Imagine browsing Amazon for the latest upcoming games and stumbling across pricey "official" guidebooks for titles that don't exist yet. That's exactly what's happening right now, and it's a mess worth understanding whether you're a gamer, a parent shopping for gifts, or just someone trying to navigate online marketplaces without getting burned.

The Slop Is Real—and Unreleased

The folks over at Rick's Game Blacklog first spotted the absurdity when searching Amazon for game release dates. Instead of finding launch info, they discovered guidebook listings for Alien: Isolation 2 (no confirmed release date), Control: Resonant (due September 24), and Gear of War E-Day (October 6). Each book features AI-generated cover art and AI-written product descriptions—and the prices aren't cheap, often hitting $20 or more. The kicker? These books appear as "associated items" when you pre-order the actual games, meaning Amazon's own recommendation system is actively promoting them to unsuspecting customers.

What Actually Lives Inside

Rick ordered a few of these guides and documented their contents for all to see. Spoiler: it's glorious in the worst way possible. The Gear of War E-Day guidebook—titled "Gear of War E-Day Game Guide: Tactical Breakdown of Conflict, Characters, and Urban Survival Systems"—opens with text that literally reads: "Here is a high-converting Amazon-style book description crafted to sell your book while keeping it emotionally engaging, persuasive, and read-focused." The table of contents displays as hyperlinks rather than page numbers. There are no screenshots, no maps, nothing you'd expect from an actual strategy guide. Instead, buyers get around 60 pages of AI-generated lore scraped from Wikipedia, followed by chapters on features that won't exist in the game ("Survival Mechanics," "Psychological Warfare"). The Alien: Isolation 2 book somehow includes a full chapter on system requirements that haven't even been announced.

Why This Keeps Happening

Amazon's customer service was contacted and removed some of these listings, but they popped right back up. The platform's hands-off approach to third-party publishing creates fertile ground for this kind of grift. With Amazon's recent $50 billion investment in OpenAI and the rollout of its AI assistant Rufus, the company seems focused on integrating more artificial intelligence rather than filtering out low-quality AI-generated content. Multiple "authors" appear to be running these operations at scale—George D. Brogon has published similar slop for Lies of P, while Donald C. Campbell has cranked out guides for The Adventures of Elliot, Mina the Hollower, and Star Fox. Notice a pattern in their blurbs? They all contain variations of "Step into the world of..."

How to Protect Yourself

Genuine strategy guidebooks do get published before game launches—but legitimate publishers receive advanced access to incomplete game builds months ahead of time. Real guides include actual gameplay screenshots, detailed maps, and specific mechanics breakdowns that require hands-on playtesting. AI slop, by contrast, relies entirely on publicly available information scraped from wikis and press releases. Before buying any guidebook for an unreleased or newly released game, check the publisher's reputation, look for preview content showing actual pages, and remember: if something seems too comprehensive for a game you can't even play yet, it probably is.

Key Takeaways

  • AI-generated guidebooks are appearing for games months before release, featuring fabricated "strategies" based on Wikipedia summaries rather than hands-on gameplay
  • These $20+ books exploit Amazon's recommendation algorithm by appearing alongside legitimate pre-order pages for the actual games
  • Common red flags include descriptions with phrases like "Step into the world of...", covers that look slightly off, and contents focused on lore instead of practical tips
  • Legitimate publishers receive advance game access from developers—this is how real guidebooks ship at launch

The Bottom Line

This isn't just annoying spam; it's a deliberate exploitation of trust. Amazon needs to implement better vetting for guidebook listings, especially for unreleased titles, before more players get taken for $20 rides through hallucinated nonsense. Until then, your best defense is skepticism—and maybe actually waiting for the game to come out first.