Dean Takahashi

Session Highlight | From Editorial to Influence: How Media and Community Shape the Games Business Media coverage of interactive entertainment isn't just reporting on the industry—it's actively shaping how it’s understood, valued, and regulated. At iicon 2026, leading voices in games and tech media will examine how coverage evolves alongside the business. • Wendy Sheehan Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, PCMag • Jon Hicks, Editorial Director, GamesIndustry.Biz • Danny Peña, Host/Founder, Gamertag Radio • Moderator: Andrea Rene, Head of Production, Vivrato As editorial priorities are set in an era defined by AI, consolidation, and global capital, this session unpacks the differences between editorial coverage, internally driven content strategies, and advertorial approaches, and considers how each can be used—or misused—to build credibility, manage risk, and shape long-term narrative in a highly scrutinized market. Learn more and register now: iicon.com/event-info #iicon2026

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We had one clear message at GamesBeat Summit: "If you haven’t been paying attention to this industry, now is the time." Because gaming is no longer just influencing the future — it’s helping define it. This industry is fueling innovation across #AI, #Hollywood, #finance, #technology, #sports, #education, #healthcare, #advertising, consumer #brands, and beyond. If you want to understand where culture, technology, and business are headed next, you need to be paying attention to what’s happening here. What we witnessed throughout the summit made that undeniable: honest conversations, global leaders coming together, meaningful relationships being built, and new opportunities forming in real time. One year ago, GamesBeat became independent with a belief that the future media starts with community — bringing together the leaders shaping what’s next in gaming, technology, business, and culture. The disruption is real. The innovation is accelerating. And for leaders everywhere, now is the time to pay attention.

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A Forbes reporter said it at an Edelman event I attended: 99% of her pitches are now AI slop. On the latest Naavik Gaming Podcast episode I sat down with Stephen Totilo, founder of Game File and veteran games journalist across MTV News, Kotaku, and Axios, to talk about what's actually happening to games media right now - including why AI slop is only part of a much bigger shift in journalism. Stephen's advice is simple: if you wouldn't want to read the story yourself, don't pitch it. The hook has to be there first. Using AI to help write or refine the pitch? Totally fine. But AI can't manufacture a story worth telling. Stephen left Axios, bet on himself, and built a Substack that hit its year-one targets. Proof that people still pay for good journalism when the story is right. Check out the full episode: https://lnkd.in/dPDrtwCb

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This piece is really going off on among Substack's games writing community right now. Basically, its the first higher profile incident where an established game review aggregation site (Metacritic) promoted an AI-generated game review. First brought to my attention by Dr Ben Schuster, right here on LinkedIn. Being showcased on Metacritic bought this practice to everyone's attention. Fair enough if you want to run AI-generated reviews, its a free world... (honestly, why would you though?). But promoting them in equal measure to other writers genuine work, on a website that gate keeps who it features is a whole other matter. To Metacritic's credit, it removed the review, and others from Videogamer swiftly. But the whole scenario raises issues around AI, content and journalism. In today's Infinite Lives I look at what happened and take a broader view as to what it all means. I think it would be foolhardy to say: "Oh this is just a gaming journalism issue". It's just one of first sectors of media to face these headwinds, I have no doubt that there will be others. Link in the comments!

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What I love about the Tokenpocalypse is that it really underscores the gap between what the C-suite wants AI to be used for and what AI is actually good at. It's good at coverting PDFs into slide decks. They want it to convert FTEs into budget cuts. https://lnkd.in/gtiVyig3

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I want to talk to all the games journalists/writers out there trying to make the best of a tortured lifestyle. Keep. Going. Trust me, I know that's easier said than done with all the layoffs, burn-'n-churn, and other unsavory (and sadly, commonplace) practices. Gaming *needs* you. Your perspectives and unique relationships with the medium. I've jumped from outlet to outlet and experienced *hell* trying to make the dream work. But you know what? With every article you write about a game that blew you away, there's a developer out there who needs to hear what you have to say. THEY keep going because YOU keep going. Even if you have to build your own table, do that. But every single piece you write is a victory, and I hope y'all NEVER forget that.

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New Releases! The Game Beat & Save Point, by Kyle Orland https://lnkd.in/ePb22DxZ https://lnkd.in/ekkGTV9W The Game Beat: Observations and lessons from two decades writing about games The Game Beat examines the whos, hows, and whys of the journalists and critics covering the young but growing game industry. This collection of over 80 columns covers everything from the decline of print gaming magazines to the ethics of paid junkets to the importance of review scores and much more. Save Point: Reporting from a video game industry in transition, 2003 – 2011 In this collection of over 20 pieces of original contemporaneous reporting and analysis, veteran game journalist Kyle Orland takes a look back at gaming's "awkward adolescence" in the early 2000s. In doing so, he examines the technological, cultural, and business forces that were roiling the industry during this important transition period, gleaning modern lessons from a time when video games were growing out of their "kids stuff" image and into a global entertainment powerhouse.

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This week, Alexander Donaldson and I chat games media, Xbox and his new website. Plus, Andreas Deptolla joins us to discuss Atari, and turning MobyGames into our very own IMDB

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Lot of chatter from games industry friends about this one - an absolutely disgraceful takeover of several beloved gaming sites, replacing flesh and blood journalists with AI puppets. They've made so little effort that the metadata on one of the 'byline pictures' actually includes the words 'ChatGPT image upload'. I spoke to multiple staffers and freelancers off the record to get the inside story about how the sites are now churning out AI news - and even reviews of new games. Depressingly, the idea here is to rake in money by using the site's reputation to host casino content for SEO reasons. Even more depressingly, the organisation behind it has bought at the very least several dozen, and possibly up to 200 domains in recent months... Link to Press Gazette story in comments.

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