In July 2024 we bid farewell to Kotaku Australia, a very good website that suffered a long and undeserved demise at the hands of inept ownership. Now, in March 2025, the domain "kotaku.com.au" is once again active, but sadly/predictably, in the worst way imaginable.
Rather than bring back the team behind the video games-oriented site, or even relaunching a hollowed-out version of the same idea, the new website is home to "The Kotaku Times", one of the saddest examples of domain-parking and SEO exploitation I've ever seen. There's the outline of a website there, but none of it is by or for human beings.
OK, so. First, "Kotaku" isn't a real word! It was a kinda-racist name dreamt up by Gawker Media over 20 years ago; it makes no sense outside its original context, so it's already obvious this website only exists to try to skim off old backlinks and searches. Second, this isn't even a video games website, it's a shell posting SEO garbage like "Best Hair Bonnets for Sleeping in 2025" and "How to Create a Winning Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide".
Third, every byline is by the same author, "Damian O'Gallagher", someone who I am not convinced exists despite claiming to have been a freelance writer for a decade, and could just be a cover for whatever AI slop is throwing all these unrelated, garbage articles together, which even when they're talking about specific video games are full of AI-generated images. All of which sucks, but also makes sense when you see the domain is now registered to an Australia "SEO Specialist".
Seeing a beloved website close down was bad enough. Seeing its domain brought back as this shambling corpse of a website, the dead internet in all its rotting glory, is even worse.
(Thanks Vooks)
