Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Casey DeFreitas

Janet Garcia

@gameonysus.bsky.social

When it comes to a wedding guestlist people always ask if you have a big family but they never ask how podcasts you’ve done.

Thrilled to have worked with so many talented people and even more thrilled to get to call so many of them friends.

Wedding photo left to right Katherine, Jess, Sarah, Kelsey, Barrett, Haley, Ben, Patrick, Jill, blessing, Casey, Greg, and up front is me and Isaiah.

Same group but everyone is pulling me in different directions and screaming.

November 12, 2025 at 9:26 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

🌟Pao🌟

The most beautiful sweetest blue-eyed lynx point cat you have ever seen sits politely on a table.

November 15, 2025 at 2:57 AM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

I’ve been playing Chaos Zero Nightmare and as a huge Slay the Spire + anime fan, this is extremely my shit.

October 30, 2025 at 10:35 PM

Reposted by Casey DeFreitas

Your Buddy Eric Switzer

@epicswitzer.bsky.social

After 6 years with TheGamer, Valnet has decided to shut down features and lay off the entire team, including me.

I don't know what's next for me but I intend to stay in games, whether that's at another outlet, consulting, or PR. If you have any leads, I'd appreciate any help

October 22, 2025 at 5:25 PM

Reposted by Casey DeFreitas

Cody Gravelle

@minustempo.bsky.social

my contribution to the research

October 21, 2025 at 3:33 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

p.s. I caught an Alpha Houndour and now Alpha Houndoom is my whole personality

October 21, 2025 at 1:49 AM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

I’ve been super locked in on Pokemon Legends: Z-A guides and I can’t wait to play the dang game like a normal person.

Casey’s Pokemon Legends: Z-A character mopes with Trubbish.

October 20, 2025 at 4:01 AM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

Hello being shameless and trying to get a discount for CookUnity meal service this week lol it’s my favorite one by a huge margin

Sign up with my code casedefre1 to get 50% off your first order. 😋 www.cookunity.com/referral?utm...

You've been invited to join CookUnity!

We are a community of independent chefs who cook healthy food that's delivered to your door

www.cookunity.com

October 15, 2025 at 4:55 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

Loving Legends: Z-A, more than I thought I would. Excited to talk more about it with Reb on NVC this week!

IGN @ign.com · Oct 14

Pokémon Legends: Z-A had a short review period and a strict embargo, so while we're not quite ready to put a final score on it, what we've played so far is already real good.

Our review:

Pokémon Legends: Z-A Review in Progress

bit.ly

October 14, 2025 at 7:59 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

ICYMI: I guested on Nintendo Voice Chat to talk Pokemon and indies :D

I have since become absolutely obsessed with Hades 2 btw

youtu.be/wK8bgTP8deM?...

Hades 2 Continues 2025's Incredible Run of Indie Sequels - NVC 780

YouTube video by IGN Games

youtu.be

September 29, 2025 at 11:50 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

I went to the real-life Lumiose City, Paris (!!) and played Pokemon Legends: Z-A for an hour. You can Mega Evolve different Pokemon in the same battle!… with some caveats. Read my full preview:
bit.ly/46jsCwF

Pokémon Legends: Z-A – The Final Preview - IGN

We sent our resident Pokémon superfan to play more of Pokémon Legends: Z-A on Nintendo Switch 2, and she came back with lots of thoughts and comparisons to Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

bit.ly

September 24, 2025 at 4:17 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

That Nintendo Direct was SICK.

September 12, 2025 at 2:21 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

Malamar has infiltrated The Pokemon Company International office 😱

(Thank you for the package, My Friend Malamar ~ you ARE the coolest ~ )

September 5, 2025 at 9:59 PM

Reposted by Casey DeFreitas

Rebekah Valentine

@duckvalentine.bsky.social

Shared with permission: my incredible colleague, NVC producer Red Rigos, was impacted by IGN's layoffs yesterday. We're heartbroken: Red is kind, funny, talented, and dedicated and has been a huge part of NVC's growth and success.

Please hire him: www.redrigos.com/ign

IGN | home

www.redrigos.com

August 5, 2025 at 9:20 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

We’ve lost a lot of my favorite people to work with who were the best at what they did at IGN today.

If you have opportunities, please consider my colleagues who were let go today.

IGN Union @ignunion.bsky.social · Aug 4

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:

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.

August 4, 2025 at 11:11 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

MONSTER HUNTER STORIES 3

Adult protags???

life is worth living actually

July 31, 2025 at 3:18 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

my son

July 22, 2025 at 1:50 PM

Casey DeFreitas

@shinycaseyd.bsky.social

Catch an exclusive look at some of the new Pokémon merch coming to the 2025 Pokémon World Championships Pokémon Center here! www.ign.com/articles/exc...

Look at this Arcanine line!