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Kotaku.com.au Would Have Been Better Off Dead

A 404 would have been preferable to whatever this is

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.

It will not surprise you to find that the zombie site there now does not really cover...any what it says it covers

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)

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