Kotaku is a video game website that has been very divisive among gamers for a long time. For some, the outlet has been a place where breaking news stories and insightful opinion pieces have left an impression on the games industry over the years. For others, however, Kotaku is a website that has caused a lot of drama and debate for anyone that follows video games online. But regardless of how you might feel about Kotaku as a website, things might be changing drastically over there. How it might impact the website going forward is anyone’s guess.
On August 14th, 2023, news broke out via a post on Substack by journalist Shannon Liao that Kotaku editor-in-chief Patricia Hernandez was fired from her position by G/O media management. The article was following a post on Patricia’s Twitter (X profile) page announcing it was her last day working at the website. In a thread following her post, she praised her colleagues and her time at Kotaku as a writer and becoming it’s editor-in-chief.
Today is my last day at Kotaku. Wild. I still remember when I started a decade ago. I would wake up every morning at 6am to write a daily feature or original report. I leave today knowing Kotaku is, if not G/O Media’s biggest site, then on the verge of that. Most days, it is.
— Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 14, 2023
According to details shared on Shannon Liao’s post on Substack (paywalled) and reported in GamesIndustry.biz, Patricia was fired after a personnel disagreement with G/O Media management. “When leadership is, say, getting frustrated at you for writing about Tears of the Kingdom after its release, I do think there’s a limit to how much things can flourish…” While the exact details of why Patricia was fired from Kotaku are not yet known, GamesIndustry.biz went on to say they reached out to G/O Media for a comment.
Responses to the news online have been mixed. On the Twitter posts by Patricia Hernandez, many industry colleagues expressed well wishes on her future endeavors, as well as mentioned their own interactions with the former Kotaku editor-in-chief. Other people outside of the industry in forums and other Twitter posts expressed indifferent opinions about the firing, with some expressing disappointment in the quality of the content that was published on Kotaku since Patricia first became editor-in-chief of the website. Some even went as far as to say that some of the content they published was unreadable.
While there isn’t a lot of information made public about her firing, more details about what led up to everything may come out soon. For now, Patricia Hernandez is looking to focus more on freelance writing. As far as who might be the next person to become editor-in-chief at Kotaku, nothing is known for now. G/O Media has yet to make a statement on what they will do next with the gaming outlet, or whether any other changes may be coming soon.
What do you think about the news of Kotaku’s editor-in-chief being fired? Were you an avid reader or follower of their content? What will happen now? Share your thoughts about everything in the comment section below.
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