TotalBiscuit Reveals Shady Shadow of Mordor Review Code Deal

With #GamerGate still seeing quite a lot of attention, you’d have thought that developers would try to keep less-than-perfect practises hidden from the general public. Perhaps – in an ideal world – they’d even try to do things by the book, even if just until the controversy has died down. It hasn’t happened though, and YouTuber TotalBiscuit has revealed that he was only offered Shadow of Mordor code in return for a paid branding deal.

As an FYI, Shadow of Mordor on PC was given out early to a bunch of Youtube channels for brand deals. Expect lots of content on launch

— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) September 28, 2014

I’m not involved in any brand deal, however I was able to gain access through other means, you can expect an assessment at launch.

— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) September 28, 2014

I very much disapprove of this practice and hope it doesn’t become commonplace. The mixed messages regarding review copies are troubling.

— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) September 28, 2014

The message we got was “we can give you prerelease code but only if you do this paid brand deal”. We refused, naturally.

— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) September 28, 2014

Bear in mind however it could simply be a breakdown in communication. I have no idea, it was frustrating however.

— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) September 28, 2014

Anyway, thankfully we have other people willing to help so we got it with no strings attached. Pls no more of this nonsense PR firms 😡

— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) September 28, 2014

The basic message here is that review code was allegedly only given out to YouTubers in return for (paid) branding on their channel. That might not sound too bad, it’s not like they’re not getting anything out of it. Unfortunately, the very act of tying review copies to advertising in any way, shape or form makes it difficult to disconnect the paid ads from the review itself. The Shadow of Mordor game is also a great choice to try and play it outside. There’s no unbiased option, outside of shelling out money on what is effectively a push of other people’s products in the first place.