The world's largest game companies have joined forces to bring us this truly horrible horse.

Journalism is a never-ending job. You have to be on the lookout for any breaking news. I've got my nose to the ground, foraging for what might be buried in a corporate press release, uttered in an interview, or bubbling up on social media, knowing that sometimes--sometimes--I'll find the next big scoop in time to claim first dibs.

Sometimes, like today, I find that all the biggest game companies in the world are tweeting the same dumbass pony.

At first, I had been scrolling by this horrible horse's awful facial expression without much notice. I was horrified to realize that I had spent the past hour staring at this wretched horse's unintelligible gaze, which I'd seen in countless image editing and crude photoshops.

I'll admit it: This horse is a truly terrible one. I can't tell if its lidless eye is widening in terror or joy; if its rictus smile is bared with pure, equine delight, or as a picture of boundless pain. Recently, I've been in an emotional space that I find myself in quite a bit. And damn, I love to look at him.

The horse is from a promotional image for the upcoming movie We Live in Time. It stars Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh in a romantic film. The image captures a fun, flirty carnival moment, but it pales in comparison with the bucktoothed, empty-brained carousel horses emerging from the lower left corner:

I'm sure Pugh, Garfield and the rest of the cast will deliver excellent performances in the October release of We Live in Time. But the horse is now the star. People quickly began to use the silly horse in whatever images they could find. Publishers and developers took note, with the official PlayStation UK account declaring that "a petition to add the horse into every video game ever" was launched.

I've seen him glued to Halo moas and flanked by those horny mannequins robots from Atomic Heart. He also led a charge in Mount & Blade. He's now a Balatro joker. Octodad's entire family is ruined by him. He's everywhere: golden, terrible and resplendent. He'll probably be unbearable by the weekend.

Fans have also contributed their own contributions. I love Alan Wake's newest nightmare:

Me, I am content to enjoy the moment as long as I can. Memes are moving so fast that by next week I will either have forgotten or have learned to hate the horse. For now, I choose to see this god-awful animal as a friend.