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Medium reported severity

Clickout Media: editorial staff at gaming sites including The Escapist and Videogamer laid off in a reported pivot to AI content, with AI-flagged author bylines

In February 2026 Insider Gaming and the A.V. Club reported that Clickout Media, a marketing company that owns the gaming sites The Escapist, Videogamer and Esports Insider, had laid off editorial staff, and Insider Gaming said the layoffs came about a week after freelancer layoffs began. Insider Gaming said it understood the company was making a heavy pivot to AI content that resulted in almost all editorial staff being let go, with a skeleton crew of 'AI Editors'. Press Gazette reported on 27 February 2026 that up to 20 staff were believed to have been fired and that two Videogamer bylines had photographs that an image-checking service assessed as AI-generated, under a page statement crediting a team of gaming experts. Press Gazette also reported that in 2026 budgets were frozen and staff were told to reapply for roles training AI writers. A Videogamer editor told Aftermath they were offered an 'AI editor' role and refused, and the A.V. Club reported that editor posted that they and their team were laid off. An Escapist writer said their role was up for redundancy. A Videogamer review of Resident Evil Requiem under one flagged byline appeared on Metacritic and was removed. Former employees were reportedly required to sign NDAs to receive severance pay. Clickout Media had not responded to Insider Gaming or Press Gazette at publication, and Aftermath reported no response to its questions about AI-generated author images. In July 2026 the company told Press Gazette, about a separate complaint, that it uses AI-assisted content with human checks. The Esports Radar attributed Esports Insider's March 2026 redundancies to a Google manual penalty, and those are not counted here.

AI system
Unidentified AI writing and image tools
Clickout Media (owner and operator of the sites)
Occurred
Feb 2026
Reported
17 February 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person · Relation unknown
Reported harm
Professional Harm
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Work · Media
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 6 underlying accounts
11 claims: 11 reported. 9 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 2 people

AI system as recorded: Generative AI writing and image tools used by Clickout Media at its gaming sites (specific systems not identified). Aftermath reports AI agents that can emulate key staff's style and an internal scale labelling articles from 'AI Minor' to 'AI Significant'.

Reported harm

Outlets report that Clickout Media laid off editorial staff and freelancers at its gaming sites in February 2026 in a pivot to AI content, that a Videogamer editor was offered an 'AI editor' role and refused it, and that employees were believed to be forced to sign NDAs to receive severance pay. Press Gazette characterised the replacement with AI bylines as misleading to readers. The company had not responded to Insider Gaming or Press Gazette at publication and the AI link for individual departures is not confirmed.

What remains unknown

  • The number of people laid off is not established. Press Gazette says up to 20 staff were believed to have been fired, Insider Gaming says almost all editorial staff, and no source lists them. Freelancers are reported laid off without a count.
  • The link between each departure and AI is reported by outlets from unnamed sources. The Escapist writer's post as quoted does not mention AI (Insider Gaming), and The Esports Radar attributes Esports Insider's March 2026 redundancies to a Google manual penalty.
  • The AIAAIC page dates the redundancies to 'February 2025 onwards'. Every dated report read (Insider Gaming and the A.V. Club on 17 February 2026, Press Gazette and PC Gamer on 27 February 2026, Aftermath on 2 March 2026) places them in February 2026, and that archive date is not adopted.
  • Earlier context is recorded without a reported consequence to a person: Insider Gaming says Clickout Media bought The Escapist in June 2025, Aftermath dates the creation of Videogamer author profiles to late October 2025, and unnamed staff told Press Gazette AI-written casino stories began late in 2025.
  • Exact notice dates are not reported. Insider Gaming places the freelancer layoffs about a week before 17 February 2026.
  • Clickout Media had not responded to Insider Gaming or Press Gazette at publication, and the AI-detection results (IdentifAI for photographs, Pangram for text) are third-party tool outputs quoted by Press Gazette and were not independently verified.
  • Press Gazette's 27 February 2026 article and its 9 July 2026 article were read from Internet Archive captures (21 September 2026 and 17 August 2026) because the live site returned HTTP 403, and The Esports Radar was read from an 11 March 2026 capture. The Kotaku and Checkpoint articles could not be read (HTTP 403).
  • Social media posts by the laid-off staff were not inspected directly and are known only through the outlets quoting them.
  • The reader effect rests on Press Gazette's characterisation of the replacement as misleading. No reader account was inspected and no reader count is recorded.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Insider Gaming reports an AI pivot with a skeleton crew of 'AI Editors', Press Gazette reports AI-generated bylines and staff told to reapply for roles training AI writers, a Videogamer editor told Aftermath they were offered an 'AI editor' role, Aftermath reports AI agents and an AI-labelling scheme at Clickout Media sites, and Clickout Media said in July 2026 that it uses AI-assisted content. Clickout Media had not responded to Insider Gaming or Press Gazette at publication, and Aftermath reports no response to its questions about AI-generated author images. The AI-generation findings for the bylines come from third-party detection tools, and the company has not confirmed them.

11 claims: 11 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported In February 2026 Clickout Media laid off editorial staff and freelancers at gaming sites it owns, including The Escapist and Videogamer. Press Gazette and the A.V. Club also name Esports Insider among the affected sites, while The Esports Radar attributes Esports Insider's separate March redundancies to a Google penalty. Insider Gaming reported that the company began laying off freelancers about a week before it told staff, on or before 17 February, that they were being laid off, and Press Gazette reported that up to 20 staff were believed to have been fired.

Causal attribution. Each outlet relies on unnamed staff or named staff posts and none lists the people laid off. PC Gamer relays the earlier reporting. The 'up to 20' figure is Press Gazette's belief and no source lists the people.

Reported Insider Gaming reported it understood Clickout Media was making a heavy pivot to AI content that resulted in almost all of its editorial staff being let go, and that the company would keep a skeleton crew of 'AI Editors'. Clickout Media had not responded to Insider Gaming's request for comment at publication.

Causal attribution. Insider Gaming's own unnamed-source understanding. The A.V. Club and The Media Copilot relay it and are the same chain. The reasons for the layoffs are not confirmed by the company in any inspected source.

Reported A Videogamer editor told Aftermath they were offered a role as an 'AI editor' at Clickout Media and refused it, and the A.V. Club reported the editor posted on Bluesky that they and their team were laid off. An Escapist writer publicly said their role was up for redundancy.

Causal attribution. The editor's own account to Aftermath ties the editor to an AI role offer. The Escapist writer's post as quoted by Insider Gaming does not mention AI, so the writer's redundancy is tied to the AI pivot only by the outlets' reporting. Neither social post was inspected directly.

Reported Press Gazette reported that unnamed Videogamer staff and freelancers said the new owner began loading the sites with AI-written casino stories late in 2025, and that in 2026 budgets were frozen and staff were told to reapply for new roles training AI 'writers'.

Causal attribution. Anonymous staff accounts relayed by Press Gazette, which says its sources did not want to be named and said the company still owed them money. The article does not say whether the reapplication sentence is also attributed to those staff, and no second source for it was inspected.

Reported Press Gazette reported that two bylines it named at Videogamer had photographs that an image-checking service (IdentifAI) assessed as AI-generated, that a text-checking service assessed the biography and articles of the first byline and the copy of the second as AI-generated, and that pages carried a statement attributing content to a team of gaming experts. Press Gazette described the sites as having misleadingly replaced fired staff with AI writers. Aftermath reported that Videogamer author profiles were created in late October 2025 and link to generic, mostly empty Twitter profiles.

Causal attribution. The AI attribution rests on third-party detection tools cited by Press Gazette and on Aftermath's review of profile images and site records. Clickout Media had not responded to Press Gazette at publication. The tools' outputs were not independently verified.

Reported A Videogamer review of Resident Evil Requiem credited to one of those bylines appeared on Metacritic and was removed after people noticed it was AI-generated. Aftermath reported that on 26 February 2026 Metacritic removed the website from its database, and Metacritic said its policy is to remove AI-generated reviews and sever ties with a publication that posts one.

Causal attribution. Press Gazette and PC Gamer quote the same Metacritic statement, so they are one chain for the policy. The AI origin of the review is Metacritic's and the outlets' assessment and Clickout Media had not responded at publication.

  • pcgamer.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    A review of Resident Evil Requiem has been pulled from Metacritic after humans noticed it was AI-generated.
  • pressgazette.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    posted a review of the game Resident Evil Requiem on Videogamer, generating controversy after it featured on the gaming review aggregator Metacritic
  • pressgazette.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    the site moved rapidly to delete the review after it was pointed out that it bore multiple hallmarks of AI.
  • pressgazette.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Metacritic’s policy is to never include an AI-generated critic review on Metacritic and if we discover that one has been posted, we’ll remove it immediately and sever ties with that publication indefinitely pending a thorough investigation.
  • aftermath.site(opens in new tab) supports · English
    On February 26, after discovering a Videogamer review for Resident Evil Requiem was AI-generated, Metacritic removed the website from its database.
Reported Insider Gaming reported it was believed that employees being let go were being forced to sign an NDA about the layoffs at risk of losing severance payments. The A.V. Club repeats this as reported.

Causal attribution. A belief attributed by Insider Gaming without a named source. The A.V. Club relays it and is the same chain.

  • insider-gaming.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    It’s also believed that employees being let go are being forced to sign an NDA from speaking publicly about the layoffs, at risk of not receiving their severance payouts.
  • avclub.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    former employees were apparently forced to sign NDAs about the layoffs in order to receive severance payouts
Reported Aftermath reported that Clickout Media sites have access to bespoke AI agents that can emulate the style of key personnel, and that Clickout's work-management platform labels articles on a scale from 'AI Minor' to 'AI Significant'.

Causal attribution. Aftermath's account from multiple unnamed sources and screenshots it says it viewed. It does not tie these tools to any particular layoff.

  • aftermath.site(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Aftermath can confirm Clickout Media sites have access to bespoke AI agents that can "emulate the style" of key personnel at its gaming websites, according to multiple sources.
  • aftermath.site(opens in new tab) supports · English
    which shows a 'traffic light' system for determining how much AI is included in a specific article, from green "AI Minor", to yellow "AI Standard", to red "AI Significant".
Reported The Esports Radar reported in March 2026 that Clickout Media began redundancy proceedings for Esports Insider's full-time staff and freelancers after a Google manual penalty on the site's domain, and did not attribute those redundancies to AI.

Causal attribution. A source close to the situation, quoted anonymously by The Esports Radar. These March redundancies are recorded as a separate cause and are not counted in this case.

  • esportsradar.gg(opens in new tab) supports · English
    led parent company ClickOut Media to immediately begin redundancy proceedings for its full time staff and freelance team.
  • esportsradar.gg(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The website was hit with a manual penalty from Google and the owners allegedly do not plan on addressing it, resulting in staff writers and freelancers being let go.
Reported In an email quoted by Press Gazette on 9 July 2026, in response to a separate complaint by a freelance writer, Clickout Media said it uses AI-assisted content where appropriate together with human checks and edits and continues to evolve its AI agents.

Causal attribution. The company's own statement about its AI use. It does not address the February 2026 layoffs or the Videogamer bylines.

  • pressgazette.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    We use AI-assisted content where appropriate in tandem with human checks and edits. We continue to evolve our AI agents to be more accurate and improve our human editorial processes.
Reported Press Gazette attempted to contact Clickout Media by email and website form about the layoffs and the AI-generated bylines and had not heard back at publication.

Causal attribution. Press Gazette account of its own contact attempt.

  • pressgazette.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Press Gazette attempted to contact Clickout Media by available email addresses and via a form on its website but has heard nothing.

Sources

7 sources inspected, from 6 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

Press Gazette describes The Escapist, Videogamer and Esports Insider as UK-based, but no inspected source states where the laid-off staff worked or where Clickout Media made the decisions, and a country is not inferred from a site's description or a publisher.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: Insider Gaming, the A.V. Club, Press Gazette (27 February and 9 July 2026), Aftermath, PC Gamer and The Esports Radar were read in full. Outlet accounts are attributed and left at reported because they rest on unnamed sources and third-party detection tools, and Clickout Media had not responded to Insider Gaming or Press Gazette at publication. The affected staff are described by role and are not named.

People reported harmed in this case

At least 2 people

0 AI participants · 2 other people harmed

Additional affected people are described without a reliable count.

Two staff members (a Videogamer editor and an Escapist writer) publicly said, as relayed by the outlets, that their roles were made redundant or were up for redundancy. Only the Videogamer editor's own account to Aftermath mentions an AI role (an 'AI editor' offer that the editor refused). The Escapist writer's post does not mention AI (Insider Gaming), so that person's link to the reported AI pivot is the outlets' framing. Press Gazette's 'up to 20 staff believed fired' and Insider Gaming's 'almost all editorial staff' are not counted because no source lists the people. Readers, Metacritic users and Esports Insider staff whose redundancies are attributed to a Google penalty are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Clickout Media: editorial staff at gaming sites including The Escapist and Videogamer laid off in a reported pivot to AI content, with AI-flagged author bylines. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-clickout-media-gaming-sites-editorial-layoffs-in-reported-ai-content-pivot

BibTeX

@misc{2026_clickout_media_gaming_sites_editorial_layoffs_in_reported_ai_content_pivot,
  title = {Clickout Media: editorial staff at gaming sites including The Escapist and Videogamer laid off in a reported pivot to AI content, with AI-flagged author bylines},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-clickout-media-gaming-sites-editorial-layoffs-in-reported-ai-content-pivot}
}

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