Complete Disaster As Kotaku Australia Shut Down

Kotaku Australia has just shut down, and this has had an enormous impact on the gaming industry. Obviously, that is a joke; no one cares. However, let’s get serious for one second. Today, it was announced that Kotaku, Vice, Gizmodo, and Lifehacker will close their doors in Australia. While I am not too familiar with other outlets’ content, I know a bit about Kotaku. In fact, there was a time when I enjoyed reading their articles. Before I started to pay attention to what was happening around me, I used to read whatever Google would put in front of me.

If I google a game and a post pops up, I will read it. Most people are not aware of the gamer world’s inner details. While it might feel like it, those who know what DEI is, Sweet Baby Inc., or the bad business practices of Electronic Arts or the Blizzard lawsuit are in the minority. A large portion of people just pick up a game and play it. The same can be said about the other content that they consume. They google a topic, see an article, and read it. Most of the time, you never associate a name or a face to what you read. Even more so, you never associate any political leanings.

For a person like me who does not use Twitter, where most of the political and social discourse happens, that becomes even more true. In 2016, I did research on what console I should buy. I came across a PlayStation 5 review from IGN where they complained about the US political election during most of their article about the PS5. That was the first time I encountered such a blatant insertion of politics into video games.

Kotaku Australia Vs. The World

I started paying more attention and concluded that most gaming outlets were doing this. I enjoyed reading Kotaku because they put the most effort into their articles. They would write 2500-word pieces filled with opinions and information, whereas other outlets would barely write 300 words to get a headline. Sadly, once I started to notice that writers were injecting their personal politics into their game reviews, I could no longer ignore it. Listening to a Witcher 3 review filled with ten reasons why Donald Trump is wrong became tiring.

Then, I started to notice the attacks. If you try to disagree with them, they will hunt you down and shut you down. They become increasingly hateful towards independent creators, likely because they feel that these creators are stealing their spotlight. Recently, Kotaku has been filled with what most call activists larping as game journalists. All they are interested in doing is talking about politics. Granted, all I talk about is drama, but I do not hide my comments in a GTA 5 review. You have Kotaku writers picking fights with people.

A writer recently tried to infiltrate Sweet Baby Inc Detected and get the personal information of members. I can only imagine what she wanted to do with that personal information. Their journalists are on Twitter, making hundreds of tweets daily, trying to get hosting companies to shut down sites they dislike. Looking at Kotaku’s recent troubles and feeling bad for them is very hard.

Conclusion

With that said, obviously, you do not want to do a victory lap over someone losing their job. These people have a voice and should be free to express it. However, If you put out content that people do not engage with, it is what it is. You are not entitled to a click or a read. That is especially true if your article is yelling at people for not agreeing with your political and social opinions when they are trying to read about the latest Gears of War game. At some point, you will get what you deserve. If you make a career by scolding your fans, they will eventually turn away.

Most outlets that do this have lost 90% of their viewers since 2016. In my opinion, the most significant turnaround was GamerGate. That was when most gaming fans woke up to just how untrustworthy most of these publishers were. I won’t do a victory lap because of this shutdown. However, I am also not going to cry about it shutting down because if the roles were reversed, they would be celebrating any other site or YouTube channel shutting down that they disagree with. In fact, they will try to play an active role in getting it shut down.