Hey everyone! So I just did my first episode of Video Game of the Day where I received a review code for the game in question. I’ve often thought about how I would handle these kinds of things on the show but it hadn’t been an issue up until now. So I just want to clarify some of my personal policies on sponsorships for Video Game of the Day.

First and foremost, I WILL ALWAYS BE TRANSPARENT WITH YOU! In my mind, the worst thing I could ever do is come across as hiding some potential conflict. I would never do anything that would compromise the show but I know that sometimes we can do things that look bad even with the best of intentions so I just don’t want to anything in secret. If I have received outside influence of any kind in the course of making an episode of Video Game of the Day, whether it be a review code, a listener request, or a full sponsorship, you will know about it.

Secondly but no less important, I will never alter the contents of a show based on outside influence. I want to clarify here, I am not a review show. While I sometimes inject my personal opinions into episodes, I try and stick to general sentiments about games. I’ve talked about negative reviews for games that I’ve loved and have spoken positively about games I’ve hated, so long as those are common critiques of a game. I’m not out to review games for you all, I am here to introduce you to games you may never have heard of and share some stories about gaming history. That said, I will not change that core concept for anyone. If a company comes to me with a sponsorship that works for the show, that’s great, but I’m still going to talk about the positive or negative reception the game has received because that’s what this show is partly about. That honesty doesn’t change and I will always try to be as unbiased as I can be in what I discuss for each episode.

Thirdly, and this is subjective but I just want to state my goal, I will never take sponsorships for products or from companies that do not mesh with this show. That doesn’t mean that I’ll only take gaming sponsorships but I will never do ads for anything offensive or out of character for the show. Video Game of the Day is intended to be something the entire family can listen to and enjoy. I’m not going to compromise that by taking ad money from a cigarette company or an adult website, for example. I will also always try to put ads at the end of a show so that you can skip it if it’s something you aren’t interested in. Finally, ads will never take up more than 10% of an episode. I know how annoying that is, I’ve unsubscribed from those shows myself. I will never do that to you. Ads will be concise, clear, and at the end of episodes so that you can enjoy the show and skip the ads if they don’t pertain to you.

I will undoubtedly edit this policy as issues arise or if I think of something important but I wanted to clearly state my goals and my current mindset. You, my listeners, are important to me and I want to do right by you whenever I can. Sponsorship may sometimes feel like a dirty word but if I can turn this into a full-time job, there are tons of things I could do to make Video Game of the Day even better for you all. New shows, new platforms, all sorts of things. But I don’t want to ever compromise the show to get to that point.