Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2025]

see colon said:
But, isn't it the right of nVidia, or Nintendo, or Xbox, or Playstation to have invite only events that they decide who gets invited? Access is very powerful leverage and I don't think there's any way to prevent that as an influence tool.
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If we just concede on this then there’s no point to watching reviewers that get review copies then. If access is traded for positive coverage then they aren’t impartial reviews, it’s dressed up marketing. The natural conclusion is to only watch reviewers that buy the product they are reviewing. I don’t think review journalism would work at all under that model.

If an IHV/whatever had integrity they’d give out review products without strings attached.
 
Cappuccino said:
DF has 1.5MM subs, has ads on their videos, and runs a Patreon, if those don’t pay the bills then they’ve been running a deficit for a decade lol.
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They have done more expensive reporting lately, like sending people to GDC etc. That costs extra money.
 
tuna said:
They have done more expensive reporting lately, like sending people to GDC etc. That costs extra money.
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If a reviewer has to spend money they can’t otherwise get without becoming an ad channel, they shouldn’t spent that money. I’d rather them be a smaller scale operation with integrity than a large one without.

This is why I stopped paying attention to large outlets btw, like IGN, who now owns them I guess. They scaled up and sacrificed being impartial.
 
Cappuccino said:
DF has 1.5MM subs, has ads on their videos, and runs a Patreon, if those don’t pay the bills then they’ve been running a deficit for a decade lol.

This is pretty illusion shattering but somehow not surprising. I’ve long suspected that most tech YouTube channels are basically just long form ad reels. Since the incident with HUB and Nvidia back in 2020 it’s been pretty much confirmed anyways that IHVs and other vendors have some level of influence in how their tech gets covered. That said, I did not expect to see a literal 7 minute advertisement straight from Nintendo lol.
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Social Blade reports values between $1.5k and $23k. Obviously this is just an estimate.


Linus Tech Tips recently made a video talking about how much they earn and YouTube Adsense accounts for just 11%.
And they are a much bigger channel.

2024-lmg-revenue-split-v0-nj642rm46vqe1.jpeg
 
Cappuccino said:
If a reviewer has to spend money they can’t otherwise get without becoming an ad channel, they shouldn’t spent that money. I’d rather them be a smaller scale operation with integrity than a large one without.

This is why I stopped paying attention to large outlets btw, like IGN, who now owns them I guess. They scaled up and sacrificed being impartial.
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It’s okay to try new things. Stagnation can equally kill a business. It’s critical that businesses adapt to change, failure to do so will lead to death.
 
tuna said:
They have done more expensive reporting lately, like sending people to GDC etc. That costs extra money.
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Part of the reason for the whole kerfuffle was [Sponsored] was placed at the end of the video title initially, and on most desktop displays that text would be truncated in the thumbnail view - so people clicked on it expecting a DF video, and were understandably bewildered when getting an ad. They eventually moved it to the front, then finally put the [Ad] tag to make it as clear as possible.

Cappuccino said:
If a reviewer has to spend money they can’t otherwise get without becoming an ad channel, they shouldn’t spent that money. I’d rather them be a smaller scale operation with integrity than a large one without.
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I'd say I generally agree with this, like I said on another forum - running a business isn't a genetic condition.

That being said, they are pretty restricted in their revenue generating methods. Their Patreon:

1744923562350.png

Now, I'd like 17k a month. But for the size of their staff, the technical expertise, travel, % given back to Patreon, equipment etc - it's not nothing, but it's far closer to 'jack shit' than a windfall. Channels like Gamers Nexus make a ton (relatively) on merch - something DF really doesn't have, and not sure if they could. They're somewhat in a quandary that the type of coverage they do requires more expertise and resources than other tech channels, but it's also a relatively niche audience.

So while I wasn't crazy about Sponsored videos at all when they first hit, and certainly wasn't happy with this, I do have some sympathy for their revenue constraints and for me, Rich's note in the newsletter was enough - it's water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned. Like any outlet they're not beyond criticism but any odd decisions should be viewed in the context of their channel as a whole and given some credit if they actually address the critique head-on, and they did.

Remij said:

This game looks fantastic! Was not on my radar at all, but after this video, I'm definitely going to be picking it up. A great C&C style RTS is exciting, and long overdue!
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It's been a long time since I played an RTS, this might be my re-introduction. So nice to see a project with a very focused scope and executed almost perfectly.
 
tuna said:
This was top of Google's search result: https://insights.issgovernance.com/...ies-related-class-action-settlements-of-2023/

It seems like those kinds of law suits are mainly targeted at mergers and acquisitions, not for specific product launches. Do you have any other examples?
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How many would you like?

www.globenewswire.com

INVESTOR ALERT: Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: MANH); DiCello Levitt LLP Encourages Investors with Losses to Discuss Their Options with Counsel

SAN DIEGO, April 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise...
www.globenewswire.com www.globenewswire.com






Anytime you make a statement about the financial condition of your company - such as when revenue will occur - if it turns out to not be true you will get sued.

1744925802499.png
 
Cappuccino said:
I am begging people to please understand what fiduciary responsibility actually is. People online act like investors can sue the board every time share prices drop.

The executives of a firm are obligated to the shareholders to do their best within reason to make a profit. This doesn’t mean if they don’t make money they get put in jail. It also doesn’t mean if a project is delayed they get put in jail. Actually, the opposite: if a game taking an extra 2 months means it will sell double (just as an extreme example) they should probably go with that option!

The only time fiduciary responsibility is really relevant is if an executive is actively working to sabotage a company, or is engaging in some sort of corporate espionage. Unless you are purposefully acting against the best interests of shareholders then you are not running afoul of the SEC.
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Why are you posting what you think it means instead of what the law says it means? Intent doesn’t matter.

www.law.cornell.edu

fiduciary duty

www.law.cornell.edu www.law.cornell.edu
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Spend money? Like trips to conferences? GPUs and monitors? School fees? Mortgage? Heating?
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If digital foundry cannot make enough money to pay its employees a reasonable salary (enough for ‘school fees’ and a mortgage) without becoming a paid ad channel then something is very wrong lol.

I don’t believe in throwing away impartiality because “well gotta pay the bills somehow!”, and if you believe that then you don’t really care about impartial hardware/software reviews at all.
 
arandomguy said:
I've now declared myself as a hardware reviewer. Nvidia, AMD, Intel and all you IHVs send me your hardware without any strings attached. If you don't do so you have no integrity.
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If you write articles/make videos for a large enough audience, then yes, you are 100% correct.

Are you honestly, genuinely saying that IHVs should have editorial discretion on the reviews journalists write for the hardware they send out? What the fuck is the point of hardware reviewing if anyone with a sample is writing a puff piece?


Potato Head said:
Why are you posting what you think it means instead of what the law says it means? Intent doesn’t matter.

www.law.cornell.edu

fiduciary duty

www.law.cornell.edu www.law.cornell.edu
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Find me a single example where delaying a product meant the shareholders successfully sued the board.
 
Cappuccino said:
If you write articles/make videos for a large enough audience, then yes, you are 100% correct.

Are you honestly, genuinely saying that IHVs should have editorial discretion on the reviews journalists write for the hardware they send out? What the fuck is the point of hardware reviewing if anyone with a sample is writing a puff piece?
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That's a string and condition if you're dictating audience requirements. So you agree that you need some conditions to sample reviewers and not all reviewers deserve samples.

I'm just going to add something but you also seem to be under the impression that review journalist and hardware reviewing is some sort of objective categorization when they are not. If your requirement is purely audience size than does that mean any youtube channel with what? 50k+ subs? 100k+ subs? can request a sample? I'm guessing not, as you are actually going to want to dictate terms in terms of how that sample is used.
 
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arandomguy said:
That's a string and condition if you're dictating audience requirements. So you agree that you need some conditions to sample reviewers and not all reviewers deserve samples.

I'm just going to add something but you also seem to be under the impression that review journalist and hardware reviewing is some sort of objective categorization when they are not. If your requirement is purely audience size than does that mean any youtube channel with what? 50k+ subs? 100k+ subs? can request a sample? I'm guessing not, as you are actually going to want to dictate terms in terms of how that sample is used.
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I’m not going to give you an exact sub cutoff for when they should be able to expect review samples. That’s unreasonable and you’re just trying to poke holes. A YouTuber with 10 subs probably isn’t going to reasonable get a review sample, but one with 500k could probably expect one. But the number doesn’t actually matter here, it’s the principle.

Let’s get down to fundamental principles here: do you think hardware vendors have editorial discretion over the reviews that are made from the review samples they give out?
 
Cappuccino said:
I’m not going to give you an exact sub cutoff for when they should be able to expect review samples. That’s unreasonable and you’re just trying to poke holes. A YouTuber with 10 subs probably isn’t going to reasonable get a review sample, but one with 500k could probably expect one. But the number doesn’t actually matter here, it’s the principle.

Let’s get down to fundamental principles here: do you think hardware vendors have editorial discretion over the reviews that are made from the review samples they give out?
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I think you've misunderstood my question there by focusing on the audience count. If you're saying audience count is only what is important, does that mean any youtuber with an audience count over that threshold deserves samples if requested regardless of what they want to do with that sample? Again I'm guessing here not because you do use the term review/reviewer, so you do actually want criteria on how that youtuber covers and uses said sample.

So as for your question, I do think hardware companies have discretion over the samples they give out. I think companies doing business with other companies can negotiate whatever terms they want with each other.

And yes I used companies specifically for a reason. I'll ask you this, do you think these content creators you are referring to are working for or running a for profit business or non profits doing a public service?

I'm going to be a bit more clear on my stance on this issue. I don't think hardware vendors and content creators (and yes I keep using content creators for a reason) have any inherent obligation to each other. And the audience deserves what they're willing to support and pay for. And if they are only willing to pay $0 for a company to purchase their own hardware for coverage (ala the Consumer Reports model) then they're saying that is only worth $0 to them.
 
Potato Head said:
AMD Llano.


Lisa Su was a named defendant.
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First that was a settlement and not a successful lawsuit. Secondly saying the legal action was just because of Llano's being delayed is very misleading.

The equivalent in the context of this conservation regarding delaying games (I believe?) would be alleging that Sony issued statements that TLOU2's PC port was not facing issues and would not be delayed while they knew otherwise. Also later Sony acknowledging that TLOU2 PC would be delayed but it would not negatively impact sales due to high demand but allegedly knowing otherwise. It would not be the equivalent of being sued because Sony simply announced TLOU2 PC being delayed.

I'm not even sure why there would be questions here? Games are delayed all the time, there isn't an investor lawsuit every single game delaying.

Forward guidance to investors is also revised all the time. There isn't a lawsuit every time that happens.
 
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