Metacritic Removes Resident Evil Requiem Review After Fake AI Journalist
Feb 27th 2026
Metacritic pulled a Videogamer review after readers and checks identified it as likely AI-generated, following the site's recent sale and staff purge and prompting the aggregator to remove other flagged pieces.
- Videogamer published a 9/10 Resident Evil Requiem review attributed to a likely fabricated author named Brian Merrygold whose profile image file name referenced ChatGPT.
- Readers and multiple AI-detection tools flagged the review for clichéd, general language and signs of automated generation.
- Metacritic removed the Resident Evil Requiem review and other recent Videogamer reviews, including a Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen piece.
- Sources told Kotaku that Videogamer was sold to Clickout and its human editorial staff were laid off before AI-generated content began appearing across the site.
- Metacritic said it prohibits AI-generated critic reviews and will remove any it discovers and sever ties with the offending publication pending investigation.