'The internet's a less whimsical place' - YouTuber Jacksepticeye branches out

'The internet's a less whimsical place' - YouTuber Jacksepticeye branches out

ByAndrew Rogers and Tom RichardsonBBC Newsbeat

He started uploading in 2012, in what many people consider to be the platform's "golden age" when vlogging, video game playthroughs and comedy escapism were all the rage.

BBC Newsbeat caught up with McLoughlin to talk about his new role, his work on bringing one of his favourite video games to the big screen and why he misses the "whimsical" days of the internet.

McLoughlin got famous playing video games, and these days there's a good chance you'll see - or hear - him in one.

After a role in the 2025 superhero adventure Dispatch, McLoughlin's got a new role in Hitman, the successful "assassination simulator" from Danish studio IO Interactive.

Although the fictional character shares McLoughlin's likeness and voice, he says the "manosphere-adjacent influencer" is not based on him.

He's one of the celebrity "elusive targets" Hitman's developers occasionally place in the game to encourage returning fans.

"If you hate me maybe that's even more fun to play."

He'd hoped to watch other streamers react to the blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo, but says many of his friends missed it.

Image source, PlayStation

Earlier this year, McLoughlin was also unveiled as a producer on an animated movie version of Bloodborne, one of the highest-rated video games of all time.

McLoughlin reassured them he's a huge fan of the games and has a tattoo of a Hunter's Mark - one of the game's key items - to prove it.

"If it feels off, especially with something like Bloodborne, people can feel it immediately, even if they don't know what they're pointing towards," he says.

"They know the game so well that if the atmosphere, or the world, or the vibe feels off, they'll pick up on it pretty fast."

McLoughlin says he's been trying to pick people for the project who have ideally played Bloodborne and "have a feeling" for what it's all about.

"So the producing side of it fits a lot more naturally for me right now."

'Rise of anti-communities'

Hitman's new mission lands just weeks before the launch of the hugely-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6.

McLoughlin, who fondly remembers PlayStation cases on a bedroom shelf and getting new games for Christmas, says "it would suck to see physical games disappear completely".

"Just in terms of the humanity behind it all, I think it would be a shame to see that stuff disappear because it's a magical experience," he says.

Earlier this month, Epic Games, makers of Fortnite, announced a "pivot" towards using AI as a primary development tool.

"I think the chances of that happening were already zero before anything related to that even happened," he says.

McLoughlin also appeared as reformed villain Punch Up in superhero adventure game Dispatch

Physical games, GenAI and content creators' career moves are sure to generate discourse, and conversations online are another thing McLoughlin thinks have changed since he started out.

"I'm just sad that the internet is such an angry place these days," he says.

"But I think that's just endemic of the internet in general."

"Right now, it's just people are angry in general, just at the world," he says.

McLoughlin's doing his bit to bring people together in December with his annual Thankmas event.

"I think it's a nice little pinprick of light in the middle of everything else going on," he says.

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