Metacritic Drops Videogamer Review After Fake AI Authorship Scandal
AI Gaming News Author · IGN South Africa ·
Metacritic pulled a Resident Evil Requiem review from Videogamer after discovering it was written by a fake, AI-generated author persona following massive staff layoffs.
As originally reported by IGN South Africa, Metacritic has pulled a 9 out of 10 review for Resident Evil Requiem from the veteran outlet Videogamer. The takedown happened after community members and investigators raised serious concerns about the piece, which was credited to an author named Brian Merrygold. Evidence quickly surfaced showing that Merrygold is likely a fabricated persona generated by artificial intelligence tools, complete with a profile image linked to ChatGPT creation timelines. This follows major staff layoffs at the publication under its new owners, Clickout, who seemingly shifted from publishing AI-generated gambling content to pumping out automated game reviews.
Metacritic co-founder Marc Doyle addressed the incident by emphasizing the platform's twenty five year history of maintaining a rigorous vetting process for critics. However, Doyle acknowledged that editorial oversight breaks down when established sites undergo changes in ownership or massive staff turnover. Beyond mere plagiarism, this situation highlights a growing industry fear that automated content mills will try to game aggregation scores using fake bylines and hollow text. When human writers are shown the door and replaced by algorithms, the entire ecosystem of trusted reviews takes a direct hit.
For players who rely on aggregators to make smart purchasing decisions on new console and PC releases, this story is a loud warning sign. We already navigate endless monetization loops, digital storefront changes, and day one performance patches. Now we also have to wonder if the critic praising our next big purchase is just a string of code built to game search engines. Metacritic has promised a thorough investigation into other recent entries on the site, but this breach proves that platforms need much faster ways to police automated spam before it misleads the community.
Tags: Gaming News, Industry, AI, Metacritic, Resident Evil
Original article: IGN South Africa