Kotaku is a website and blog about video games. It was started in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. People who used to write for Kotaku include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.

On July 2, 2025, it was announced that Keleops Group finished buying Kotaku.

History

Kotaku was launched in October 2004 with Matthew Gallant as the main writer, targeting young men as its audience. About a month later, Brian Crecente joined to help improve the struggling website. Over time, Kotaku created separate websites for Australia, Japan, Brazil, and the UK. In 2006, Edge magazine named Crecente one of gaming’s Top 50 journalists. In 2009, GamePro listed him as one of the 20 most influential people in the video game industry over the past 20 years. Kotaku was included in CNET’s "Blog 100" list and ranked 50th on PC Magazine’s "Top 100 Classic Web Sites" list. The name "Kotaku" comes from the Japanese word "otaku," meaning an obsessive fan, and the prefix "ko-," which means "small."

In 2009, Business Insider reported that Hearst Corporation tried to buy Kotaku from Gawker Media. In 2012, Stephen Totilo became the editor in chief, after joining Kotaku in 2009 as deputy editor. In April 2014, Gawker Media partnered with Future plc to create Kotaku UK and with Allure Media to create Kotaku Australia.

In August 2016, Univision Communications bought Kotaku as part of its purchase of Gawker Media. A new group called Gizmodo Media Group was formed to manage the acquired websites, operating under Fusion Media Group, a division of Univision. In April 2019, Gizmodo Media Group was bought by Great Hill Partners and renamed G/O Media.

In December 2018, Pedestrian Group, owned by Australian media company Nine Entertainment, acquired Kotaku Australia. The move to G/O Media caused some employees to leave Kotaku and other websites linked to the former Gawker Media label. Cecilia D’Anastasio left Kotaku in December 2019 to work for Wired. Joshua Rivera and Gita Jackson left in January 2020, saying it was hard to work with new management. Jason Schreier, a writer known for covering game development and studio conditions, left Kotaku in April 2020, citing problems with G/O Media. He later joined Bloomberg News. In May 2020, senior writer Harper Jay MacIntyre also left Kotaku, citing conflicts with management, and joined Double Fine Productions.

Kotaku UK closed on September 9, 2020. Stephen Totilo announced his departure as editor in chief in February 2021 but will continue working in games journalism. Riley MacLeod was the interim editor in chief until Patricia Hernandez became editor in chief in June 2021.

In October 2023, Jen Glennon became editor of Kotaku after Patricia Hernandez was reportedly fired due to a personal disagreement in August 2023. In November 2023, G/O Media announced layoffs affecting 23 people across Kotaku and other websites.

In March 2024, Jen Glennon resigned as editor, opposing G/O Media’s plan to focus less on news and more on game guides.

In July 2025, G/O Media sold Kotaku to Keleops, the owner of Gizmodo. Keleops’ CEO said the company would keep Kotaku’s staff and make no major changes to its content in the short term. Adweek reported that Keleops plans to grow Kotaku’s editorial team and expand its presence in English-language publishing.

Controversies

In 2007, attorney Jack Thompson filed a lawsuit against Gawker Media and site editor Brian Crecente because Kotaku did not remove threatening comments from users. The lawsuit was dismissed the next day.

In 2010, Kotaku criticized Japanese magazine Famitsu for giving a positive review to Konami’s PlayStation Portable game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which was seen as a conflict of interest. Konami canceled Kotaku’s invitation to the game’s launch party in response.

On October 9, 2021, Kotaku published an article about Metroid Dread, a game released the day before. The article mentioned that the game performed well on Nintendo Switch emulators and thanked "pirates, emulators, modders, and hackers" for their work. It also encouraged readers to emulate older or expensive games. The article faced criticism for promoting piracy, especially of new games, but it also led to more discussions about the role of emulation in preserving video games. On October 10, Kotaku revised the article to clarify that it focused on game preservation. After Nintendo later complained, the article removed all references to piracy. Kotaku also apologized, stating that while they supported emulation as important to gaming, they did not support using it to illegally obtain games.

In 2007, Kotaku published a story about rumored features for the PlayStation 3. Sony responded by temporarily blocking the website. In 2015, Kotaku claimed that major game companies Bethesda Softworks and Ubisoft had blacklisted the site. Because of this, Kotaku chose not to participate as a jury member in The Game Awards in 2019, despite being invited by Geoff Keighley.

In 2023, Kotaku was blacklisted by Nintendo, reportedly due to articles covering leaks of unreleased Nintendo games. Additional controversy arose when senior writer Luke Plunkett posted a picture of a fighter plane with victory markings that included the Imperial Japanese flag.

In 2014, Kotaku was involved in accusations that led to the harassment campaign known as Gamergate. A writer from Kotaku, Nathan Grayson, was wrongly accused of writing a favorable review of the game Depression Quest because of his relationship with its developer, Zoë Quinn. After an internal review, it was found that no such review existed and that Grayson had only written one article mentioning Quinn before their relationship began. The subreddit KotakuInAction became a hub for the Gamergate community. Its creator tried to close it in 2018, saying it had become "infested with racism and sexism," but a Reddit administrator reinstated it due to the site’s guidelines.

In March 2024, the narrative development studio Sweet Baby Inc. faced claims from online users who accused it of promoting a "woke agenda." Kotaku editor Alyssa Mercante was harassed after publishing an article about the backlash. Media outlets like The Week, Wired, and The Verge compared the backlash to Gamergate or called it "Gamergate 2.0."

In March 2025, former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sued G/O Media for defamation. He claimed that articles in Kotaku and Gizmodo repeated allegations about workplace misconduct at Activision during his time as CEO without noting that the claims were investigated and dismissed by state regulators. Kotick stated that he and his representatives had repeatedly requested corrections to the articles.