eBay issues sassy clapback at GameStop CEO over $55 billion offer: 'Neither credible nor attractive'



The eBay board of directors did not seem pleased with GameStop's CEO on Tuesday, firmly rejecting an offer from last week that was followed by continued online antics.

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen offered $55.5 billion for the online auction site last Sunday, saying that with his expertise, eBay could become a rival to Amazon.

'We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive.'

This was followed by a series of comical posts on X by Cohen, who wrote messages like, "I'm selling stuff on eBay to pay for eBay."

The CEO was selling memorabilia from video games and even GameStop signs before he was eventually suspended from the online marketplace.

On Tuesday, eBay announced that its board of directors was rejecting GameStop's "unsolicited, non-binding acquisition proposal."

"Dear Mr. Cohen," eBay wrote in a press release. "The board, with the support of its independent advisers, has thoroughly reviewed your proposal and has determined to reject it."

"We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive," eBay added.

Cohen's proposal to buy 100% of eBay was valued at $125 per share in a 50/50 deal comprised of cash and GameStop's own stock.

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The formal offer from Cohen promised to reduce costs at eBay by at least $2 billion within 12 months. He intended on cutting the marketing budget in half while slicing $300 million off of product development and reducing administrative costs by $500 million, among other moves.

In its formal rejection though, eBay went on the defensive, saying it remains a "strong, resilient business that has delivered meaningful results over the past several years."

"eBay's board is confident that the company, under its current management team, is well-positioned to continue to drive sustainable growth, execute with discipline, and deliver long-term value for our shareholders," the company added.

Paul S. Pressler, eBay's chairman of the board of directors, specified the reasons for their rejection, such as the "uncertainty" of Cohen's financial proposal, the impact it may have on "long-term growth and profitability," and how GameStop governs its own C-suite.

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While the degree of animosity shown by eBay seems unusual, it comes after Cohen made several antagonistic posts, like asking eBay to please respond to his customer service inquiries.

"On phone with customer support @eBay. please respond @eBay," Cohen wrote on X.

Cohen then called stock sales by eBay "insiders" into question, and he mocked the company's lack of customer service on social media.

"You’d think with 2.4 billion in marketing spend, they could login to X," he wrote.

At the time of this writing, Cohen had not made any additional public statements regarding eBay's rejection.

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Worried about airport collisions? Gamers are coming to the rescue



A U.S. government-backed recruiting ad exploited what officials said was an obvious crossover in interests.

This led to a rapid intake of job applications that will likely fulfill a key role that has been criticized over the past few years for being at the center of disastrous diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring practices.

'We've leaned into that community.'

On April 10, the Department of Transportation put out a call for applicants to consider transitioning to a career in one of the most prioritized roles the federal government has to offer: air traffic controllers.

The one-minute ad targeted adult gamers by focusing on their attention to detail, multitasking, and simply put, their ability to take in a vast amount of data through a screen.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed on Friday there was an obvious crossover in interest between gamers and air traffic controllers.

"We polled 250 random students at our academy, and only three of them were not gamers. Like, there must be a correlation between gaming and people wanting to become air traffic controllers," Duffy said at the Semafor World Economy event in Washington, D.C. "So we've leaned into that community."

The recruitment push turned out to be shockingly successful, and after just seven hours, the recruitment portal was almost ready to be shut down.

"We went live last night at midnight — and as of 7:00 this morning, we had almost 6,000 applicants. We are going to shut down the application process at 8,000."

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Duffy told the audience, "If we're not there right now, for sure we'll be there by noon," at which point there will not be a need for any more applications.

As Return previously reported, Duffy met his goal to recruit at least 2,000 new air traffic controllers last September by bringing in 2,026. This came from a group of 10,000 applications, with more than 8,300 being referred to aptitude testing.

On Friday, Duffy spoke more about the correlation between the gamer mindset and what it takes to be an air traffic controller.

"If you think just what these gamers are doing on screens, and they're talking, and there's a lot of things going on. They're used to that, and that's actually what you're doing, in a tower, in a facility," Duffy continued. "They've become well-suited, from the games they've played, to actually have a great life [and] job that pays well and can support their families."

RELATED: Trump can secure a big win for air travel

John Moore/Getty Images

The transportation secretary did stress that the applicants have to be qualified and will go through an assessment process. However, "We've had a flood of people, young people coming in that want to be air traffic controllers ... this has been wildly successful."

The department will still endeavor for its ongoing goal of hiring at least 8,900 new air traffic controllers through 2028.

An audit from 2025 by the Office of Inspector General stated that the FAA employs about 13,000 air traffic controllers in over 300 facilities across the U.S. Nearly 10,600 of those are "certified professional controllers."

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Embattled CEO caught asking ChatGPT for corporate takeover plan — against lawyer's advice



The future is here, and it seemingly includes CEOs using chatbots to create plans to avoid having to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars.

That was a judge's conclusion after a smaller American studio sued a giant, publicly traded South Korean conglomerate that allegedly prevented it from putting out its product.

'Lock down Steam/console publishing rights and access rights.'

Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han handles nearly $2 billion of revenue across a multitude of companies, which includes PubG Studios, a massively popular online shooter game.

Since 2021, Krafton has controlled Unknown Worlds, an American studio responsible for the game Subnautica, which sold over five million copies in two years.

With so much success from the first game, Krafton agreed to a $250 million earnout if Subnautica 2 was able to meet specific sales targets. Krafton's CEO was not keen on letting that happen and subsequently plotted "Project X," a plan to prevent the payout.

After internal reports projected Subnautica 2 was likely to hit its targets, things got hairy. According to court documents, when Krafton’s Head of Corporate Development Maria Park warned CEO Kim that removing Unknown Worlds' leadership via "dismissal with cause" opened them up to "lawsuit and reputational risk," he turned to ChatGPT for help.

The chatbot told Kim that the earnout would be "difficult to cancel" but suggested forming an internal task force to either negotiate a "deal" or execute a "takeover" of the company; Kim obliged and allegedly continued to follow ChatGPT's suggestions.

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Not only did Kim allegedly share his strategies from ChatGPT with colleagues, but the strategies included a "pressure and leverage package" against Unknown Worlds.

Among its recommendations, ChatGPT suggested Krafton undermine any David versus Goliath narratives, while urging Kim to prepare for scenarios like buyouts and replacements.

Most jarringly, it also suggested locking down Unknown Worlds' ability to post its new game for sale on Steam, the largest gaming distributor for PC games.

"Lock down Steam/console publishing rights and access rights over code/build pipeline through both legal and technical aspects," ChatGPT said, the lawsuit revealed. "For the earn-out freeze, keep room for negotiations through provision stating 'immediate removal if specific development results are achieved.'"

Kim did as the chatbot recommended and locked down the publishing, and Subnautica 2 could not be released. When Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill asked for control to be returned, Kim allegedly ignored him and told a Krafton studio rep to relay to Gill that he had "no intention of transferring stuff back to you guys (like the Steam app)."

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Ina FASSBENDER/AFP/Getty Images

While Gamesradar reported that Krafton leadership admitted to using ChatGPT for "faster answers," the company told Kotaku that some characterizations made about them have been false.

In response to claims from Unknown Worlds that Krafton said its chat logs no longer exist, the company said the claim was "simply a distraction from their own efforts to destroy evidence."

In the end, a Delaware judge ruled that Kim relied on ChatGPT to craft a strategy aimed at avoiding the $250 million payment.

"Fearing he had agreed to a 'pushover' contract, KRAFTON’s CEO consulted an artificial intelligence chatbot to contrive a corporate 'takeover' strategy," Vice Chancellor Lori Will said in her ruling, per Economic Times.

The court maintained that Krafton was expected to exercise independent judgment and not outsource its decisions to AI systems.

PC Gamer has since reported that Unknown Worlds will be given an extension to reach its earnout goals to mid-September, with the possibility of extending to March 2027.

The game is set for early release in May 2026.

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'Make a lot of money': Trump administration has a job opportunity for adult video gamers



The Trump administration is looking to tap a seemingly untouched resource: video game-playing adults.

A federal agency put out a call on Friday using a video that literally starts like an Xbox game.

'It's not a game. It's a career.'

After a series of short video-game clips, text on the screen asks, "Are you up for the challenge?"

"You've been training for this," it continues, building suspense, before a gamer sitting in front of his computer screens is transported into his new career: ensuring that passenger planes take off and land safely and without incident.

"Become an air traffic controller," the ad says, with a club remix of the 2009 Yeah Yeah Yeahs hit "Heads Will Roll" playing in the background.

"It's not a game," the upbeat recruitment spot declares. "It's a career."

The 70-second video told prospective applicants that not only would they keep "millions of people safe" every day, but they would "make a lot of money" doing so.

RELATED: Floppy discs and copper strips: Newark failures hint at looming threat of another FAA disaster

Per the ad, gamers making the jump to an air traffic controller career could look forward to an "average salary" of "$155,000 per year after 3 years."

Air traffic controller was just one of the roles at the Department of Transportation and FAA that was revealed to be sorely out of touch when President Trump took office for his second term in 2025.

Last year, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reported that a near hour-long grounding of planes could be linked to "incredibly old technology" that utilized floppy discs and copper wires.

Earlier in 2025, documents about FAA hiring practices showed that the federal agency had been specifically looking to hire people with disabilities, which included "hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism."

This appears to be a stark contrast to the Transportation Department under Duffy, who once called the department's systems "not effective to control the traffic that we have in the airspace today."

RELATED: Investigator of LaGuardia plane crash suggests 'multiple failures' caused the collision; survivors respond

Luke Hales/Getty Images

Last September, Duffy met his goal to recruit at least 2,000 new air traffic controllers by bringing in 2,026. This was coupled with a stated goal of hiring at least 8,900 new air traffic controllers through 2028.

"To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt," Duffy said about the ad targeting gamers. "This campaign's innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller," he told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

According to a 2025 audit from the Office of Inspector General, the FAA employs about 13,000 traffic controllers in over 300 facilities across the U.S. Nearly 10,600 of those are "certified professional controllers."

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God of War creator dumps on first image from Amazon series: 'Looks like he's s***ting in the woods'



Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television are so confident in their upcoming "God of War" adaptation that they’ve already ordered two seasons.

But their initial marketing push has drawn sharp criticism from the man who created the video game franchise.

'It's just a dumb f**king image.'

Bathroom break

Last week, Amazon unveiled the first image of Kratos — the Spartan warrior at the center of the massively popular games. In it, Kratos crouches in the woods, leaning on his haunches as he watches his son Atreus draw an arrow.

The photo was meant to stoke excitement for the live-action take on one of gaming’s most iconic characters.

For God of War creator David Jaffe, however, it caused an entirely different reaction.

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“Could you find a picture that doesn’t look like he’s s***ting in the woods?" asked Jaffe. "Because that’s what the picture looks like.”

Potty mouth

Jaffe made the comments in a video posted to his YouTube channel. In the clip, he says he's "a little worried" about the first impression the show was making. "What the f**k is this?” he said. “It’s just a dumb f**king image.”

While Jaffe stressed that he was still confident in the show's creative team — saying he had “absolutely no doubt it is going to be a good show" — he refused to soften his stance on the squatting Spartan.

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“Two things can be true [at once]," he said. "This can be a terrible image — and it is. It’s so bad in so many ways.”

Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival

Flush with success

God of War is not the first of Jaffe’s properties to make the jump to television. Paramount+ recently renewed its "Twisted Metal" adaptation for a third season. As co-creator of the game (with Scott Campbell), Jaffe directed four Twisted Metal games between 1995 and 2012.

Amazon has increasingly bet on video game adaptations in the streaming arms race. That strategy has delivered at least one breakout hit — "Fallout" — while several other high-profile projects remain in development.

Living human brain cells are training a chatbot to be 'more like us'



A company recently revealed its human-brain-cell-driven chatbot that it has taught to play video games.

However, even though the program runs on real human cells, it is still hallucinating answers.

'It could be more able to use biological intelligence in a meaningful way.'

The company, Cortical Labs, shared a video recently that showed its brain-cell-operated large language model responding in real time to a user prompt. Return reported on the company last year for using brain cells grown on a silicon "chip" for an organic computer. The tech is referred to as synthetic biological intelligence, and the company now appears to have a room full of such computers.

"This is a whole new paradigm to how ... the syntax of the LLM can be more like us," a company rep said in the video.

Boasting about his brain-powered chatbot, the voiceover added, "It could be more able to use biological intelligence in a meaningful way to select the next token and to create better responses."

This example immediately failed, though. When the user asked the program, "Tell me where you want to visit on vacation," the bot cited a place that does not exist.

"The Great Barrinchi Cove in the Maldives," it stated, before also suggesting "Tuscany, Italy, for its rolling hills, stunning views."

Despite the complex technology, these types of "hallucinations" are common with AI chatbots and are a somewhat typical occurrence for any frequent chatbot user.

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In 2022, Cortical Labs said it had successfully taught 800,000 living brain cells to learn how to play the game Pong. The cells were linked to a computer to gradually learn to sense the position of the game's ball and control the virtual paddle.

"If we allow these cells to know the outcome of their actions, will they actually be able to change in some sort of goal-directed way?" Chief Scientific Officer Brett Kagan asked at the time.

Since then, and after a bevy of requests, the company has advanced its model to play a more complex game: Doom.

The crude shooter game represents a 21-year jump in technological understanding for the program, given that Doom came out in 1993 and Pong in 1972.

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The recent demo also showed an incomplete answer provided by the chatbot when asked to explain the meaning of life.

It answered, "The meaning of life is a philosophical question that has been pondered by thinkers and scholars across various cultures and religions for centuries."

It went on, "It explores the fundamental question of what purpose or ultimate meaning lies in human existence."

"Different interpretations may vary widely," it added before ending abruptly.

Cortical Labs has made its research publicly available, letting the viewer decide if the company is indeed creating science "for the greater good," as it has stated.

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Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Shockingly Extensive Gaming History

'We need educational subversion'

Jeffrey Epstein was BANNED from Xbox Live — for harassing other gamers



Whatever the scope of Bill Gates' relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Microsoft seemingly had at least a few reasons to ban the shadowy financier and sex abuser from its gaming platform.

Although Epstein was first convicted of sexual abuse crimes in 2008, it appears he had several more years of gaming left in him.

'"Severe, repeated, and/or excessive" mistreatment of his peers.'

While most were likely gearing up for the Christmas season at the time, Epstein may have been hitting Microsoft's online gaming platform Xbox Live hard around the holidays. It was Thursday, December 19, 2013, when Epstein got an email from the service that informed him he was getting permanently banned. The document has been made available by the Department of Justice.

The email to Epstein was labeled a "Notice of permanent enforcement action" for "Harassment, threats, and/or abuse" from xlcm@microsoft.com, which has been noted online as Xbox's official policy and enforcement team.

The ban came as a result of "severe, repeated, and/or excessive" mistreatment of his peers, the email said. It also provided a list of Epstein's possible conduct that could have initiated the ban:

  • Threats of death, harm, property damage, or any other act of violence or vandalism
  • Verbal abuse or profanity directed at other players
  • Griefing
  • Extortion or manipulation
  • Libel, defamation, or slander
  • Display or transmission of personally identifiable information, such as name, address, phone number, or IP address
  • Stalking

But that wasn't all.

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That same day, Epstein received another email to his connected account, jeevacation@gmail.com; the sender has been redacted.

This email informed him that he had been permanently suspended from Xbox Live due to the New York Attorney General's partnership with Microsoft, which prohibits the service from having "New York registered sex offenders" on its platform.

This was done to "minimize the risk to others, particularly children," the email stated.

While Epstein was already a registered sex offender years prior, it seems that he did not join the Xbox platform until 2012.

RELATED: OOF: Mark Zuckerberg's losing metaverse bet cost Meta $77B

Photo by JOHN GURZINSKI/AFP via Getty Images

This is evidenced by a 2012 "Welcome to Xbox LIVE" email he received, which was also made available by the DOJ.

Other video game-related emails include Epstein asking his assistant Lesley Groff if he has "an Xbox 360 Kinect?" in 2014, and there is another email from 2016 that talks about setting up an Xbox One that was purchased as a gift.

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Chinese women are spending thousands on virtual boyfriends: 'Maybe because real-life marriage is just ... dull'



A Chinese man tried paying his wife to stop spending time with her virtual boyfriend.

The man asked his wife to stop using a particular program for a year in exchange for $2,800, and she initially agreed. The woman reportedly transferred the money into her daughter's savings account until a week later, when she reinstalled the game because a new dating scene for her virtual boyfriend was released.

'As a married woman, I still feel a bit guilty.'

The story of a woman going by "Minnie" is one of many chronicled in a recent article about Chinese women who are addicted to otomo games, virtual romance games targeted at women.

The most popular, Love and Romance, made $750 million in 2025, according to Pocket Gamer, with Sensor Tower reporting that the game had over 100,000 downloads in the Apple Store in December alone.

Other games like Light and Night or Beyond the World have women choose between different lovers who represent various personality types or themes. Collectible cards offer micro-transaction opportunities in order to unlock outfits, scenes, and storylines.

According to KrAsia, these games are wedging their way into women's real lives at an alarming speed.

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Photo by Jiangang Wang

These games, in conjunction with chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek, are being used by women to create a constant stream of contact with their AI boyfriends.

"If not for ChatGPT and Love and Deepspace, I wouldn't have realized how deeply I need to be understood and loved or that such needs could be perfectly met," Chi Cheng told the outlet. "But if you told me to delete the game and stop using ChatGPT now, I'd lose my mind."

In just five months, Cheng has spent over $1,100 chasing the cards of her favorite male companion, Xavier.

Minnie, however, prefers Rafayel, and even though she is married, she said the character is "someone who loves reading and art, is emotionally stable, understands finance, and never argues."

Minnie has two Love and Deepspace accounts, having spent around $2,500 USD. Although she said she does not have an unhappy marriage, and she even has a daughter, the digital partner is still her perfect match.

"Even with a compatible partner, there will always be tension and stress. A 100% match doesn't exist in real life," the woman explained.

AI boyfriend in real life

Minnie noted that she uses her AI boyfriend's chatbot function for real-life conversation, which is what led to her husband's aforementioned monetary ultimatum:

"I’ll give you [$2,800]. Just stop playing Love and Deepspace for a year."

Citing that she once read, "The best partner is someone you can talk to in the middle of the night," Minnie revealed, "If my husband finally falls asleep after working late, I can't wake him just to talk. But that's when I can — by launching Love and Deepspace."

All the women KrAsia interviewed use this function on a daily basis, and Minnie even uses the character for fitness motivation. During postpartum workouts, Minnie was able to extend the time she could hold a plank position after her coach joked, "Try looking at your favorite guy; maybe you'll last longer."

She began staring at Rafayel and extended her ability to hold the position from three seconds to 48 seconds. An attached photo showed her staring at her phone during her workout.

Other extensions for the app include an augmented reality feature where users can view their companion in their current environment through their phone.

Cheng reportedly often uses this feature to imagine Xavier walking beside her or sitting in a nearby chair.

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With plummeting marriage rates in China already, the fear is that this already massive industry will become more pervasive, as other girls like Yangtao explain that the reason otome games are so appealing is "maybe because real-life marriage is just ... dull."

She added, "But people never stop craving romance."

Another woman, Meiyi, 35, told herself, "You're at a crossroads. Don't play this game, or you'll get addicted."

She apparently downloaded it anyway.

What became clear with the women in their stories was often directly admitted to; Minnie put it plainly:

"In the game, there’s no conflict, no arguments. Even small fights just build up to the next emotional high. Interacting with an in-game character feels more exciting than real life. But as a married woman, I still feel a bit guilty."

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Charlie Kirk murder online role play banned from Grand Theft Auto: 'Tasteless, unacceptable'



The online world for Grand Theft Auto V is seeing a rare instance of censorship despite its usually anything-goes environment.

GTA Online is the game's online platform, which has thrived for more than a dozen years since its original 2013 release.

'Tasteless, unacceptable, and inappropriate.'

In December, publisher Rockstar Games launched a feature that allows players to design and publish their own missions online for other users to play. At this point in the game's lifespan, this was about the only thing that users could not yet do.

It only took a few days for this feature to be immediately taken to its limits, though, as at least one user took it upon themselves to recreate the murder of Charlie Kirk, which happened on September 10, 2025.

A user named "Yaarpen98" created a mission titled "We are Charlie Kirk," in which the gamer is meant to go on a rooftop and shoot a person standing in front of school under a fruit stand.

YouTuber ICER relayed fan reactions to the created mission, saying it had users split, with half of the fans saying it was simply dark humor and an example of player freedom. The other half of fans, he explained, described the mission as "tasteless, unacceptable, and inappropriate."

He added some have argued that "players have crossed a line that even the developers should not tolerate."

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As reported by Variety, Rockstar Games has banned missions of this nature and added "Charlie Kirk" to its list of prohibited terms through its "profanity filter." Furthermore, the developers will change the name of this tool to something that reflects how it will be used to flag content violations, not just profanity.

Rockstar's community guidelines already prohibit showcasing "violent extremism," which includes "glorification or promotion of real-world terrorist, extremist, or criminal organizations and their ideologies."

This rule has already been allegedly enforced in regard to rapper and producer Sean "Diddy" Combs, after missions that recreated a raid on his home were removed.

RELATED: Conor McGregor removed from Hitman video game after losing sexual assault case

Photo by Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images

A user named "Vexnyllith" said he created a mission that had authorities raiding the home of a "celebrity" known for "hosting parties and is wanted for serious crimes."

The user said he also created a mission called "Diddy Disciples," but both missions were removed. He then vowed to create a new series of missions and advised fans to follow him.

The mission creation feature is similar to that of Hitman Online, which also sparked controversy when UFC fighter Conor McGregor was removed from the game over real-life legal troubles.

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