IGN Steal Indie Trailer, Watermark it, Make money off ads
The creator of SpikeDislike 2 probably dreamt of the day IGN would cover his game. He probably should have been more careful what he wished for. Yesterday SoCoder user Jayenkai saw that IGN had uploaded a version of his trailer to their mobile games YouTube channel, a trailer which they’d just downloaded from HIS YouTube channel. As with all IGN videos, they’d placed the IGN watermark onto it – a device used to automatically credit IGN when the video is used elsewhere. They uploaded it to an IGN page, a page with ads…
IGN were making money from a trailer they’d stole without the original creator’s permission. That page has since been removed, but the video still remains active on Youtube. The description had a single line saying what the game was, and then a link back to the IGN Mobile channel.
Thankfully, the issue was brought up on Reddit and Twitter, and any exposure that was lost has probably been regained. There’s still no link back to the original developer via the Youtube channel, nor on the game’s IGN page.
Article By Mat Growcott
Mat Growcott has been a long-time member of the gaming press. He's written two books and a web series, and doesn't have nearly enough time to play the games he writes about.
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