Kevin Cortez

Today, IGN Entertainment announced that it would be laying off eight members of the IGN Creators Guild. This is 12% of our bargaining unit, and comes just days after our sister union, the Ziff Davis Creators Guild, underwent similar layoffs impacting 15% of their members. It also comes just months after our multibillion-dollar parent company, Ziff Davis, instituted a company-wide buyout that shrunk our unit numbers, with the express intent of avoiding future layoffs. And it comes just a little over one year after three of our members were laid off almost immediately after our union went public. The company has told us that the reason for this layoff stems from a Ziff Davis-mandate to cut costs despite several quarters in a row of year-over-year revenue increases, to which IGN Entertainment responded by coming for our members' jobs. This is perplexing to us, as we are told again and again that IGN Entertainment has had a tremendously successful year thus far thanks to their hard work. In just the last few months, our members have been absolutely essential to major events and livestreams, including San Diego ComicCon, Summer of Gaming, and IGN Live. Every single person impacted today was involved in and critical to the success of those events. Meanwhile, IGN Entertainment continues to spend money on costly acquisitions, only to turn around and gut those companies in the same way it is cutting away at IGN itself. For instance, last year, it acquired Gamer Network, and almost immediately laid off a number of staff critical to making those sites successful. The company has not responded to the union's questions about whether its budget for future acquisitions is being reconsidered as a cost-saving measure alongside these other apparently necessary personnel cuts. At a time when it is more necessary than ever to support its creators, IGN Entertainment is choosing to eliminate the individuals who ensure IGN remains competitive as generative AI

threatens our reach. We have been told that expert opinion pieces, original interviews, and work that leverages our staff's deep knowledge of gaming, tech, and entertainment are all essential to combating AI summarization and regurgitation of our work. Management has responded by cutting several individuals who do that exact work, as well as others whose job it is to ensure that these written and video pieces are published in a speedy manner — another component of combating AI we're told is critical. This continued cycle of repeated, aggressive cuts to our staff and being asked to do more with less, only for management to continue to spend on new business it isn't interested in sustaining cannot continue. We will enforce our interim agreement that guarantees better severance and other protections to laid off members, as well as demand additional support for those impacted. We will continue to bargain over our first contract with the aim of enshrining even better protections against further layoffs, working conditions continuously degraded by understaffing, and the encroachment of generative AI. And we won't stop fighting to ensure IGN remains the best destination for trustworthy, original, exciting, and creative work covering video games, entertainment, and tech. While IGN Entertainment management may not value us, we value one another and the incredible work we can do together. Behind the articles, videos, social posts, playlists, and maps of IGN are human beings, not just numbers on a spreadsheet to be pushed around when some number at the top isn't big enough. Without us, there is no IGN.

Today, IGN laid off eight extremely valuable members of our union and workforce via directive from our parent company, Ziff Davis. This, after two incredibly successful live events IGN Live and SDCC, and yet another corporate acquisition.

Please take a moment to read and share our full statement:

4 things to know about cane sugar vs. high-fructose corn syrup as Coca-Cola switches While studies have linked high-fructose corn syrup to conditions such as insulin resistance, nutrition experts told PBS News that cane sugar is not a healthier alternative.

Starting this fall, consumers in the U.S. will have the option to buy Coca-Cola’s signature soda sweetened with domestic cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.

i agree

For ~some~ reason, Kennedy Center doesn't allow its employees to wear masks. Kennedy Center Arts Workers United is asking MGMT to reverse its mask ban. If you'd like to see the end of this ridic rule, please sign the petition in support of worker safety:

docs.google.com/document/u/1...

#signalboost #unions #dmv #workerpower #dc

For ~some~ reason, Kennedy Center doesn't allow its employees to wear masks. Kennedy Center Arts Workers United is asking MGMT to reverse its mask ban. If you'd like to see the end of this ridic rule, please sign the petition in support of worker safety:

docs.google.com/document/u/1...

American Eagle is actually very "woke." They have DEI and donate to "woke" causes. They also produce their synthetic-blend jeans offshore, sometimes in factories associated with labor abuse.

But all is forgiven if buying their jeans pisses off libs.

Boeing Defense Workers Go on Strike The union representing about 3,200 St. Louis-area workers rejected the company’s latest contract offer.

Boeing leaders face another picket line after machinists in its St. Louis-area defense business rejected their latest contract offe.

YouTube video by G4ZDTechTV X-Play Classic - Weird Games: Stretch Panic

Yeah, I just looked it up -- I forgot about Stretch Panic and def remember hearing about it on G4 or something. Had nooooOooOOo idea it was called anything else.

I'm fine with not remembering it :)

(also, found it)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWtz...

Also: Review by Maxim

What does this even tell me about the game!!!!

Let Bob sort 'em out

I wrote something for The Sunday Times's style section about how men have been undressing for over a hundred years. And how they should go further and show a little cleavage.

Link in the next post.

Steam Doesn't Think This Image Is ‘Suitable for All Ages’ The decision highlights hurdles faced by developers as they navigate a world where credit card companies dictate what is and isn't appropriate.

"The status of video games as culture is still being negotiated. If thematic restrictions like the ones defined by itch.io were to be applied to movies or books, limiting their distribution, it would be major news immediately."

Brilyn Hollyhand on Twitter writes: "BREAKING: Trump just announced "drug prices will be coming down by 500, 600, 800, even 1,200 percent." YES!👏"

some of you spend too much time on facebook when you need to face books 😔

This music rocks

Xenoblade Chronicles X :)

Here's our full report:
>> Dozens Arrested Protesting New York Democrats’ Support Of Arming Israel

www.huffpost.com/entry/protes...

Smart Things To Buy Before The August Tariff Deadline Sends Prices Even Higher The August 1 tariff deadline could impact prices on things you use daily.

The August 1 tariff deadline could impact prices on things you use daily.

being a full-time freelancer again means i'm reading even more newsletters/blogs than i did previously, just to get a sense of what's out there, and it's been really sad to discover so many incredible ones by journalists who used to be employed FT at publications that laid them off or shut down

Wait hold on I'm confused, break this down for me one more time

Andrea was taken to Krome Detention Center in Miami, where she & 30 other women were kept in a small visitation room bc it was the only way to separate them from the male population. She had no bed, no window, no access to the outdoors. The women were denied showers bc it was a male-only facility.

NEW: I spoke with a woman named Andrea about her experience being detained by ICE after calling the cops for help during a domestic violence incident.

She was recently postpartum, breastfeeding & put in an all-male facility. She was detained for 2.5 months.

Major media news this morning.

oh my God I need him

lol! His name is Fred and he’s my friends Maggie’s and Priscilla’s cat. He is a TANK.

Here's a photo from Jordan. Chris Smalls will be flying into Newark Friday morning

Does Lucky Danger do Mahjong nights, too? I'm surprised by how popular it is here omg

Why Did National Geographic Disappear Its Own Documentary About A Queer Climate Scientist? | Defector If you’re not a particular kind of mountain sports nerd, you might not be familiar with the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour. But for people who live their lives in the overlapping…

Why did National Geographic disappear its own documentary about a queer climate scientist? defector.com/why-did-nati...

I s'pose you are goin' a-whalin', so you'd better get used to that sort of thing.