Kotaku Just Died. Sort of.

[@UpperEchelon]

Want a VPN??? Use This One (to support the channel) get.surfshark.net/aff_c?offer_id=1448&aff_id=19647

[@5226-p1e]

they are no diffrent from the main stream media who control the American people right now. they are not news they are not journalists, they are activists, that is it, and it's worked for them so far, but people have been getting sick of these idiots for a long time now and have wanted them out for a while, we are gamers for crying out loud, stop trying to change us with your bullshit activism grift, we just want to be left alone playing and enjoying our games without all the bullshit added on top of it all from these Activists. how hard is that?

[@Fade2GrayOG]

Texas has entered the chat

[@NielsMulvad]

I am still waiting on the next RDR2 video, you left us on a cliffhanger man.

[@bathhatingcat8626]

I don’t know man, they had it coming.

[@andrewcurlutu6422]

Sadly, I doubt very much that Kotaku is quite dead ENOUGH...YET. Some leftist plutocrat MAY come along and keep them afloat. Also, this is Kotaku we are discussing. WHATEVER makes YOU think that the people at Kotaku ever HAD minds to lose?

[@dsagent]

-BlackRock stops ESG funding -All these companies are in trouble Can't be a coincidence.

[@blairdurward4324]

Blackrock is out here to make money, as soon as this stopped paying dividends they stopped the support.

[@croncorcen]

blackrock stoped funding? source please.

[@sarakajira]

I want a source on this too. Would love to hear more.

[@convergence1point]

Yeah, apparently, the Fink tank is rebranding his toxic civil instability policies because ESG is getting too well known. Blackrock does not want to get noticed otherwise people will demand it get nuked.

[@Warfoki]

@@croncorcenThey didn't stop it, but they are scaling it back, since if memory serves over 50% of ESG funding turned out to be not profitable, and the big investors started to get grumpy about it. People tend to forget that BR does not own trillions, they manage trillions of other people's money.

[@GrandMsterPie]

In the words of Jeremy Clarkson, "Oh No. Anyways"

[@CC-xw6jr]

RIP to Jeremy Clarkson, he was a great one.

[@YammoYammamoto]

@@CC-xw6jr uhm... what do you mean RIP? One of us are confused. :D

[@Batman_94]

Makes you wonder for whom their entire operation existed till this point. Cos for sure it wasn't gamers.

[@matthewrawlings1284]

To convince game companies to toe the ideological line.

[@t3hSpAdEs]

I can’t think of any group that would want total control over media to push far left, anti-White narratives

[@PhyllisLane-xj5uf]

Political activist and sympathetic Fed elements? This is obvious.

[@Rose.Of.Hizaki]

Apparently in their early days, they were more gamer focused. But the people they hired to _report_ on the industry goings on and write articles obviously had different opinions and thats where it started going down hill. Higher ups never bothered to course correct when the ship was starting to go off course and with the whole industry in a state of collapse, theyve finally run out of money to carry on. David Schrier (i think his name is...) did some great articles. Great investigative journalist but he has an intense hatred towards gamers and the community as a whole. I dont even know why he remained at Kotaku when he could have been so more happier reporting on and writing articles for different industries rather than gaming. Everybody will eventually get tired of all the rage and click bait articles and ignore you... Its unfortunate that its taken this long but this is it for them and a lot of other websites/blogs in the gaming sphere.

[@Unapologeticweeb]

The problem with hate clicks is you can only do it so long until hatred turns into apathy And apathy results into nobody clicking there website Basically the grift ran dry so the only way for them to make money was indeed shifting focus

[@jamienicholls7830]

I cannot feel sorry for someone losing their job when that job was to publicly spew hate, on that platform afforded to them, towards a large portion of the very customers and industry they are supposed to be "reporting" on. I'm not cheering from the rooftops but I am also never going to lose a wink of sleep over people with that particular mindset losing their job.

[@wilbo_baggins]

Tldr Jeremy Clarkson saying "oh no, anyway" meme lol

[@EngineerOfChaos]

Like I can feel bad due to the amount of work the company is going to force on the journalists is a bit overwhelming, but I can't feel bad for the individuals themselves given exactly what you pointed out.

[@ahobimo732]

But Kotaku isn't getting rid of these journalists because their politics sucked, or because their writing sucked. Kotaku's decisions are guided purely by one singular objective: $$$PROFIT$$$ It's all just an accounting exercise. A corporation is not a human being. They're machines. These machines have given us some incredibly amazing toys, but don't assume that means they care about us. Apple, Samsung and Google would feed each and every one of us into a meat grinder if that was the route to maximum profit. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. That's the objective, factual nature of what a corporation is. It is a legal "machine" that pursues profit. That's all it can do. That's all it ever does. I'm not saying that the particular people who got chewed up by the machine in this particular situation were good people in any sense. They might have deserved to get fucked over. But that's not the point. The point is it's just another example of these machines feeding on human suffering. I don't think that's "good news" for any of us.

[@shadowknight109]

Remember names as well. They are still around. Just going to live under a rock for now until they are needed again.

[@EngineerOfChaos]

@@ahobimo732 While true, it has shown that these old types of articles that were filled with all the vitriol and hate towards the majority of people they originally billed themselves to is not profitable. There is a permanent cost with switching formats on your website due to losing your original customer base and having this stigma still associated around your old content dissuading people from considering your website. All of that shows that capitalists who believe they have some understanding of the market must think that these tradeoffs are worth it compared to keeping their old hate-baiting far leftist articles. So there is some vindication at least.

[@elidasilva5558]

And nothing of value was lost

[@commentarysheep]

You beat me to it!

[@Jurgir09]

I can even sense the air getting cleaner already!!

[@manboy4720]

"oh no! anyway."

[@gonz0r3turns93]

I say we revel in their defeat!

[@khoavu9031]

UE gave his point like "yeah that fuck up" i say does cancer deserve the chemo therapy? would that be fuck up? i mean he doesn't answer the 'do they deserve to get fired?' yeah nothing value was lost.

[@Foolsjoker]

"Oh no...Kotaku isn't my personal blog where I get to air my own biased sexist and racist opinions...oh...no..." - Kotaku writers.

[@ntzt2150]

100% They weren't producing any content

[@paulie-g]

I would normally empathise with people losing their jobs, particularly by underhand means such as this, but given that those writers have been baselessly defaming gamers and, more importantly, people in game dev/studios as racists/misogynists/whatever and trying to get them fired or blackballed from the industry, attempting to ruin their launches, overall sales, rep, corporate relationships etc.. I find it very hard to generate any sympathy for people who've done all that. They're toxic and deserve to be deplatformed (in their own jargon). Maybe, just maybe, this is the start of getting back to games that aren't hellbent on trying to deliver a political message instead of just being fun to play and pretty to look at

[@npcwojack4995]

Hope they learned to code.

[@jfast8256]

@@paulie-g That's my mode of belief. Make people sleep in the beds they make. If your ideology is to cancel and ruin lives, I believe your life should be ruined for saying something benign. If you believe in free speech though, this does not apply.

[@alexschmitz3414]

Funny how so many of their writers are quitting because they now have to write about video games on a VIDEO GAME website

[@qu1253]

And then stood outside GDC literally screaming at clouds. Amazing how one guy from Brazil making a list caused so many bad actors to self destruct.

[@Unapologeticweeb]

Most game journalists are people who flunked actual journalism they never where in it for the games just a convient platform to further there political career

[@TheGravityShifter]

@@qu1253He wasn't a cause, just a catalyst because a SBI jerk triggered a Streisand Effect.

[@teddyjackson1902]

It’s funny how they think they can’t be easily replaced with people who will improve the outlet.

[@teddyjackson1902]

@@Unapologeticweebjournalism schools are creating people exactly like them unfortunately. Journalism in the traditional sense is dead.

[@bastardluigi]

Sorry UE, the schadenfreude is delicious. Learn to code, Kotaku.

[@AgentM3tallion]

Learn to code bros! Love it!

[@jkee9760]

Their parent company said they *have* to play games now and they quit. LMFAO

[@KapKam515]

50 guides is too much though a week

[@rclaws3230]

​@@KapKam515Yes, it's a plausibly-deniable "gtfo" to the activists.

[@maxb2244]

​@kapkam515 Is that per writer? That does seem high, but a "guide" could be as easy as "How to get this one item in BG3." Although if UE is right that would still be 50 hours a week which as a minimum does sound shitty.

[@donkeysunited]

You can't write 50 guides (if the simplest takes 1 hour) and play the games to understand what to put into the guide and to create the footage for the guide ... every week. 20 guides a week would still be a challenge.

[@Anthonybrother]

@@maxb2244 Still paid to play videogames on part of the schedule, which lots of people would love to have that job and do it correctly without unrelated politics.

[@cookiecreep9204]

I am not at all saddened by them losing jobs or having to leave. If I explicitly refused to do my job and instead focused on doing whatever I want on company time, I would have lost my job long ago.

[@NobleOmnicide]

Exactly, which is why none of us should feel sorry for any of them.

[@ManiakGear]

Kotaku's dead, Vice is dead, Funimation is dead. 2024 is going REALLY well for me

[@KubaxKristallmond]

Funimation too? That's good News indeed!

[@Niilomaan]

I thought Vice was pretty decent with their investigative journo pieces

[@Mac_Omegaly]

There are other sources for anime.

[@EatTheMarxists]

@@Niilomaanthey had a few good ones, like the guy that’s crazy about skateboarding (even though he’s now in his 40s and I have no idea how he can still do it) who was a Canadian - he did a lot of videos on their channel exploring old Route 66, abandoned shopping malls, decaying/ghost towns, and the like. His Far-Left views popped up from time to time but for the most part he kept them in check and just did his job, which the rest of the Vice staff were incapable of ever doing.

[@AleksandrKramarenko]

@@Niilomaan Vice was awesome 10 years ago. They did really good journalism and made awesome content. Some time after that they changed focus to promoting SJW politics and their staff changed. Then, they stopped doing relevant journalism. Every now and then they did a decent piece, but they were a mere shell of themselves.

[@darkfoxxbunyip]

When they say "Nobody goes to Kotaku for gaming guides" they are absolutely correct. One goes to anywhere but gaming journalists for guidance on how to play a game, ever since they showed to not be gamers and to hate gamers. They exposed themselves to be tourists.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

@@toby2581Well, the "dreamer" type tourists who overstay their welcome do this in spades.

[@darkfoxxbunyip]

@@toby2581 It refers to tourists demanding from people to "speak English" and don't actually learn anything from the culture they are visiting, but choose to eat at McDonalds. It describes tourists in our hobbies demanding we change to cater to them -perfectly- More importantly, calling these invaders 'tourists' pisses them off royally, because it is both an insult and friendly sounding.

[@Gyokosz]

You never met english tourists? thats their whole shtick.@@toby2581

[@mrshmuga9]

Even TheGamer, which has a whole bunch of garbage, still has tip/guide articles that appear in the top of searches. Kotaku’s getting outplayed at their own game.

[@ronaldochop4191]

Good, I don't care for people who hate me for no reason. When I've never met them in the first place.

[@blackstar-genX]

I'm guessing the reason why some people including myself don't feel bad for them is because these people in a heartbeat would do everything in their power for us to lose our job because of our beliefs and opinions. So in our minds it's like why feel bad for someone who had it out for you in the first place.

[@bluedistortions]

Yeah, the difference is, we just want to do our jobs in peace, whereas they don't want to do their jobs. One cancelation here is just.

[@AgentM3tallion]

Never forget; they want you dead, out of a job and unable to even speak your mind about any of it. Do not take your boots off their throats.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

Occasionally looking at their social media accounts, I've never seen them express sympathy for anyone but their own.

[@mex_I.M]

10:30 you know i would agree but these people dont share and wont share the same sentiment for me all while calling me all sort of ists and phobes. GET BENT KOTAKU

[@TheHammer89]

Exactly. They'd toss you in the gulags with a big ass smile on their faces.

[@POVwithRC]

I do not cry for demons when they are exorcised. I am just glad that they no longer inhabit a loved one.

[@CatsWithMachineGuns]

That line actually goes really hard. May I borrow it?

[@kurisomething]

damn bro, thats a banger

[@POVwithRC]

@@CatsWithMachineGuns Go for it 😊

[@POVwithRC]

@@CatsWithMachineGuns All yours.

[@mattd5240]

Ah, good, they're all going one by one. The gaming landscape is healing. Kotaku will not be missed.

[@croncorcen]

those people won't disappear into thin air. Keep an eye out

[@TravisHi_YT]

"Journalist" were never part of the gaming landscape.

[@CocktailsConsoles]

Gaming guides from "journalists" who can't even get through the Cuphead tutorial? Yeah, they're f*cked 🤣

[@aahzmandiaz2767]

From all sides.

[@ricklannis6244]

"we want you to write about video games, you know the whole purpose of this publication" "How dare you, I'm quitting"

[@evilisfun9935]

These activist sites can not disappear fast enough.

[@alexschmitz3414]

They should “learn to code.”

[@Coccyx69]

That's racist

[@the_expidition427]

@@Coccyx69Learn to mine

[@atomixfang]

Not anymore, that is also being replaced by AI.

[@davidfrancisco3502]

Nah, learn to clean toilets in Mcdonald's.

[@jarradchapman4271]

You mean "Learn to play games" ?

[@pedrohenriquepereiradefrei7109]

- You now have to do your actual job. - I RESIGN

[@RodentContainmentBreach]

Faces and names, people! Stay vigilant. The trash journos dont just disappear.

[@mikecampos1193]

You're right all those people in that company they're probably going to work in ESG funded or Bridge as they calling it company still ruining everything they touch.

[@LockeRobsta]

Correct. Check who authored that article you're reading, and if it's been tainted by the poison fingers of Kotaku filth, let everyone know.

[@seansingh4421]

This would not look good to a judge in a slander and stalking case buddy.

[@voidimperial1179]

@@seansingh4421 You upset nobody wants to read your shitty news articles? LMFAO learn to code

[@dehaimyoshan]

@@seansingh4421 It's akin to keeping track of predators and to make sure they can't do anymore damage.

[@AlessandroRodriguez]

"The greatest happiness is to scatter your game journos, to drive him before you, to see his jobs reduced to ashes (from their own hands), and to hear the lamentation for the lack of soy latte" - Some Gamer

[@nobillismccaw7450]

*smiles*

[@dksamaritan5200]

Fuck yeah!

[@EatTheMarxists]

Conan the Barbarian approves.

[@internetzenmaster8952]

They were even screaming at GDC, so we even got the 'lamentations' bit in the same day as this announcement.

[@kungfuskull]

"Ding dong the witch is dead..." 🤗🎶

[@ToonLinkHox]

Which old witch?

[@xX_JGGJ_Xx]

​@@ToonLinkHoxthe wicked witch

[@themettking]

@@xX_JGGJ_XxDing dong the wicked witch is dead!

[@EmptyAltruism]

Somehow, the wicked witch came back…

[@D34d1y1]

I have 0 empathy towards these writers. I don't care if they are required to write 500 guides per week. People lose jobs all the time and life will continue. I've lost a job before and I didn't expect anybody to throw me a pity party. These people could not have possibly been worse at their jobs and now they reap what they sow.

[@NobleOmnicide]

Even worse, if you unexpectedly lost your job, that's unfortunate. But these fools at Kucktaku have been a sh*trag writers for years and then to sit there and NOT do the job that was asked of them? They deserve to lose their jobs for sure! Your zero empathy is completely valid.

[@jmal]

​​@@NobleOmnicideEven if they lose their jobs, most of them will get a hefty severance package. While the rest of us would be lucky to get our final paycheck before we're kicked out the door. Yup. Zero sympathy for these ESG corpo shills.

[@DragonOfTheMortalKombat]

Agreed

[@thanos43infinity]

Lets hope the Mary Sue gets a reality check next!

[@MrSpartan993]

I would LOVE that!

[@Coomamon_Memes]

To the privileged equality feels like oppression. To quit your job just because you were asked to do it is next level. These writers probably turned their noses up at the golden spoon holding their gerber as kids.

[@IamLucky87]

As sad as it is as they might lose their jobs its actually kinda good to see Kotaku biting the dust. Considering the amount of disdain it had for the very thing it wrote about.

[@UnAssimilated1]

Same thing as Resetera

[@Mikedot]

I don't understand why people should feel bad about job loss. People lose their jobs all the time. It sucks, but they can always find new jobs.

[@michaelashmead581]

Yea, jobs should not exist solely to give someone a job. It has to fulfill a societal need. Kotaku doesn't accomplish that and lately they've proven to be a financial liability for their parent company. Their decision to fire the employees makes sense, though I do agree that the methods in which they are doing so are unethical.

[@MightyMemeKing]

It is NOT sad that they are losing their jobs, actually.

[@kobold7466]

sad?

[@sparking023]

I agree with UEG but one thing should be noted: the journos would be fired even of the weekly quota was 5 guides. Remember, it was a Kotaku writer that failed at passing the Cuphead tutorial level. In order to make a game guide, you gotta play the freaking game.

[@Dante02d12]

No, it was a Japanese dude from VentureBeat. Unless Kotaku and Venture are linked?

[@ITBEurgava]

Dean Takahashi. You can look it up.

[@iceheartfrost3740]

If that number is right, it's probably 50 per week from the staff combined.

[@jrconway3]

I heard another source reading off the policy and it said "50 guides per week on the site". So yeah I think its combined, not per individual writer.

[@johnboylan3832]

Obviously.

[@Marcara081]

♪Do a little dance.♪ ♪Make a little love.♪ ♪Get down tonight!♪ ♪Get down tonight!♪

[@tomfrien]

I’m definitely celebrating. sucks those people lost their jobs but honestly if you read any of their articles kind of makes sense.

[@masterlinktm]

"sucks those people lost their jobs" Not really. Why should I feel bad for people losing their job, when these activists went around attempting, and sometime succeeding, to cause other people to lose THEIR jobs? Nah F them.

[@t3hSpAdEs]

10:35 they would never show you the same empathy

[@ElderSnake90]

That's why we can be better than them

[@masterlinktm]

@@ElderSnake90 Yeah, let's hug it out with the people who will willingly stab you at a moments notice. Yeah, no thanks. I'm not going anywhere near them.

[@TravisHi_YT]

@@ElderSnake90 we will NOT turn the other cheek.

[@ElderSnake90]

@@TravisHi_YT I'm just saying we shouldn't stoop to their levels and should take the moral high ground. They WANT us to look like nasty hateful people.

[@TotallyCluelessGamer]

@@ElderSnake90 I'd say we have been better than them. Rather than digging up dirty laundry on them to get them fired from their jobs immediately, we just stopped supporting it and let the free market play out naturally.

[@leoSaunders]

10:15 what are you talking about? they got shafted because they weren't producing results and were antagonistic, while costing the company money.

[@humrH2360]

In any other context, G/O is being very dickish. But, as Team America said, there are three kinds of people in the world. If G/O is the first kind, then Kotaku is the third. After all the years of effort they put into turning the industry into a rancid dungpile of a clique, they were absolutely asking to get screwed.

[@Novice_Maker]

They are getting shafted, and I think that's awful. At the same time, I think that this is an ultimately good thing for the industry. Kotaku was unnecessarily mean and antagonistic towards the audience they were supposed to be supporting

[@leoSaunders]

@@Novice_Maker if i work as waiter and go out of my way to belittle people for their food choices, i should be kept on as staff? will i be shafted with a firing or not? prob not, right?

[@Novice_Maker]

@@leoSaunders I think a better comparison would be a good critic who told people their opinions on food were objectively wrong. But yes, I agree

[@HeatherHolt]

@@Novice_Makerthey weren’t just sharing their opinions tho they were calling people out for not having the same exact views as them, specifically gamers who are the ones who use their website.

[@Wolfserker]

Ding-dong! The Witch is dead Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch! Ding-dong! The Wicked Witch is dead Wake up you sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead She's gone where the goblins go Below, below, below Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out Ding-dong's the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low Let them know the Wicked Witch is dead!

[@ipostlamememesallthetime953]

I understand where UpperEchelons is coming from as he gives us his point-of-view, why we shouldn't be dog piling on kotaku. *HOWEVER,* The gamers have been _frustrated_ by gaming urinalists like kotaku *for years.* It's been a long time coming. kotaku didn't stop their political tirades and rants. They actively worked towards canceling their opposition on social media and/or within their networks, disregarding the negative future outcomes of their victims. kotaku did not give one shee it and never looked back. Now that the corporate overlords have seen the writing on the wall and kotaku urinalists have outlived their usefulness. Their overlords are throwing them under the bus. The corporate overlords only have themselves and urinalists to blame. They allowed it to happen. Since the sky is falling, the company needs to change. No one will mourn the loss of these urinalists/social justice activists.

[@jitterist]

10:30 that distinction is not easliy made if those self-proclaimed journalists have publicly called for heads on spikes of people they disagree with for years on end.

[@masterlinktm]

Agreed

[@fluidwolf]

Considering those of their ilk are even currently trying to destroy the very audience they are supposed to serve I cannot in good conscience feel empathetic to them in this situation. I won't wish harm on them but neither will I wish the ones who would happily see our hobby destroyed and us flayed in the social sphere well. They have spent years using their positions in our industry to attack us and in those actions have cultivated at most hatred and at least pure apathy towards them.

[@masterlinktm]

@@fluidwolf"and us flayed in the social sphere" make no mistake, they would happily celebrate your literal death, not just social

[@Arcademan09]

"we should be able to sympathize" No.

[@seneschal4617]

"That's not something to be celebrated." Well, reasonable minds can differ amicably!

[@Snakedude4life]

Say it with me; “And nothing of value was lost.” 🎩 🐍 no step on snek!🇺🇸🇭🇰

[@aitoluxd]

🎩 🐍 Yesssss sssssirr

[@Anthonybrother]

I'd tell them to stfu

[@Vhalior666]

I've been playing video games for almost 40 years and have NEVER clicked an article by Kotaku or visited their website as I've never heard a good word said about them.

[@amanitamuscaria5863]

10:33 No, no, fuck em. They did this exact same shit for years and they did it with glee.

[@timofaust1315]

"Here are 9 tricks that you already heard everywhere else. But stay for trick number 10 that will underwhelm you, as we have to push out more than 1 guide per hour (!!!)"

[@defaulted9485]

Well, time to double tap it then. Also scorched earth it as if we're playing The Evil Within. Its soul left with Jason Schreier.

[@Davitron_87]

I find it a little difficult to feel bad for a bunch of hack writers losing their jobs when they’d absolutely be calling for others to lose jobs over having a different opinion on something.

[@EldritchErik94]

Gamers rejoice!

[@dylives7667]

And it only took billions of dollars burned to realize inserting hacktivists into the Entertainment Industry was a bad idea.

[@Bacteriophagebs]

The 50 guides per week was for the entire staff _combined._ There's five staff writers and 11 people total listed on Kotaku's staff page. Even if only the "staff writers" make the guides, that's two per workday. If the guides can be as simple as "here's where this thing is in this game," that's not even 40 hours of work in a week since they have editors and a video specialist on staff to do the tedious parts.

[@masterlinktm]

Yeah, they just doing their standard lie by omission bullshite.

[@MarquisDeSang]

Kotaku has never been about games.

[@masterofreality230]

I dont feel bad for a single one of em.

[@remylebeau7258]

When journalists loose their jobs I say learn to code.

[@youngc570]

😂😂😂 🖥

[@nunyabizness3866]

It’s an extreme effort to cut out the cancer. Maybe if they had detected it early as a problem these measures wouldn’t be needed.

[@johnblaze8092]

Those people do nothing but try to get people fired, I have zero sympathy for them. It's called karma.

[@BlazingOwnager]

They have no business in the job. I have no mercy for people who have no business in their job.

[@viciouswolfe8420]

Being able to plug your own content to prove a point has to unironically be one of the best feelings in the world.

[@DocNo27]

New management wants failing gaming site to actually write articles about games and the staff revolt. Hmm - I think we found out why it was a failing gaming site!

[@Mikedot]

If it's 50 guides a week between all staff members: Then it might be possible, but still difficult. If it's 50 guides a week PER member: Then that's impossible.

[@aahzmandiaz2767]

They are no Gamers and would not be able to tell us any useful information, we could not find out on our own. Even ONE useful guide per month is out of their reach.

[@bluedistortions]

These are walking sim fans we're talking about. They don't do puzzles or action.

[@shiniesglitters5424]

its 50 guides per week on the website (ie Total between all staff)

[@elLooto]

Theres no way they arent thinking "who cares how many? ChatGPT will do all the articles, anyway"

[@masterlinktm]

@@shiniesglitters5424 Do we have evidence of this? I believe you are right and even if it was per person that is still only about 50hrs a week worth of work.

[@DeepVoicedDude]

A gaming journalism outlet focusing on information about games? Nonsense. But really though, that website deserves to fail.

[@Sideshownicful]

When the video creators at the Escapist didn't like how they were treated, they left and went to do their own thing. Their new channel, Second wind already has about half a million subscribers. If the writers from Kotaku are so unhappy about the situation, let them quit and do their own thing. Let's see if that gets any traction.

[@NathanTruby]

I see these new managers learned from japanese to create a new way to fire people by making them quit. Its unfortunate that in this wildfire of impossible deadlines that whatever genuine workers are left will probably be forced to bow out, but maybe, just maybe, Kotaku will pull up and fix itself.

[@Zayphar]

Give people what they want and they will keep watching/reading your stuff? What a concept!

[@buckrodgers1162]

After openly attacking their "core demographic" in the defense of SBI, the 'Over-boss' got scared about people asking this question: 'Defamation Civil Suit when?' Then ordered the impossible to be done. But it's difficult to feel any kind of sympathy for those "writers", after all their defamation, and attacks. Rot in Pieces Kotaku!

[@masterlinktm]

Many people say it was 50 guides for the entire team not per person. Making the demand completely reasonable.

[@sherwinferguson5080]

As far as I am understanding is the staff collectively makes 50 a week. Honestly I still rather them make subpar guides than awful illinformed badly researched articles. If they are having each employee make 50 each than it means they are going scorched earth to weed out the activist and keep the actual talent to make actual content about gaming. I would say I'm sad for the people who quit or will be fired but as far as I see, they find another job or make a SBI company and drain the DEI money. Either way it's a positive direction.

[@Lightsaglowllc]

Deadspin and Kotaku both basically gone in a week🎉

[@jez49647]

"...and still acknowledge when they get completely shafted by a greedy company..." And yet somehow...I just can't seem to care... That's an Angel reference, btw. I'd actually be quite pleased to see these people go.

[@InfectiousGroovePodcast]

It would have been nice if gaming news sites had just stuck to gaming news. They probably wouldn't be in this position if they had.

[@Chuckler127]

Yeah that 50 articles per week requirement made me wonder if they meant 50 for each writer on staff or 50 articles combined with the whole staff contributing to that amount.

[@erloriel]

When you don't make fun of Kotaku for losing their jobs, you, Echelon, are limited by courtesy and an honorable conduct. I am not bound in such way, as such: Ha. Ha-ha. Ha-ha.

[@LlanHeinrich]

"Oh no! Anyway" - Clarkson

[@LeeroyPorkins]

Close your eyes, what do you see? I SEE NOTHING! I KNOW NOTHING!

[@Slateproc]

IT'S EVEN FUNNIER THE SECOND TIME

[@boogaloobaloo]

Losing your job sucks. I hear the industry has a large demand for coders.....

[@Toby_Kat]

Video game news articles and guides are friggin _everywhere_ and like you’ve pointed out, they’re certainly incentivized to take inspiration from each other to the point where pretty much any particular article you can find on PCGamer or IGN can likely be found on like any number of other news/guide sites. Think what you will about the former Kotaku or sites that more heavily hinge on opinion, but they at least had something of a reason to exist because it felt a bit more unique and not just.. Literally the same thing every other gaming-related site has been echoing on any given day. Key word here is _felt,_ because I wasn’t a dedicated reader for their site… but when one of their articles popped up while I was out a-browsing our lovely surface-level internet, it often had an attention-grabbing headline and at least shred of new perspective that made me wanna check it out. They had some appeal because they felt different and interesting. I never check the writer prior to reading them, I try to judge for myself the worth of any given article _after_ reading, often at the cost of the time it takes to read some duds. C’est la vie. I tend to prefer opinion pieces for that reason, regardless of the perspective or political alignment because I know my values and it’s nice to hear what somebody else who might be more informed than myself has to say about whatever is going on. They probably aren’t going to change my mind in some massive way, but who knows?? It could be insightful, it could be drivel, that’s the risk and that’s where the whole unique perspective thing comes into play! It isn’t some objective and unchanging “this is how you do the thing” guide for a game, where all of the main guide sites have already written the same thing this week. Because like I said, those are everywhere! I just like hearing what’s on the minds of people who may or may not be notable faces in my relevant spheres, but whose job it is to comb them and write about what they find. What Kotaku _was_ got plenty of clicks from me, what they’re _becoming_ likely won’t. For better or for worse though, I can’t say I like this change.

[@Sharlenwar]

Gaming industry is imploding. All over money.

[@whitetiana3022]

"that's not something to celebrate" when talking about the kotaku it absolutely is. and make no mistake, these are the kind of people who would absolutely celebrate if anyone they didn't politically agree with lost their job themselves.

[@masterlinktm]

They celebrate death. And actively seek job loss for their targets. There is no reason to feel bad for them.

[@jbp4532]

Kota who!?

[@Batman_94]

Kota factory

[@croncorcen]

not so fast. remember their names. they won't just disappear.

[@wardagainstuber]

People who spend their entire career trying to cancel others only to lose their own job is karma. Probably worth celebrating

[@gridmeter2571]

Oh no! Kotaku "journalists" have to do their job?! Anyways... Shoutout to you Echelon for that Kingdom Come Deliverance guide! It really helped me out when I was garbage at the game

[@Canaris3]

"oh noes they jacked the requirements for their writers!!" So what? These people literally want you broken, humiliated and DEAD and im supposed to care that they might possibly lose a job? Come on bruv.

[@JoyZoneYT]

I'm betting that they'll churn AI generated guides to sustain upkeep

[@dailotan]

Well done for showing Kotaku far more compassion than they’d ever show you

[@Zan_Jayna]

The lead Editor of Kotaku said on her twitter that they were being asked to make 50 guides per week for the whole company, not per writer. They have 7 writers on staff so that means 7 guides each per week with one remaining. She also said that they were being asked to seek out and republish guides that were already written from other websites. The same way that Kotaku started running other sites news articles as well as the articles they wrote around 2008, in order to make it so that you could keep 'infinitely scrolling' articles and never finish reading all of what was there. Since they're just reprinting articles that means they would not actually need to play any videogames to produce what was asked for and they would still have had plenty of time to write about evil Drumpf.

[@Interference22]

"We should all be able to sympathise and have some empathy here. That's not something to celebrate at all." "Should" being the word here: this is Kotaku, a website that has spent the last 15 years being unhinged scumbags to their audience. They reveled in it and anyone walking through their doors knew that. If you're getting laid off from Kotaku or are angry over management's completely unrealistic goals then yeah, I genuinely do understand. And I don't care. I'm not going to bat for your management either but you've made it clear you don't value my empathy so I'm sure as hell not going to give you any.

[@Smoldar]

I was talking about this with friends last night. 50 per week for a group is hard, but doable BUT that would require them to actually play games and we all know that they can't do that ever since the Cuphead debauchery

[@masterlinktm]

Upper Echelon said in this very video that it took him 1hr to make one of those guide videos. Meaning even if it was per person, it is a VERY doable thing. But considering it is not per person it is completely reasonable. If anything, possibly under asking.

[@boobah5643]

@@masterlinktmDude, that's one hour to put the video together; it doesn't count the time figuring out what is useful/interesting to a player and discovering the info. And I'll bet ya that his footage was stuff he'd captured in the regular course of play (also not counted in the time to make the video,) so he didn't need to find/make footage specifically for the guide video.

[@masterlinktm]

@@boobah5643 Oh, so you're saying they need to play the games they are making guides for. Good thing that is apart of the new rule set. They can just do the same thing he did and we all good.

[@wavion2]

So, they cured the cancer and now we're supposed to feel bad for the cancer? Pass.

[@jazblade]

Trouble is, is a lot of game journalists despise games and gamers, so expecting them to actually do their job and play games is one hell of a culture shock for them. Anyway, didnt Kotaku die years ago?

[@matsiv5707]

"it's bad tthat those people got fired, we shouldn't celebrate" I absolutely disagree. We are talking about those same journalists who tried to dox the guys running sweet baby inc detected, who tried to get asmongoold sponsorship with capcom pulled and a lot of other stupid crap. They would be celebrating if any of the "big bad streamers (in their collective mind) lost his channel and went to live under a bridge. It's a ripbozo kind of situation. Don't waste empathy on people that would do bad things while claiming the moral high ground

[@DjentleBen1105]

Nature is healing.

[@Infinite.Worldz]

I put out a random guide for Sea of Stars and got 1500 views and people asking me to make more, so yes, you are correct on everything about this video.

[@tonyjohn477]

I belive you have missed one big data point and that is trust. You have years of work building trust and then you have Kotaku that have years of well not building trust.

[@tranquilator1109]

Didnt this clowns tried to get people canceled by infiltrating discords and asking for real names, why should I feel any empathy for those clowns?

[@hakerai]

I heard from other sources that it was 50 guides per week from all of them combined, 1 guide from each everyday. I might be mistaken

[@sekkuar]

If the thing about 50 guides is even real (and consider the source), they haven't mentioned whether they need 50 per writer or per the whole team. If they have a team of 5 to 10 people it's completely doable to get 50 guides per week in total.

[@dookie_12]

Press “S” to spit.

[@michaellee4463]

S

[@borasraven7584]

I do kinda miss your guides content… but I love the direction you’ve taken your channel the deeper investigatorial is interesting as all hell!

[@pokemaniac3977]

I'm skeptical of gaming journalism because gaming companies can simply sponsor reviews and the people reviewing those games don't even know how to play the games.

[@damienruzco]

Yup I found you from a cyberpunk guide in early 2023 and now your new stuff some of my favorite on YT

[@TheOrangeRoad]

"Sort of" Damn you for getting my hopes up! Still, good news