A new talking point has emerged over on Reddit in the last few hours, after Ben Tester (environment artist and PR at Wales Interactive) revealed that a popular YouTube personality (who Tester declined to name) asked for a staggering $22k to talk about their game, Soul Axiom, a title that's heading to Wii U via eShop later this year, and that's already out on PC via Steam Early Access.
Tester has revealed that the unnamed YouTuber (who apparently has a few million subscribers to their channel) sent over a price list that asked for $17,600 to talk about the game and $22,000 to talk about the game and provide a link. It should be noted, as Tester clarified, that this YouTuber didn't guarantee a positive review in exchange for money.
That said, with that kind of money flying around, it's no surprise that Tester (and plenty of others) has begun to doubt the authenticity of video coverage from some YouTubers. Tester also wondered if this is a widespread practice, a kind of duty to be paid so games can reach a wider audience on the back of these YouTube personalities.
Certainly, as a result of these revelations and after recent incidents involving Machinima and Microsoft, YouTubers are once again being scrutinised by their audience.