Kotaku was first launched in October 2004 with Matthew Gallant as its lead writer, with an intended target audience of young men.[3][4] About a month later,Brian Crecente was brought in to try to save the failing site.[5] Since then, the site has launched several country-specific sites forAustralia,Japan,Brazil and theUK. Crecente was named one of the 20 most influential people in the video game industry over the past 20 years byGamePro in 2009[6] and one of gaming's Top 50 journalists by Edge in 2006. The site has madeCNET's "Blog 100" list[7] and was ranked 50th onPC Magazine's "Top 100 Classic Web Sites" list.[8] Its name comes from the Japaneseotaku (obsessive fan) and the prefix "ko-" (small in size).[9]
Kotaku was one of several websites that was purchased byUnivision Communications in their acquisition of Gawker Media in August 2016;Gizmodo Media Group was subsequently founded to house the Gawker acquisitions, operating under theFusion Media Group, a division of Univision.[14] The Gizmodo Media Group was later acquired by the private equity firm Great Hill Partners in April 2019, and renamedG/O Media.[15]
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 leftKotaku in December 2019 to become a journalist forWired.[19] Joshua Rivera and Gita Jackson left in January 2020 stating it was impossible to work with the new management.[20]Jason Schreier, one ofKotaku'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 websiteDeadspin around October 2019. Schreier subsequently took a position atBloomberg News.[21] In May 2020, senior writer Harper Jay MacIntyre[a] departed fromKotaku, similarly citing conflicts with management, and joined Double Fine Productions as their content and community manager.[24]
Totilo announced he was departing as editor in chief on February 5, 2021, though will remain in games journalism elsewhere.[12] 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.[26]
Jen Glennon was appointed editor of the site in October 2023, after previous editor Patricia Hernandez was reportedly fired following a "personal disagreement" in August 2023.[27][28] In November 2023, G/O Media announced it was laying off 23 people across Kotaku and the company's other websites.[29][30]
Jen Glennon resigned her position as editor in March 2024, citing an opposition to G/O Media's desire for the site to deprioritize news and instead focus on producing game guides.[31]
In July 2024, it was reported thatKotaku Australia would shut down as part of a cost-cutting effort from third-party publisherPedestrian Group.[32] In October 2024,Kotaku Australia began to redirect toKotaku and made its article archive "publicly inaccessible".[33]Aftermath reported that "this not only means the work of dozens of Australian writers over the course of 16 years has been lost, but also thousands of Kotaku US stories as well that, thanks to various server and ownership changes, had only survived via their reposts on Kotaku AU".[33]
In 2007, attorneyJack Thompson sued Gawker Media and site editorBrian Crecente over concerns thatKotaku declined to remove threatening user comments,[34] but the lawsuit was dismissed the next day.[35]
On October 9, 2021,Kotaku published an article aboutMetroid Dread, which had been released a day prior, running onNintendo Switch emulators. The article praised the game's performance on emulators (said to be better than on theNintendo Switch itself), thanked "pirates,emulators,modders, andhackers", and suggested readers emulate older or expensive games themselves.[37] The article was criticized for promoting piracy, especially of newly released games, but was also noted to have sparked wider discussions about the role of emulation invideo game preservation.[38][39][40][41] On October 10,Kotaku revised the article to clarify they were referring to game preservation[42] and, after a complaint from Nintendo on a later date, removed all mentions of piracy from the article.[43]Kotaku also issued an apology and stated that, though they believed emulation was "a vital part of the world of gaming", they did not condone using it to acquire games illegally.[43]
In 2023,Kotaku was blacklisted by Nintendo, reportedly over articles that covered leaks of unreleased Nintendo games. Further controversy followed when then senior writer Luke Plunkett posted a picture of a fighter plane with victory markings featuring the Imperial Japanese flag.[48]
In 2014,Kotaku was part of the accusations that instigated the harassment campaign known asGamergate when a writer from the site, Nathan Grayson, was falsely accused of writing a favorable review of the gameDepression Quest as a result of his relationship with its developer,Zoë Quinn. After conducting an internal review, it was discovered that no review ofDepression Quest existed and he had only written one article that mentioned Quinn in passing before their relationship began.[49][50] ThesubredditKotakuInAction became a hub for the Gamergate community.[51][52] 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.[53][54]
In March 2024, the narrative development studioSweet Baby Inc. became the target of claims from online users who said that it promoted a "woke agenda".Kotaku editor Alyssa Mercante became the target of harassment from users after publishing an article on the backlash. Media outlets such asThe Week,Wired, andThe Verge compared the backlash to Gamergate or dubbed it "Gamergate 2.0".[55][56][57]
In March 2025, formerActivision Blizzard CEOBobby Kotick sued G/O Media for defamation, claiming articles in Kotaku and Gizmodo which noted his interest in acquiringTikTok repeated claims of widespread workplace misconduct on his watch at Activision without noting that the claims were investigated and dismissed by state regulators. Kotick said he and his representatives repeatedly asked for corrections to the articles.[58]
