Can You Make Real Money Testing Video Games?

In this reaction video, Matt goes over the side hustle idea of becoming a video game tester. There are a few holes in this side hustle (like many others) that should be considered before going into it. Watch this video if you’re thinking of getting into this. 

There are tons of people out on social media giving business advice. Some of it is good advice, but most of it isn’t good. In this series watch CapForge’s owner react to different advice videos. He’s an expert in all things business and has 20+ years of experience under his belt. Some of the things he reacts to might even surprise you!

Video Transcript: 

Business Advice Video:

I haven’t given you guys any side hustle in a while so let me tell you. This is one you don’t have to leave your house for. You can be lazy. And you get paid up to $120 for each one of these that you do. And this is something called testerup. And it’s a website that you go to, you sign up, and you test games. And then they send you games. You test it. You write a review. Or you do a report. Push the buttons online whatever it is. And you get paid.

Matt’s Review:

Okay. As with any of these things, I think you have to think about what’s in it for the person who’s paying you to do this. If they’re gonna give you a hundred and twenty bucks it’s because they wanna get 250 300 400 dollars of value out of the hundred and twenty that they pay you. So how’s that gonna happen? Maybe if you have a social media following. Maybe if you’re big in the gamer community. Maybe if you got a Twitch channel they’ll be willing to pay you to test their games and talk about their games and promote their games. Or maybe there’s some other angle that I’m not thinking about on why this makes sense. These videos always make it sound like you can go and sign up for these things no matter who you are. And get paid 120 bucks no matter how much time or effort you put into it. No matter how many people go and sign up. There’s not an unlimited number of $120 checks out there waiting to be sent out. It just – there isn’t. And if they’re gonna be paying that kind of money it’s because they are expecting a return of value greater than what they’re spending. Otherwise, they’re just looking to go out of business. Which is not very common, right? It may be true that this is something that actually works. That they will and have paid people 120 bucks or whatever the number is. But it’s not the case that it is an unlimited number of people. That anybody can apply and get in. That anybody can do it as many times as they want. And that it’s gonna be fun and interesting and worth the effort, right? Maybe the trick is anybody can do it but they only pay you if you do 8 hours of content on this game, right? And spending 8 hours making a video of yourself playing this game and being interested could be a lot of work. and a lot of time that you don’t wanna put into it. And even then they may say “Well you did eight hours but it wasn’t good enough so we’re not paying you. But we still reserve the right to use your content.” Or who knows, right? Anytime you see these videos about “do this do that, it’s super easy, super fun. And they pay you. And anybody can do it. And do it as much as you want.” That’s never really how it works. So your alarm bell should immediately go off. The red flag should go up. This is not really how it works. Not that it isn’t real for some people but it’s not real for everybody. And it’s not real as much as you want. And it’s not real in that they’re just giving free money away to anybody who signs up. So I would say there are better uses of your time. If you’re looking to make money do your own thing. Start your own thing. Add real value. You’ll get there a lot faster than trying to sign up for stuff that isn’t really gonna work out the way it’s promised.