8 News Stories That Prove Gaming Has Already Changed Forever

2. Ninja's $1 Million Paycheck Proves Marketing Has Changed

As alluded to previously, streaming is big business. Popular names like PewDiePie have been raking in millions for years now, but one little news story seems to signify an even greater paradigm shift in how these personalities are being used as marketing tools. Publishers paying "influencers", be it streamers, YouTube personalities or even Instagram models is a common practice, so nobody really batted an eye when it was revealed that EA paid popular streamer Ninja $1million to play Apex Legends.

What is interesting, however, is how Apex Legends received no formal marketing prior to its launch. Announced and released on the same day, the developers explained that in order to avoid bad press and let the title speak for itself, they decided to avoid a regular marketing push. It made sense; the announcement of a free-to-play battle royale game, made by the people behind Titanfall and published by EA, would have received massive pushback.

Of course, EA still marketed the title by paying streamers, a far more insidious way to promote a game like this. While paid sponsorships usually have to be disclosed, the relationship between streamer and audience is inherently more trustworthy, and this allowed the publisher to get their game in front of millions of people while downplaying their potential to push back or respond vocally.

It's kinda shady, and will no doubt be a marketing approach the industry leans into even more in the coming years.