Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Kotaku Sells Out

As I write this, Kotaku Australia is running some horrible full-page branding for the movie Valkyrie. It looks terrible, it's not on-topic for the site, and it actually interferes with reading the articles.

Add to that their interminable off-topic blogvertisements for TV show The Phone, which are presented in exactly the same fashion as their regular posts but marked with the word "advertisement" in small print above the post title, and you'd be right to be suspicious of exactly how much of what's on Kotaku these days is a genuine attempt at enthusiast journalism.

This is exactly the sort of sell-out crap that started up on Gamespot before they took their big plunge into the mediocrity pool; here's hoping Kotaku makes an about-face before it's too late.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

R.I.P. Kotaku. At least Screen Play is one of the few remaining games blogs with journalistic integrity.

Greg Tannahill said...

I'm not lost on Kotaku JUST yet. The editorial team are essentially good guys, and I'm generally amused and informed by whatever they have to say. But it's sad times all round for commercial gaming sites at the moment, and I think the scramble for cash could end up washing Kotaku out of my regular reading rotation if it keeps up.

Also I should say that both Kotaku and Screen Play gave me coverage back when I was running for election, which I'm still grateful for.

Anonymous said...

If you look at what the Kotaku AU blogger writes, he's done a good job at not bending over for the site's sponsors so far. Yeah, the ads are annoying and the Valkyrie branding is lame, but the actual content of Wildgoose's posts are still good stuff. When -he- starts posting about how awesome Valkyrie is, THEN we know Kotaku AU has lost it. Until then, I still trust the editorial team and will continue to read the site.