Kotaku.com
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Kotaku'' is a
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith,
Cecilia D'Anastasio Cecilia D'Anastasio is an American journalist who primarily covers the video game industry. From 2016 to 2020, D'Anastasio wrote for '' Kotaku'', and she was recognized for a 2018 article reporting allegations of sexual harassment and gender disc ...
, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.


History

''Kotaku'' was first launched in October 2004 with Matthew Gallant as its lead writer, with an intended target audience of young men. About a month later,
Brian Crecente Brian Crecente (born July 28, 1970) is an American journalist and columnist. He founded '' Kotaku'', co-founded ''Polygon'', previously served as video games editor at ''Variety,'' and was in charge of game coverage at ''Rolling Stone''. Car ...
was brought in to try to save the failing site. Since then, the site has launched several country-specific sites for
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and the UK. Crecente was named one of the 20 most influential people in the video game industry over the past 20 years by GamePro in 2009 and one of gaming's Top 50 journalists by Edge in 2006. The site has made
CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
's "Blog 100" list and was ranked 50th on ''
PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...
''s "Top 100 Classic Web Sites" list. Its name comes from the Japanese '' otaku'' (obsessive fan) and the prefix "ko-" (small in size). Stephen Totilo replaced
Brian Crecente Brian Crecente (born July 28, 1970) is an American journalist and columnist. He founded '' Kotaku'', co-founded ''Polygon'', previously served as video games editor at ''Variety,'' and was in charge of game coverage at ''Rolling Stone''. Car ...
as the editor in chief in 2012. Totilo had previously joined ''Kotaku'' in 2009 as deputy editor. In April 2014, Gawker Media partnered with
Future plc Future plc is an international multimedia company established in the United Kingdom in 1985. The company has over 220 brands that span magazines, newsletters, websites, and events in fields such as video games, technology, films, music, photogr ...
to launch ''Kotaku UK'', and with
Allure Media Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald' ...
to launch ''Kotaku Australia''. ''Kotaku'' was one of several websites that was purchased by
Univision Communications TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American media company headquartered in New York and Mexico City, which owns the American Spanish language broadcast network Univision. 45% of the company is held by the ...
in their acquisition of Gawker Media in August 2016; Gizmodo Media Group was subsequently founded to house the Gawker acquisitions, operating under the
Fusion Media Group The Fusion Media Group (FMG; formerly Fusion Media Network) is a division of Univision Communications. The company was launched in April 2016 after Univision bought out Disney's stake in Fusion through the Fusion Media Network joint venture between ...
, a division of Univision. The Gizmodo Media Group was later acquired by the private equity firm Great Hill Partners in April 2019, and renamed G/O Media. In December 2018 Pedestrian Group, owned by the Australian media company
Nine Entertainment Nine Entertainment (registered as Nine Entertainment Co. Pty Ltd) is an Australian publicly listed media company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting, newspaper publications and digital media. It uses Nine as its corporate brandi ...
, acquired ''Kotaku Australia''. and continues to own it. The transition to G/O Media led to several departures from the site, as well as from other sister sites under the former Gawker Media label due to conflicts with G/O Media's management. Cecilia D'Anastasio left ''Kotaku'' in December 2019 to become a journalist for '' Wired''. Joshua Rivera and Gita Jackson left in January 2020 stating it was impossible to work with the new management. Jason Schreier, one of ''Kotaku''s writers since 2012 known for his investigative in-depth coverage of working conditions at various studios and development histories for various video games, announced his departure from the site on April 16, 2020, citing the issues surrounding G/O Media which filtered into disruptions at their sister website '' Deadspin'' around October 2019. Schreier subsequently took a position at ''
Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...
''. In May 2020, senior writer Harper Jay MacIntyre departed from ''Kotaku'', similarly citing conflicts with management, and joined Double Fine Productions as their content and community manager. ''Kotaku UK'' closed on September 9, 2020. Totilo announced he was departing as editor in chief on February 5, 2021, though will remain in games journalism elsewhere. Riley MacLeod served as interim editor in chief following Totilo's departure, before Patricia Hernandez commenced her tenure as editor in chief from June 2, 2021.


Controversy

In 2007, attorney
Jack Thompson Jack Thompson may refer to: Sports *Jack Thompson (footballer, born 1892) (1892–1969), English footballer who played for Sheffield United and Bristol City *Jack Thompson (1920s footballer), English footballer who played for Aston Villa and Bright ...
sued Gawker Media and site editor
Brian Crecente Brian Crecente (born July 28, 1970) is an American journalist and columnist. He founded '' Kotaku'', co-founded ''Polygon'', previously served as video games editor at ''Variety,'' and was in charge of game coverage at ''Rolling Stone''. Car ...
over concerns that ''Kotaku'' declined to remove threatening user comments, but the lawsuit was dismissed the next day. In 2009,
Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...
reported that
Hearst Corporation Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...
sought to buy ''Kotaku'' from Gawker Media. In 2010, ''Kotaku'' criticized Japanese magazine
Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...
's glowing endorsement of a
Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...
game as a conflict of interest; Konami subsequently revoked ''Kotaku''s invitation to the game's launch party.


Blacklistings

In 2007, ''Kotaku'' ran a story about rumored upcoming features on the
PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
, and
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
responded by temporarily
blacklisting Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...
the website. In 2015, ''Kotaku'' claimed that they had been blacklisted by major video game companies
Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited, and in 1999 became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In its ...
and
Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...
. Because of this blacklist, ''Kotaku'' opted not to be a jury member in The Game Awards when invited by Geoff Keighley.


Gamergate harassment campaign

In 2014, ''Kotaku'' was part of the accusations that instigated the harassment campaign known as
Gamergate Gamergate may refer to: * Gamergate (ant), a worker ant that can store sperm and reproduce sexually * Gamergate (harassment campaign), targeting women in the video game industry * Lt. Gamergate, a character in the ''Adventure Time'' episode " Den ...
when a writer from the site, Nathan Grayson, was falsely accused of writing a favorable review of the game ''
Depression Quest ''Depression Quest'' is a 2013 interactive fiction video game, game dealing with the subject of clinical depression, depression. It was developed by Zoë Quinn using the Twine (software), Twine engine, with writing by Quinn and Patrick Lindsey, ...
'' as a result of his relationship with its developer,
Zoë Quinn Zoë Tiberius Quinn (born 1987) is an American video game developer, programmer, and writer. Quinn developed the interactive fiction game '' Depression Quest'', which was released in 2013. In 2014, a defamatory blog post by their ex-boyfrien ...
. After conducting an internal review, it was discovered that no review of ''Depression Quest'' existed and he had only written one article that mentioned Quinn in passing before their relationship began. The subreddit /r/KotakuInAction became a hub for the Gamergate community. Its creator attempted to shut it down in 2018, claiming that it had become "infested with racism and sexism", but it was reinstated by a Reddit administrator due to the site's guidelines.


References


External links

* * {{Portal bar, Internet, Journalism, Video games American gaming websites Former Univision Communications subsidiaries Gawker Media Internet properties established in 2004 Video game news websites