Geek Culture
Youtube and Disney Dump PewDiePie over Anti-Semitic Content
It’s a rough week for YouTube star Felix Kjellberg, known online by the handle PewDiePie. YouTube announced that it had canceled the second season of the YouTuber’s reality show, “Scare PewDiePie” and taken the channel off of Google’s premium advertising platform intended for “brand safe” channels. Disney’s Maker Studios also announced that they were severing ties with PewDiePie, which may be a decent blow to Kjellberg’s income. The reason both YouTube and Disney dumped PewDiePie lies in the fact that nine videos were found by the Wallstreet Jounal featuring Nazi imagery and Anti-Semitic content.
A Maker studios representative told the journal that “Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case, and the resulting videos are inappropriate.”
PewDiePie is among some of the most successful stars on YouTube, with a total view count of over 14 billion and over 53 million subscribers. In 2016, he was on Time’s magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
Most recently, PewDiePie paid a couple of Indian men to hold up a sign that said “Death to all Jews” and responded to critics by saying that it was “just a joke”.
Kjellberg defended his content in a recent tumblr post, saying “I think of the content that I create as entertainment, and not a place for any serious political commentary. I know my audience understand that, and that is why they come to my channel. Though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive.”
PewDiePie clearly went way too far with this content. While racist jokes may be funny among certain groups, placing it on a platform to be viewed by millions and paying random people to hold up a sign calling for the death of a race is clearly not a smart choice. It’s hard to feel bad for Kjellberg as these decisions he made were clearly in poor taste.
Love Is a Long Road, the Tom Petty song in the GTA 6 trailer, saw a 36,979% stream increase after Rockstar’s reveal this week. Week-on-week Spotify data suggests that, but we’re sure it’s trending similarly on Apple Music and others.
Rockstar and the streaming service released an official Grand Theft Auto Radio playlist with six hours of hits from ZZ Top, Dr. Dre, Megadeth, and others. You can hear it here. Ever wanted to listen to Tom Petty this week?
This week’s Game Awards—what to expect? Geoff Keighley is keeping most announcements under wraps, but he has teased an update on Atlus’ long-awaited Metaphor: ReFantazio. The Persona team’s latest project may be released in 2024, according to rumors.
The title returned this summer after being revealed eons ago, but details are scarce. A new trailer should show more story, gameplay, and systems, as well as a possible launch date. Want to see more of this? The link will tell you when the Game Awards are.
If you play video games, you’ve probably played Skyrim, Bethesda’s decade-old open-world RPG. It’s become a meme after endless rereleases. The company wants to sell paid, player-created mods again after not getting the message from players.
Bethesda tested selling Skyrim mods on Steam in 2015, generously giving modders 25% of the proceeds. After Steam’s 30% platform fee, Bethesda would receive 45%, the “current industry standard.”. After fan backlash, Bethesda removed paid mods, and Steam refunded all purchases.
In subsequent years, Bethesda’s Creation Club added user-created content to Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition, requiring that it not violate lore. Bethesda could also release official Creation Club content on PlayStation.
The developer revealed Bethesda Game Studios Creations and a major update for the oldest RPG today. Players can still upload free mods, but creators can now apply for the Verified Creator Program. Certified modders can charge for their work. Since paid moderators no longer have lore-friendly restrictions, expect chaos.
This is already upsetting the community, and the line between official Creation Club content and moderators is blurring. The fact that paid mods disable PlayStation Trophies but not free Creation content is a disaster.
What do you think of Skyrim’s sorry state? Still playing? How’s the PlayStation Creation Club content?
- Gadgets9 years ago
Why the Nexus 7 is still a good tablet in 2015
- Mobile Devices9 years ago
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 vs Galaxy Note 5: is there room for improvement?
- Editorials9 years ago
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 – How bad updates prevent people from enjoying their phones
- Mobile Devices8 years ago
Nexus 5 2015 and Android M born to be together
- Gaming9 years ago
New Teaser For Five Nights At Freddy’s 4
- Mobile Devices8 years ago
Google not releasing Android M to Nexus 7
- Gadgets9 years ago
Moto G Android 5.0.2 Lollipop still has a memory leak bug
- Mobile Devices8 years ago
Nexus 7 2015: Huawei and Google changing the game