Nvidia Allegedly Terminates Sponsorship for Stance Against Preordering Hardware

Companies take shit away from those they sponsor all of the time. Sometimes because they bad-mouthed the company; sometimes just because the sponsored person did something dumb that had nothing to do with the company.
 
timberwolf said:
If you're gonna whore yourself out, don't get mad when your pimp takes away your toys for misbehaving.
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timberwolf said:
If you're gonna whore yourself out, don't get mad when your pimp takes away your toys for misbehaving.
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You can't bite the hand that feeds. It's not fair, but the world isn't. Sometimes speaking the truth isn't what people or companies want. Choose truth or choose to do what the company that is paying the bills tells you to do. It's only getting more the norm in the modern day world. It is going to get worse rather than better as most outlets to speak your mind are private companies and can ban you basically for no reason. I don't like it but it's reality.

It does complicate things when a guest makes the points and then the streamer gets the hammer. But it's what reality is, no company will pay you to disagree with it, or even allow that view to be discussed if you don't at least try to counter it, if he would have made some points to refute his guest, maybe Nvidia would have been OK with it.

Just goes to show you can have your opinion or you can get paid to "tow the company line", doing both is not really an option anymore, except if the company always agrees with you, and that's not going to happen very often. The world is too complicated for eveyone to always agree, so its bound to happen. When the companies get so powerful it seems they create a "reality distortion field". Which was coined to describe what happened at Apple during it's huge run up under Steve Jobs. His reality was the reality. If you bucked him you were gone.
 
Much like stock analysts, anyone taking a "sponsorship" should be clearly identifying in their articles, editorials and streams, with who is supporting them.

I take reviews on HardOCP, and a few others, as being the most honest and fair as Kyle and the others are very open about either not being sponsor supported or making sure to advertise who their sponsors are in articles/reviews where a conflict of interest could be called into question.

Nvidia'a actions will in no way affect their bottom line from their top shelf card sales as those people have full wallets and care more about the performance than the societal missteps of the company. They should, however, hope that the majority of their sales base buying from the lower tiers does not take too close of a look at AMD and decide that shaving a few frames and possibly a few dollars is worth telling Nvidia to F-off.

I'm not competing professionally when I play and while I can certainly appreciate the stats of Nvidia's latest offerings, I haven't (for at least 10 years) bought the newest, overpriced, offering as it's obsoleted within two years.

All their douche moves aren't enticing me to even look at the 9xx-10xx's for deals much less recommend the brand to anyone. And this from someone who could easily be considered a Geforce lifer based on my purchasing history.:oldman:
 
I watched a bit of the video and I don't think it was the "don't preorder" part that made nvidia take back their toys, I think it was clearly the part where he went "you could clearly see the frames dropping when they turned on RTX". That probably really pissed off Nvidia. That wasn't just a "don't preorder till benchmarks are out" recommendation, it sounded like a "RTX has terrible performance" comment and I am sure it drew a lot of attention from the marketing arm of Nvidia.
 
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DPI said:
Again, its the "what nvidia did" part that's problematic here. We don't know what that means and he's been asked to provide proof of whatever notification he received from Nvidia, or whomever. So far nothing.
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That kind of stuff would probably be covered by the NDA.
 
The first thing that came to mind was LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL :D:D:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

So he though he could get free hardware and still bite the hand that feeds you? Well done nvidia. He won't be missed.
 
so, yea Kyle ... sign that NDA (not)

Stoly said:
So he though he could get free hardware and still bite the hand that feeds you? Well done nvidia. He won't be missed.
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free? ANY reviewer worth reading doesn't need 'free' ... I bet you voted "yes"
 
My brother needed to buy 2 RTX 2080 Ti's. I told him, about this news earlier today and to keep an eye out for people canceling their pre-orders. Glad to say he was successfull in picking up his 2 cards as some pre-orders became avaliable.

I myself only bought 1.
 
_l_ said:
so, yea Kyle ... sign that NDA (not)



free? ANY reviewer worth reading doesn't need 'free' ... I bet you voted "yes"
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He isn't an editor... he hosts a podcast, Nvidia supplied him with hardware as a SPONSOR.
 
DPI said:
After diving into the details on this, it seems plenty of partnered streamers and YouTubers are saying don't preorder and wait for benchmarks. Miraculously they're all fine. But this guy got dropped by a bunch of companies and now he's playing dumb.

Clearly more to the story.
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Get over yourself nvidia is a shit company and this surprises no one
 
wizzi01 said:
Get over yourself nvidia is a shit company and this surprises no one
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Shoosh. I realize kneejerk first, ask-questions-never is totally the thing these days, but let's wait until the facts. So far the guy is waffling on posting any written proof of the alleged notification/cancellation.
 
When you see a company calling someone that you watch or read an "influencer" understand what that means.
 
And these so called "influencers" are getting free hardware while [H] will probably have to fund its own nvidia card reviews themselves.

What the world has come to...
 
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The fact that he's chill with this & downplaying it in his other comment, plus putting the blame on his guest's words (not his own), is very suspicious.
Or he's just trying to cover his butt for future sponsorships.
 
Monkey God said:
If you want some vendor's free stuff, you need to gobble their johnson and say what they tell you to say. Thats how the game works. And yes, if you pre-order something sight-unseen, no real-world, un-biased reviews, you're a sucker.
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This is exactly why I rarely trust "professional" reviews these days, too many of them depend on sponsorship dollars so they all toe the same line. Yeah you may not get day 1 review clicks but who cares, just deliver quality content a few weeks later and that's all that matters. Besides, during the course of that time, an independent reviewer may discover flaws purposely left out by the paid shills.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
The fact that he's chill with this & downplaying it in his other comment, plus putting the blame on his guest's words (not his own), is very suspicious.
Or he's just trying to cover his butt for future sponsorships.
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Sponsorship.
 
katanaD said:
and thats why i voted NO on kyles poll the other day about NDA for nvidia

there is no good reason to let them have control over your own content


buy the shit at retail, review and post those. It what i want anyways.. reviews on ACTUAL retail shipping hardware

not cherry picked review samples
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Exactly correct. Signing that NDA would be a really bad idea.
 
So was the comment by a guest on this guy's podcast or by him?

There's a WORLD of difference.
 
If the guest made the comment, then it's a bit harsh. If the steamer then endorsed it, then Nvidia were right to yank him from the influencer program he was participating in. If you sign up, best be on good behavior for the toys. Common sense.
 
Cr4ckm0nk3y said:
Absolutely nothing wrong with a sponsor yanking their sponsorship if they feel your words are against brand. Its not censorship at all. They didn't take their channel or block any of their content. NV, LG, HyperX, and Zotac simply took back their equipment they provided for free to the streamers.

If you want to be sponsored, and get free shit, it comes with rules. Sponsors pulling equipment/support due to what the sponsored person/entity says is not new. Its called business. Don't like toe the line then don't accept a sponsorship!

With regard to the content said, I don't disagree. No benchmarks, no pre-order. I do disagree with how some of it was said. Fett was disrespectful in how he addressed his concerns.

I stopped pre-ordering anything without a full review. Hardware, I wait for Kyle and Brent to review before I buy anything. I definitely agree some of their comments on price too. I am all for pay to play for halo/top tier cards but their jacking up the price this gen doesn't seem to make sense.

I think the sponsors had a bigger problem with how both kind of shit on NV and not just because they said don't pre-order.
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I agree with half of what you said. But yanking someone for voicing their opinion about a suggestion. I didn't even see anyone bad mouth anything. It was a casual conversation. You are right its not censorship, because those companies can't really ban anything on youtube. It would be youtube who would have to shut them down. So that is irrelevant. They did the only thing they could. They retaliated because of their suggestion about not preordering. I mean which is fine. I never preorder GPUs unless we get benchmarks the same day. But benchmarks are still 3 weeks out, with no direct comparison in raw performance vs pascal in games I would play. But I was skipping this generation anyways, but to be honest GPUs and CPUs I have rarely ordered before seeing reviews. ITs just the smart thing to do. But this was hardly an issue, this just creates a bigger mess and reflects bad on those companies. If I was any of those companies I would think twice about yanking any product for someone saying he wait to preorder or voicing their opinion. Why the hell make non issue an issue.
 
snowcrash said:
This still doesn't change my mind about voting yes to the NDA for Nvidia. Only a selfish person asks Kyle to shell out $4000 for a hardware review. If you want Kyle to do that, put your money where your mouth is and support the site. Any one who says that is part of business and it's Kyle's problem to come up with the money, then that is the same stance as the people who says yes to sign the NDA.
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I am not sure. Kyle has a choice of selling the cards as well that are in demand. Kyle can also return the cards to nvidia depending on their return policy but I am sure Nvidia might keep an eye out on that. But I am sure Kyle could get most of the money back just via selling the cards here. No one is trying to be selfish here. We visit here and we trust his reviews. Its an opportunity cost for Kyle. If this opportunity cost is less than getting his voice shut then I am sure he will do whats best for his long term plans. I got no problem with kyle signing the NDA but I voted no. That is just my opinion and we all have one. its not being selfish. Its what kyle asked for, user feedback.
 
I originally selected yes for that Nvidia poll, but I think I’ll be switching my answer to no.

Fuck them.
 
Naturally, nvidia is well within their rights.

Even more naturally, now quite a lot of people are paying attention to what was so bad for nvidia in a video which has only 2,588 views (at the moment). This seems to me to be one of the more stupid marketing moves, only slightly below EA's "don't buy it" gaffe.
 
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Nightfire said:
Long-haired Steve covers possibly the most deplorable article ever put out by a tech site:
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I only saw the title of the article in my Google news feed last night before bed...

...yeah I didn't bother reading it, and it didn't make any sense for TH to post something like that.

Even if they're not shilling- and I believe that they are- but if they're not, why allow the appearance of it?
 
Ocellaris said:
Well I was going to listen to the podcast however it’s over an hour. Anyone find a time stamp for when they talked about preordering?

Also JayzTwoCents told people not to preorder and he will still get review cards:



Being sponsored by Nvidia is different though, Nvidia is basically paying you to promote for them.
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I watched it 75% of the way through...he is an Nvidia apologist and is trying VERY hard in this video to justify Nvidia's insane pricing. BS. I stopped watching him for a reason, and this video shows that I was right and shouldn't be watching him.
 
jnemesh said:
I watched it 75% of the way through...he is an Nvidia apologist and is trying VERY hard in this video to justify Nvidia's insane pricing. BS. I stopped watching him for a reason, and this video shows that I was right and shouldn't be watching him.
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HARDWARE FUCKING REALTIME RAY TRACING

Fucking children in here.
 
Nightfire said:
Long-haired Steve covers possibly the most deplorable article ever put out by a tech site:
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Absolutely spot on. Glad they called them on ALL of their BS "journalism"! Also, paying money IN ADVANCE and getting NOTHING in return for weeks or months...and THEN getting the "privilege" of being among the first to BETA TEST new hardware and drivers doesn't exactly appeal to me! I am glad not to be "first" when "first" is a crap product? How many here were "first" with an AMD "Bulldozer" CPU or a Vega 64? Now, pre-orders weren't a thing back then (I don't think they were, anyway), but being "first" isn't always a good thing! {disclosure: I own a Vega 64, but I purchased after MUCH research on exactly what I wanted out of a card, and made a purchasing decision based on FreeSync support, not overall performance, but I digress...}

Look, I GET what Tom's incompetent author is trying to convey. There IS a value in personal excitement, anticipation, and realization of owning the latest and greatest graphics technology. Many of us have been wanting and asking for real-time raytracing for games and consumer use for YEARS...and it's always been just out of reach. Having real time raytracing in ANY usable form is pretty cool! It DOES look better. However, much like Physx, it's not critical to the enjoyment of the GAME. It's pretty window dressing, as this video was stating when talking about Battlefield V. Window dressing is NICE, but not essential...and if that dressing means that you have to go from 4k to 1440p...or 1080p, most gamers aren't going to make that trade. If you have to downres to 1080p AND get a 30-50fps framerate? Then that really neat, very pretty feature gets turned OFF by the VAST majority of gamers. If gamers dont use the feature, will developers continue to support it? Maybe...but most likely ONLY if Nvidia pays them to do so...as was the case with many other Nvidia "initiatives" that locked consumers into their hardware.

These cards will live and die by how they play EXISTING GAMES! When the cards are released and reviewers, like Kyle who have NOT signed the NDA, put the hardware through it's paces with existing games, THEN and ONLY then will we be able to judge them. Anyone buying them based on Nvidia's MARKETING is a sheep and deserves whatever they get. I am betting that, based on the hardware specs we have seen so far, the series will be only marginally faster than the previous gen cards, and like Intel's stumble with 10nm, this is going to open up an opportunity for the competition (both Intel and AMD). The only question now is if either company can take advantage of Nvidia's foolish bet on real time raytracing and put out a superior product.
 
No matter if there is more to the story or if he went against company lines for someone sponsoring him (it'd be like Jordan saying don't buy Nike in the 90s), nVidia has every right to terminate their relationship. I'm getting confused on why the thread is in such an uproar and what this has to do with the NDA.

Also it's amazing that you guys all have RTX cards in hand and have benchmarked them knowing their price to performance. I'm not going to pay the ludicrous prices for one (until they come down), but would love one and please let me know how you got it because there are so many experts here on [H]. /s

Had to Edit: I'm not comparing this tool to Jordan lol, just figured it was something even the slowest could interpret.
 
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