on the size of the channel, the content of the channel you can get, ad rates can pay differently.

The important part, is that they have confirmed that these estimates, are in the ballpark of what GX makes.

 

[Syriel]

Do outlets factor in game length to what they pay per review? Does a freelancer reviewing Miles Morales get the same pay as someone reviewing AC: Valhalla?

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Depends on the outlet. If you're working with a reputable one, I would expect a higher sum for a known lengthy game review (especially if it needs to be turned around ASAP) vs one that is easier to finish.

That said, piece type also matters. Back when I had a newspaper column, I was paid a flat rate per column. But at the same time, the content was 100% me. If I wanted to squeeze a long JRPG review into a weekly column, that was my choice. My editor just cared about me delivering the content on time.

 

[Guaraná]

I also have my own channel, lol.

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nate stop covering those weird indie games you're too good...

seriously thou, I don't know about your professional life, I'm just saying as someone who appreciates your posts here and your podcast.

you have all that it's needed to have a successful videogame channel: you have good inside info, you can analyze those informations and come up with good conclusions (personally I like those analyses more than the pure rumors you might or might not know), also your diction is very good and you're respected in this community.

I have no idea on what kind of job you have, but if you have an opportunity, I think you could find a lot of success on youtube.

 

[Steve]

I wonder if anyone asked for better pay before moving on? Wouldbe interesting to know how Andre responded although if they did it would seem that it was a negative answer.

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I did. My wife was leaving her job and I told Andre I needed more than he was paying me as I was anticipating things could get tight for me. I was weighing picking up another job at the time to make up the difference.

Andre offered that I host, edit, and upload the podcast at a rate of $50 per episode.

I can't find the exact quote on this one, but I paid for my own tools. I bought my own mic, camera, editing software and capture devices. None of those expenses were covered by GX.

I'm fairly certain others asked for more too, but I'll leave that to those affected to discuss.