Jon Hicks

New Meta horror: it automatically opts in advertisers for AI-generated creative that they don't request, and makes them legally responsible for the results www.adweek.com/media/advert...

You know what season it is

I really liked @jank.cool's review of Gears E-day, in which @marshdavies.bsky.social takes a more personal journey through 20 years of kerb stamping. Free to read, registration required: www.jank.cool/gears-of-war...

"Gears is too stupid a fantasy to take seriously. But E-Day tries to take things very seriously indeed. Between every moment of carnage, the viscera-soaked Venga Bus pulls its handbrake to make a pitstop in solemn rumination, as each soldier unpacks some grim trauma." www.jank.cool/gears-of-war...

Almost every game novelisation we've read so far has done this look-to-camera thing where they say the game's name or some Proper Lore Noun and it is always very funny.

We're hiring! We're looking for a Writer and Narrative Designer to join the Fallen London team at a senior or mid level. This position is permanent, remote, and full time, which for us means 35 hours a week. #GamesJobs

Games and tech freelancers : I am once again asking for freelance pitches for PC hardware features (not reviews or guides, sorry!) on RPS. Email's in bio, genAI users need not apply (it's much, much easier to spot than you think)

Xbox says it's "roughly three-quarters of the way" through its layoffs, which by my count means 800 more people. Bleak www.gamesindustry.biz/xbox-transfe...

NEW: We spent months investigating a little-known media startup called Brown Brothers Media, which buys legit news sites and turns them into AI-powered zombie content farms What blew my mind was its traffic -- it appears to be getting more readers than NPR or CBS News futurism.com/artificial-i...

We did some important financial journalism.

Games satan gave each of us a generous $15 budget to make a videogame. There were some caveats. www.jank.cool/episode-j1-g...

Pondering if Sony is dropping PhysInt because it's economising after the live-service calamity, or because Kojima + next-gen budgets = financial black hole. Or both.

There is a very specific form of mania that comes from working a show and listening to the same trailer on repeat for three days straight.

Come to Halle 2.2 yesterday if you want an ass kicking

Jank subscribers have unlocked Sin. We cannot be stopped.

Idly counting down the days until the GTA leakers are unmasked as a bunch of teens who Take-Two will spend years forcing into generational bankruptcy. kotaku.com/take-two-sub...

Here are Jank's subscriber goals. It's simple - the more people join, the more writers we let out of their cages. www.jank.cool/behold-our-f...

My hastily-assembled pinhole projector made from things found in the office was a big hit and multiple people wanted to have a go on it, whch I'm 80% sure wouldn't have happened if it wasn't an eclipse.

Seems sensible. Devolver's whole vibe always felt antithetical to being a public company.

Today is Bethesda Softworks' 40th birthday. Can't imagine it's a particularly joyful celebration, given the month they've had.

Finally, somebody was brave enough to say it uk.themedialeader.com/being-the-si...

Games are culture now.

I don't care about football and I care even less about the relative merits of BlueSky but I must concede that the posts are good.

Real

There's a (completely new) job opening in my team for someone with a lot of SEO/GEO smarts. 5+ years relatable experience required in SEO but it's understood that the GEO side is new and evolving. Helps to know AEM. Hybrid position - WFH and/or office. job-boards.greenhouse.io/sonyinteract...

Shout out to whoever had the monkey's paw for "a proper sequel to Fallout: New Vegas".

Enjoying the Football Posts while I can, before the American timezone switchover to Layoff Posts.

Almost exactly a year ago: www.gamesindustry.biz/looming-xbox...

Only one of these statements is true.

Heatwave meant I accidentally drank an entire iced coffee at 3pm while being older than 35. On the plus side, heatwave meant I wasn't going to get any sleep tonight anyway.

Here's a rare one: we're hiring a News Editor at Eurogamer! The role is hybrid in London, though there can be some wiggle room on this for a worldie of a candidate. We're after someone who can not only proof, but understand how to push a story forwards originally. www.eurogamer.net/eurogamer-is...

Being on press mailing lists during Next Fest is like being individually notified about every snowflake in a blizzard.

Met so many great devs last year being a part of Leftfield (also my first time traveling out of the US!), and David is an awesome and thoughtful curator. Definitely recommend submitting to this showcase if you're interested!

Experiential marketing means you can have the classic "driven to madness by listening to one trailer looping indefinitely" showfloor experience while waiting for a cab. I do not care for it.

I have my reservations about Xbox pandering to the peanut gallery but I can't argue with returning to transparent consoles.

Grenades never got better than in Halo 1. www.jank.cool/grenades-nev...

mfw you try to talk to me about the MIxtape discourse Anyway here's my contribution to the Mixtape discourse

Actually very wise to bypass the suite of pet leakers for this internal memo and just post it unredacted to the official blog