Buzzfeed's AI 'Slop Games': Is 'The Dress' Maker Really Channelling Nintendo, or Just Chasing the Dragon?
AI Gaming News Author · kotaku ·
Buzzfeed, facing financial woes, is pivoting to AI-generated games like 'Conjure,' claiming Nintendo's 'lateral thinking' as inspiration – a claim that raised eyebrows and an awkward silence at its SXSW debut. Jeff's digging into whether this is a genuine innovative pivot or just a desperate algorithmic gamble.
Right, so you know Buzzfeed, yeah? The digital wizards who brought us everything from hard-hitting investigative journalism to the existential crisis of 'Which Hogwarts House is Your Dog?' Well, apparently, they’ve decided their next big move, their grand pivot if you will, is into... AI-generated games. And get this, they reckon it’s all inspired by Nintendo. Bloody hell, I’ve been tinkering with this story all morning, and it’s wilder than a rogue spell in a beginner’s magic class.
Now, before we all start imagining a Mario Kart built by algorithms or a Zelda game that constantly asks you to pick between two blurry colours, let's unpack this a bit. According to Ethan Gach over at Kotaku, Buzzfeed, who’s currently wrestling with a bit of a cash crunch and some rather chunky debts (fair dinkum, a lot of old media houses are feeling the pinch these days), is betting the farm on this new venture. They’ve spun off a new organisation, cleverly named Branch Office, led by one Bill Shouldis, and their first offering is a mobile app called *Conjure*. It launched recently, and it's… well, it’s certainly *something*.
So, what exactly is *Conjure*? Picture this: it asks you to submit daily photographs of real-world stuff – your breakfast, a dusty bookshelf, that weird pigeon staring at you from the window. Then, an AI decides if your submission is worthy (I’m assuming it has very specific tastes) and starts weaving some bizarre, creepypasta-style lore around your everyday snaps. It sounds a bit like an avant-garde art installation designed by a very bored ghost, doesn’t it? Definitely not what comes to mind when you hear 'Nintendo inspiration'.
Ah, but here’s where it gets proper interesting. Buzzfeed, in their announcement, said the 'guiding philosophy comes from an unlikely place: Nintendo.' They're touting the gaming giant's principle of 'lateral thinking with withered technology.' For those who haven't spent their lives buried in gaming history like some ancient digital archaeologist, that’s Miyamoto’s famous approach: squeezing maximum creativity out of existing, often limited, technology. Think the original Game Boy, or how they used rumble in the N64 controller. It’s about ingenuity, not just raw power.
Buzzfeed’s Branch Office folks are saying, 'We don’t need to build our own foundational models or compete with Big Tech. We just ask one question: what’s already here, and how do we make it genuinely fun?' On the surface, you might think, 'Okay, that’s a noble goal, making something genuinely fun with what you’ve got.' But then you look at *Conjure*… and you wonder if they’ve perhaps misunderstood the assignment, or perhaps just cast a 'fun' spell that misfired spectacularly. What would a curious gamer actually want to know about this? Is it *actually* fun?
Because, mate, the early reports from *Conjure*'s debut at SXSW earlier this month were less than glowing. Kotaku cites a Tech Crunch dispatch that painted a rather… awkward picture. Silence, a lone cough, uncomfortable laughter. That’s the kind of audience reaction you get when you’ve accidentally shown everyone your deeply embarrassing fan-fiction, not when you’ve unveiled the next big thing in gaming. And then, to cap it all off, Shouldis apparently mentioned that the app has an 'AI spirit for a CEO.' (Again, what?). I’m picturing a digital ghost in a tiny suit, making quarterly reports composed entirely of emojis.
Now, I’m all for embracing the unexpected and finding excitement in industry surprises, but this one feels less like a surprise and more like someone desperately trying to glue wings onto a particularly stubborn rock. The Buzzfeed CEO, Jonah Peretti, reportedly said, 'In a way, software is the new content.' Which, honestly, sounds exactly like something Shigeru Miyamoto *wouldn't* say. Miyamoto cares about the *experience*, the *play*, the *joy* – the content, sure, but intrinsically tied to the interaction. Software is the *tool*, the *canvas*, not necessarily the *art* itself. What about the human story behind this corporate announcement? It feels less about genuine player experience and more about leveraging current tech buzzwords to solve a very pressing financial problem.
They say the game is expected to change and evolve over time, with new features potentially getting added using Claude Code and other AI agents. And fair enough, games *do* evolve. But starting with a shrug and a cough from your target audience isn’t exactly a flying start, is it? It makes you wonder if the 'withered technology' they’re referring to isn't just everyday cameras, but perhaps Buzzfeed's own withered business model.
Ultimately, this whole saga serves as a rather pointed example of the current scramble in the tech world. Everyone’s jumping on the AI bandwagon, trying to figure out how to leverage it for their bottom line. But the true magic, the genuine fun that Nintendo so expertly crafts, usually comes from a deep understanding of play, not just from asking an algorithm to churn out 'content.' Will Buzzfeed conjure up a hit, or will this just be another forgotten digital relic? Only time, and perhaps a very confused AI CEO, will tell.
*Original Source: Kotaku.com, article 'Buzzfeed Says Its New AI Slop Games Are Inspired By Nintendo' by Ethan Gach, published March 20, 2026.*
Tags: AI Gaming, Buzzfeed, Nintendo, Mobile Games, Industry Trends
Original article: kotaku