Former GameXplain Reviewers Allege Severe Crunch Conditions

Former workers at popular YouTube gaming outlet GameXplain have explained the conditions behind the scenes for employees, and the picture painted is not a pretty one. At the tail end of 2020, Steve Bowling, Derrick Bitner, and Ash Paulsen formed Good Vibes Gaming following their departure from the popular YouTube channel. Similar to other recently formed outlets like KindaFunny or People Make Games, Good Vibes Gaming is a splinter group from a much larger organization featuring veteran reporters starting over fresh in the new realm of influencers and streamers.

What’s unusual about Good Vibes Gaming (GVG), in particular, is that they’re splintering off from a YouTube channel rather than a more traditional outlet. One of the perceived benefits of this type of outfit (other than receiving support directly from fans via Patreon rather than through advertising) is that the reporters in question would be free to do their jobs on a more relaxed schedule. Instead of covering every game imaginable, they can focus on their passions and hope their fans come along with them for the ride. At first glance, switching from one YouTube channel to another doesn’t seem like a huge leap, and the reason behind that leap remained a mystery for the GVG crew viewers until very recently.

During their first regular Today’s News Tonight broadcast of 2021, the three GVG hosts found themselves bringing up the conditions that employees of GameXplain must endure. In particular, Steve Bowling mentioned that he had to review Final Fantasy VII Remake in just two days due to receiving the game late from the publisher. As others from the community picked up on the comments and researched more deeply, an unearthed Reddit comment made by Bowling’s wife that not only was the reviewer crunching hard to deliver a finished review in 48 hours, he was receiving a paltry $1-$2 an hour to do it.

While this level of payment for game reviews may not be unheard of in the realm of smaller outlets, many have found it unacceptable for a company of GameXplain’s stature and profit margins. According to metrics like YouTube measuring stick Social Blade, the channel rakes in almost ten million views a month, which translates to $30,000 a year at minimum. There has not been a statement from GameXplain about the crunch allegations, but there was at least one case of posts about the statements being wiped from the channel’s official subreddit. Much to the channel’s likely chagrin, this has led to the subreddit becoming almost solely about both the allegations and who was operating the subreddit moderator account that censored the original posts.

There are very few working in games media today who don’t have a few employer horror stories, but the alleged worker crunch at YouTube staple GameXplain is pretty damning even by those standards. Considering that the outlet is known for incredibly in-depth videos (sometimes analyzing a 30-second teaser trailer for multiple hours), the fact that those who participate in such in-depth coverage aren’t being compensated anywhere close to fairly is disappointing, to say the least. It’s up to the fans if the channel can survive the truth getting out about the business, and it likely won’t be the last time that a YouTube channel of GameXplain‘s size faces the music about how they treat their workers.

Source: Good Vibes Gaming, Reddit

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