Interesting week of news. Or not.

Dota2 tournament ends with a bunch of Chinese lads about a million dollars better off. I don't really get what Dota is BUT every podcast I listen to is obsessed with it, with several highly respected journalists claiming its in the top few games ever. Is it any cop?

Several YouTube scandals too. 2 publications release stories on YouTube games channels doing big money deals with publishers to earn cash from sales resulting in positive reviews. Lots of interesting debate on the CVG off the record podcast about the balance of traditional games media vs these YouTube play / review channels. Don't watch them myself (bar The Escapist) but I can see the issue if the success of AAA titles becomes linked to spend on dodgy outlets. Makes you wonder if that's why these Next Gen companies made such a big deal of their machines being so linked to the channel?

Second story was the failure of Yogcasts, a Kickstarter game based on a YT channel. Its been axed and most of the cash has gone. Its an inherent issue with the venture I guess (and making games based on a YT channel?!?) but its brought the flaws of the system to the fore.

Battlefield Hardline gets postponed to late Spring. No one who played the Beta is overly surprised.

Microsoft lay off 18,000 though most of those are from their Nokia acquisition. Most of the Xbox TV team go though so with that dead and Kinect gone, seems the Xboxone really is all about games now.

Whatcha been playing?