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# Kotaku.com.au Would Have Been Better Off Dead
- URL: https://aftermath.site/kotaku-australia-dead-inside-do-not-enter/
- Published: 2025-03-17T22:50:49.000Z
- Updated: 2025-10-27T17:08:18.000Z
- Author: Luke Plunkett
- Tags: Blog, Media, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-10-27 13:00

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](https://aftermath.site/kotaku-australia-closed-layoffs/). 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.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/30/f5/30f5b1bb-84ee-4c26-b446-fb9a5e512994/content/images/2025/10/aboutus-1.png)

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".

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/30/f5/30f5b1bb-84ee-4c26-b446-fb9a5e512994/content/images/2025/10/mustplay-1.png)

Third, every byline is by the same author, "Damian O'Gallagher",[ someone who I am not convinced exists](https://www.linkedin.com/in/damian-o-gallagher/?ref=aftermath.site) 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"](https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrisonlavery/?ref=aftermath.site).

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](https://web-cdn.bsky.app/profile/vook64.bsky.social/post/3lkkhz45urc2p?ref=aftermath.site))

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/30/f5/30f5b1bb-84ee-4c26-b446-fb9a5e512994/content/images/2025/10/capture_5fd2ec-1.png)