Affiliate Disclosure

The short version

Some links on GAME6 are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, we may receive a commission from the retailer. You normally pay exactly the same price as you would going to the retailer directly. Affiliate relationships never determine what we recommend or what conclusion an article reaches.

Articles containing affiliate links carry a disclosure at the top of the page, before the content those links appear in. You should never have to reach the end of an article to discover it was commercial.

What affiliate links are

An affiliate link is an ordinary link to a retailer that carries a tracking identifier telling the retailer the visit came from us. If a purchase follows within the retailer’s tracking window, we may be credited with a commission — typically a small percentage of the sale, paid by the retailer out of its own margin.

This is a common funding model for independent publications. It has one clear advantage over the alternatives — it does not require putting content behind a paywall or filling pages with intrusive advertising — and one obvious risk, which is the incentive to recommend whatever pays best. The rest of this page is about how we handle that risk.

What it costs you

In almost all cases, nothing. Affiliate commissions are paid by the retailer from its own margin, not added to your price. Clicking an affiliate link does not increase the cost of what you buy, and choosing not to use one does not disadvantage you in any way.

If we ever publish a link where that is not true — an arrangement where the price differs — it will be stated explicitly on the page. We are not aware of any reason that would arise, but the commitment stands regardless.

Affiliate links do not buy recommendations

This is the part that matters, so it is worth being specific rather than reassuring.

• A product is not recommended because it carries a commission, and is not excluded because it does not. Products without any affiliate programme are recommended whenever they are the right answer.
• Commission rates play no part in ranking, scoring or ordering within a guide. Where a guide ranks options, the ranking reflects editorial judgement about the product.
• Retailers and affiliate networks have no advance sight of, or input into, our coverage. They cannot request changes, and they do not receive drafts.
• If the honest answer to “should I buy this?” is no, the article says no. An article that recommends against a purchase is worth more to readers than one that recommends everything.

The broader separation of commercial and editorial decisions is described in the editorial policy.

Prices and availability

Prices, stock levels, bundle contents and promotional offers change constantly and are controlled by the retailer, not by us. Any price mentioned on this site reflects what we observed at the time of writing and may be out of date by the time you read it. Always confirm the current price and what is actually included on the retailer’s own page before buying.

Regional availability varies too. A product available in one market may be unavailable, differently priced or sold in a different configuration elsewhere.

Retailers control the transaction

When you follow a link to a retailer, you are leaving GAME6 and entering into a transaction with that retailer. Payment, delivery, warranty, returns, refunds and customer support are entirely between you and them, governed by their terms and their privacy policy.

GAME6 is not a party to that transaction and is not responsible for third-party checkout systems, order fulfilment, delivery times, product defects or customer service outcomes. If something goes wrong with an order, the retailer is the party who can resolve it — but we would still like to know, because it affects whether we keep recommending them.

Sponsored placements are different

An affiliate link is not the same thing as a sponsorship. With an affiliate link, we chose the product and may earn a commission if you buy it. With a sponsorship, an advertiser has paid for placement.

Sponsored material on GAME6 is always labelled as sponsored, clearly and prominently, and is kept visually distinct from editorial coverage. We do not sell links inside editorial articles, and we do not publish paid posts dressed up as editorial. If you cannot tell whether something is sponsored, that is a failure on our part — please tell us.

How disclosure appears on articles

Any article containing affiliate links displays a disclosure notice at the top of the page:

This article may contain affiliate links. GAME6 may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.

That notice is applied per article, not site-wide, so it means something when you see it. A blanket notice on every page — including pages with no commercial links at all — trains readers to ignore it, which defeats the purpose of disclosing.

Programmes and partners

Where GAME6 participates in specific affiliate programmes, they will be named here. At the time of writing, no affiliate programmes are active on this site — this page exists so the policy is in place before any commercial link is ever published, not to imply arrangements that do not yet exist.

Questions

If anything here is unclear, or if you think a link on the site should have been disclosed and was not, contact us. See also the website disclaimer and terms and conditions.