Kotaku Australia Is SHUTTING DOWN!!

In a move that should surprise no one, it has been announced via Twitter/X that the Australian affiliates for Vice, Gizmodo, Refinery29, Kotaku and Lifehacker will no longer publish in Australia. This is reportedly part of a plan to restructure and cut costs for the Australia based Pedestrian Group, with dozens of jobs getting slashed in the process.

 

Gizmodo, Lifehacker and Kotaku will no longer be published in Australia as part of a major restructure and cost-cutting effort by Nine-owned Pedestrian Group

Up to 40 jobs will go across the businesshttps://t.co/TRsmdCUyIB

— Ben Grubb 🐛 (@bengrubb) July 8, 2024

 

Matt Rowley, CEO of Pedestrian Group, made the announcement on Monday morning. “We’ve made the tough decision to focus on our wholly-owned Pedestrian brands where we control the strategy, the content, the product, the sales and the outcome – the entire business,” he said. “This will have an impact on roles within the group and I appreciate the uncertainty this change creates, so we will be in contact immediately with those people.”

 

Incredibly upset at hearing the fate of the local Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Kotaku, Vice and Refinery29 publications.

All the people who ever went through those publications put their heart and soul into them, frequently in spite of some of the challenges they faced.

— Alex Walker (@dippizuka) July 8, 2024

 

Among the people being let go from Kotaku Australia is Managing Editor David Smith (@RhunWords on Twitter/X) who has landed himself a spot on popular YouTuber Smash JT's "Kotaku Detected" site. Most noteworthy was his call to have gamers hardware banned for saying things in voice chat that could be construed as abuse or harassment. 

 

Ban guys like this for life. I don't give a shit. Hardware ban them and ban them for life. Men have to start speaking up when we hear this shit in-game, or nothing will ever improve. Lead by example. https://t.co/uD4VYtU9Fi

— David Smith (@RhunWords) May 14, 2024

 

While there are likely many good people who work for these companies that must now start to search for new employment, this is undoubtedly a step in the right direction for games journalism as a whole. G/O media owned Kotaku has been in an all out war against gamers, going back most notably to the beginning of the Sweet Baby Inc controversy, aka Gamergate 2.

 

Alyssa Mercante = Frosk 2.0

Just a reminder that THIS smug, narcissistic BITCH is 100% indicative of the types of freaks, feminists & weirdos that comprise the entirety of the activists who make up the modern video game industry - and they HATE most of us old-school gamers. 💯 pic.twitter.com/XmFEPsHhoq

— Olde Man Grim (@OldeManGrim) June 10, 2024

 

This puts the target squarely on the back of the other games media conglomerates, many of whom have faced layoffs and cutbacks over the years due to their inability to reach gamers as an audience. This is in large part due to several of the journalists own hostile nature towards gamers as whole, such as the constant attacks and psychotic outbursts by Alyssa Mercante, Senior Editor at Kotaku.

 

I read Jezebel every single day as a young, burgeoning feminist whore. It shaped me and my voice and proved to me that women contain multitudes, that we can fight for abortion rights while watching VPR, that we can speak out against atrocities while dressed cunt. pic.twitter.com/X5akVGEwZA

— Alyssa Mercante (@alyssa_merc) November 9, 2023

 

It's also worth mentioning that Kotaku is still in search for an Editor in Chief, someone who would be directly in charge of the activists and ideologues who have been running the insane asylum the past few months. What long-term effects will these Australian closures mean for Kotaku and it's parent company, G/O Media?

Only time will tell. Unfortunately for the so-called "games journalists," time is not on their side.