Video Game Website Has Controversial Plan To Only Pay Per Click

Valnet, the self-proclaimed “leading digital media investment company” behind the likes of Polygon, GameRant, OpenCritic, Collider, and over a dozen more gaming, technology, and lifestyle websites, isn’t known for paying its freelance writers well. But new “Pay Per Session” rules issued to writers and editors at TheGamer on May 21 threaten to break new ground when it comes to click-mill-style exploitation.

According to details outlined in TheGamer’s Slack, these new terms, mandated by Valnet management, would “reward top-performing articles.” However, Kotaku last learned, based on details of these new agreements, that the proposed “performance structure” would also result in some writers not receiving any base pay per article. Instead, they would only be paid a rate of $8 per 1,000 clicks. A spokesperson for Valnet later clarified that writers begin getting paid from the very first click with no minimum threshold.

Valnet was founded by Hassan Youssef and Sam Youssef in 2012. The company has since earned a negative reputation over the years for the way it treats staff and freelance writers, with one former Collider employee describing it as “a content mill, borderline like almost sweatshop-level” during an interview with TheWrap in 2025 (I briefly freelanced for TheGamer from 2022 to 2023).

Despite the rise of Valnet’s reach and prominence, you’d be hard-pressed to find a positive word about the company from those who work in its newsrooms. Valnet has previously been accused of copyright striking YouTube videos that include negative statements about it and blacklisting writers who complain about how little they’re paid.

One of those writers is Lex Luddy, the editor in chief of Startmenu and a former junior editor at TheGamer, who stated earlier today in a post on Bluesky that “permalance” staff at the site were given new payment guidelines. The revised rules would only pay writers per click instead of a base amount for each article.

“Pay per view bonuses in the previous contracts were additive to base pay,” stated Luddy’s post (a representative for Valnet clarified that these bonuses were communicated over email, not via new contracts). “New contacts would see pay based solely on viewership…after a day-long revolt in the company Slack, many of TG’s permalance *staff* believe that the issuing of these contracts are a form of ‘soft-layoffs,’ as most would rather leave than sign.”

Kotaku was able to view a copy of the payment details issued to staff in TheGamer’s official Slack. The “new and exciting, performance-based bonus system” was revealed to staff on May 21, but immediately went into effect the next day on May 22. Writers will now earn $5 per 1,000 “sessions” (clicks) and editors will earn $3 per 1,000 sessions. Self-publishing contributors will earn $8. A Valnet representative later clarified that only the the self-publishing contributors would be moved to this payment model, and that the majority of The Gamer‘s workforce has payment terms that include base pay.

While TheGamer’s upper management has tried to spin this as a way for “strong-performing content” to earn extra money, it also means that, should an article get fewer than 1,000 sessions, staff at the site won’t even be paid $8.

It gets worse when you take into account exactly how many of TheGamer’s writers and editors are actually on permalance-style agreements. Kotaku spoke to Lex Luddy, who stated that “almost everyone,” from listicle writers to senior editors, is technically classified as a freelancer at TheGamer, and therefore could be subject to the newly issued contracts. “Almost everyone is a contract ‘freelancer,'” they said. “One or two might be employees. Not all of the editors received these new payment terms on Thursday, but it was shared in Slack and discussed openly.”

Luddy also confirmed to me that half of the writers at TheGamer are currently in “open revolt” with the site’s upper management, while others are instead desperately trying “to make contact with Valnet representatives” in search of a justification for the newly issued payment rules.

“A lot of games media written word sites are hemorrhaging hits right now, and that is a combined factor of Google SEO changes, which I understand hit TheGamer quite hard,” Luddy said. “The prevalence of AI search engines, and the fact that Google just this week announced it was shifting its search engine to an AI chatbot-type interface, further decimating click-through rates.”

Effective freelancing rates under these new agreements would be unlivable for some at TheGamer, leading to speculation that this is a way by Valnet to “voluntarily” reduce headcount and have freelancers bail rather than be cut.

Editor’s note 6/1/2026, 1:01 p.m. ET: The original version of this article included two errors. The first was that writers at The Gamer would only be paid if they hit a minimum threshold of 1,000 clicks. The second was that these changes were communicated via new contracts. A representative from Valnet wrote to Kotaku to clarify that writers are paid starting at the first click and the new changes were announced over email, and threatened to sue if further changes were not made to the article.

Per the company’s request, Kotaku has also updated the top image for this article and removed a reference to the CEO’s past work history in addition to the other corrections. We also note that Valnet was only given an hour to respond before publication on the Saturday that the article was originally published.

Update 6/1/2026, 4:07 p.m. ET: Additional revisions were made to clarify which contributors receive which rates.