MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Every month, Under the Influence showcases influencer talent. This month, we talk to Youtuber CodeNamePizza (over 648k subscribers) who discusses working with Activision on Call of Duty content and how he’s moving away from zombies and first-person shooters with his second channel, CodeNamePizza2.
You can watch the exclusive video he’s recorded for MCV here or read our edited version of the interview below:
How did you get into content creation?
CodeNamePizza: Well this is a really easy question for me to answer because I feel like I’ve been doing it my entire life. As far back as I can remember I’ve been playing video games and I’ve also been editing home movies. So that would either be me playing video games on my Super Nintendo, PlayStation 1, N64, all the way up to where we are now with the PS4 and Xbox One. When I was younger, I used to do animations and funny skits. But then, back in 2012, I decided that I was going to put my two hobbies together and finally create my YouTube channel, CodeNamePizza, which is based around video production and also playing video games.
What games are you most looking forward to in the next 12 months?
Aside from the obvious ones like Red Dead Redemption 2 that I feel like everyone is excited about, my main YouTube channel focuses on zombie content and first person shooters. So the next iteration of Call of Duty, Black Ops 4, is going to do wonders for that channel and that’s what I’m mainly going to be focusing on with CodeNamePizza over the next 12 months.
But I’ve also dedicated a lot of time to my brand new channel CodeNamePizza2, where I’m now focusing on different genres of games and also different games in general.
So RPGs, third persons, any type of game out there I’m willing to play on that second channel and that’s really what I’m most excited about over the next 12 months. Growing that channel from where it is today, which is around 25,000 subscribers to maybe something around 100,000 to 200,000 subscribers by the end of 2018.
What type of sponsored content have you done in the past and how do you approach that line of work?
If it’s advertising a video game by showing early gameplay on my channel or it’s actually advertising a product on my channel, I always stand by the exact same rules. I’m always making sure that I like the product or like the video game. If I am not happy with whatever I’m working with, I won’t post it. Simple as that. I make sure I like it because if I don’t like it and post it, my audience will know. I don’t want to be known as the person who lies to the audience. So I always want to make sure that I like the product first, if I’m going to do a paid promotion on my YouTube channel.
Do you communicate with the publishers of the games you play?
Yes, I work really closely with Activision mainly because my main YouTube channel focuses on Call of Duty content. So I’m able to travel around the entire globe playing Call of Duty maps and games early, to feature that content on my channel. I have also worked with Activision on other things like Crash Bandicoot and also had the opportunity to go down to the UK headquarters of Nintendo and I actually worked pretty closely with them as well.
How do you plan to expand your YouTube channel from a business point of view?
As soon as October comes around, my main YouTube channel is going
to be focusing on Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and I can’t wait for that. But that’s the reason I created my second channel CodeNamePizza2. It gives me the opportunity to play other games, other genres that you would never see on my normal main YouTube channel. So I’m going to be focusing a lot on that second channel and bringing new games and new genres to the table for my subscribers to enjoy.
CodeNamePizza’s YouTube channel is managed by Hype Management. For business enquiries, you can get in touch via email at CNP@hypemanagement.co.uk
