In the wake of revelations that Microsoft has been paying an undisclosed premium to YouTube commentators for mentioning the Xbox One and its games in videos, information has arisen regarding a similar but much larger YouTube payment program undertaken by major game publisher Electronic Arts.

A recent post on gaming forum NeoGAF lays out the details of EA's Ronku program, which pays healthy rates of $10 to $15 CPM (cost per 1,000 views) for videos showcasing various EA games. The program page at Ronku.com describes the site as "an exclusive program powered by EA devoted to connecting top YouTube gamers directly with the people that make the games they love to play."

EA also acknowledged the program's existence in a statement to The Verge, saying that "through EA's Ronku program, some fans are compensated for the YouTube videos they create and share about our games... User-generated videos are a valuable and unique aspect of how gamers share their experiences playing the games they love, and one that EA supports." (EA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Ars).

The campaigns described in NeoGAF's screenshots offer to pay YouTubers for videos highlighting specific marketing buzzwords and features in the company's games, such as a "Cross The Line" moment in Need for Speed: Rivals or examples of "Levolution" in Battlefield 4. EA also asks that paid promoters "please respect the auto brands when talking about specific cars" and "not make a video that focuses on glitches in the games."

Unlike Microsoft's more limited YouTube promotional buy, which amounted to just $3,750 in payments, shots of the Ronku promotion pages show purchases for millions or tens of millions of views per campaign, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars of spending on each individual game.

In its statement to the Verge, EA insisted that participants in the Ronku program are required to "comply with FTC guidelines and identify when content is sponsored." The lack of such disclosure led to much of the concern over Microsoft's YouTube promotional efforts, thanks to legal language that suggested video makers couldn't talk about the promotion (in potential conflict with FTC guidelines for sponsorship disclosure). Microsoft later said that confidentiality language "relates to the agreements themselves, not the existence of the promotion," and further said it had asked Machinima to "add disclaimers to the videos that were part of this program indicating they were part of paid advertising."

Participation in the Ronku program comes with similar legal boilerplate, according to the NeoGAF leak, but some YouTube videos (like this one) do state in the description that they are "part of an EA promotion." There are many other videos, however, that include the same very specific EA social media campaign links mentioned in the Ronku screenshots, yet which do not appear to disclose any relationship between EA and the video maker.

EA reiterated to the Verge, "We explicitly state in the Terms & Conditions of the program that each video must comply with the FTC's Guidelines concerning Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising."