Disclosures on places like YouTube and Twitch are murky territory, but EA is pushing for increased transparency.
In a post on EA’s German news blog (translated by NeoGAF), EA announced that they’re stepping up their disclosure game by contractually requiring content creators to disclose with EA-provided hashtags and watermarks. The watermarks are pictured above. I reached out to EA in North America, and they confirmed that it’s a company-wide thing, though some rules vary by region.
“Supported by EA” is to be used in situations where EA has paid for access to the game (travel, review copies, etc), but did not influence the video/stream itself. “Advertisement,” on the other hand, is exactly what it sounds like: EA provided material or directly influenced the direction of the content’s, um, contents.
Recently, the FTC slammed Warner Bros for failing to ensure overt disclosures of a Shadow of Mordor promotional effort in 2014. It’s hard to imagine EA wasn’t paying attention. Regardless, this strikes me as a good thing for people who aren’t fans of giant, invisible conflicts of interest stalking through the shadows and wanging them over the head. If, for some reason, you are a fan of that, I don’t really know what to tell you.