It has been rather tough times for IGN as of lately. I mean, it´s been about a week since it became clear that IGN Spain plagiarized RPG Gamer´s review of “The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel” (plagiarization is never alright). Sure, that little “incident” has been sorted out since last week. However, just the other day I noticed something rather strange on Youtube. Long story, short. I was enjoying a GTA5 gameplay video, and suddenly I had a Quantum Break Xbox One ad shoved in my face. Don´t get me wrong now. Normally, I have no problems with video game ads and such, but in the case with IGNs pre-roll ad on. The line between editorial and advertising is pretty much none existing. And as it all turns out, I was not the only one who felt somewhat concerned and uneasy by IGN´s video ad:

I just got this pre-roll ad on YouTube. The line between editorial and advertising is so blurry you can’t see it pic.twitter.com/Rmz0mP8Kwi

— Mark Brown (@britishgaming) 21 mars 2016

I´m of course aware of the fact that “some” people might just shrug and shake their heads at this. However, I think it´s very important to think about the ethics aspect of this matter. And even though I´m not 100% certain whether or not IGN has made a media ethics breach. I still think that IGN´s video ad of “Quantum Break” is somewhat questionable, as I find it to be rather tasteless in terms of ethics (IGN is a video game news site, and still they do monetizing video ads on Youtube for a video game which they will review later on). Well, at least, in my opinion. And from what I saw that day (March 21st), most of the Twitter users who responded to Mark Brown´s (Editor of Pocket Gamer) tweet about IGN´s “Quantum Break” video ad, thought that the video was nothing more than a “100% advertising” kind of thing.

So, with that said. What do you guys and girls think about all of this? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

Credit:
Mark Brown

Source:
IGN
Mark Brown

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

Robin “V-Act” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround

More by Robin Ek:

• New Old Pixels is to bring the original ‘Toki’ arcade game, to original retro hardware
• The 2D pixel art PvPvE extraction shooter, ‘Project S.U.N.D.I.A.L.’, is coming to Steam on April 27th
• The 1-4 player egg cracking adventure, ‘CRACK’, is coming to Steam on October 26th
• The unique horror game ‘Hoarder’ is coming to Steam in 2027
• The cozy first-person warehouse sim ‘BOB LOGISTICS’ is coming to Steam in Q4 2026

Tags: IGN, Microsoft, Quantum Break, Xbox One, Youtube