How game startups get covered by Kotaku
TL;DR
Kotaku is a news and opinion site about video games and the culture around them. Coverage is free, editorial and cannot be bought: you send news to tips@kotaku.com and the editors decide. It fits game studios and teams building for players, and founders outside gaming should skip it.
What is Kotaku?
Kotaku describes itself on its About page as "a news and opinion site about games and things serious gamers care about", and it also writes about anime, TV and movies. The site publishes news, reviews, opinion pieces and game guides. In July 2025, G/O Media sold Kotaku to Keleops, the Swiss publisher that bought Gizmodo a year earlier, as Aftermath reported. Today the About page names Kotaku USA LLC in New York as publisher and lists a small editorial team led by an acting editor-in-chief, with an email address for each writer.
Who should pitch Kotaku?
- Game studios of any size with a release, a demo, a trailer or a story behind the game that players care about.
- Teams with an angle on gaming culture: the people who make the game, how it was built, or what it says about the industry.
- Startups building tools or hardware for players, if you have a story beyond the spec sheet.
- Skip it for B2B software, fintech, e-commerce and every startup without a link to games. Kotaku writes for gamers, and Kotaku's editors owe an off-topic pitch nothing.
How much does Kotaku coverage cost?
Coverage is free and cannot be bought. The About page lists one address for news tips and a separate address for media requests, apart from advertising. The domain authority of 92 belongs to kotaku.com as a whole; the benefit of an article is the readers it sends to your Steam page, trailer or store.
How do you pitch your game to Kotaku?
- Open the Kotaku About page, read who covers what, and find recent Kotaku stories about games like yours.
- Prepare a press kit: trailer, screenshots, a fact sheet with platforms, price and release date, and a way to request a review code.
- Send news to tips@kotaku.com. The About page puts it plainly: "We crave news. We want scoops!" Put the news in the subject line and the first sentence.
- If you have a story idea instead of news, use pitches@kotaku.com, the address Kotaku lists for story pitches.
- Send interview and media requests to media@kotaku.com. If a writer has covered your genre, a short personal email to them also works.
Tips to get more out of a Kotaku pitch
- Offer something no other site has yet: a first look, an exclusive trailer, or an interview with the lead designer.
- Give Kotaku the human story. Kotaku writes opinion and culture pieces as well as news, so the team behind the game is part of the pitch.
- Keep the email under 150 words with one link to the press kit, and attach no large files.
- Send it two to three weeks before your date, with a clear embargo, so a writer has time to play.
- Follow up once with something new, such as a demo build, and then let it go.
Our verdict
Kotaku suits game studios with a story to tell, and its tip line is open to anyone. Coverage is free and impossible to buy, and a strong first look or an honest behind-the-scenes angle gets further than a press release. Startups outside gaming should spend the time on media in their own sector.
More options: see all tech media, blogs and newsletters. Turning a game idea into a company? The Fe/male Switch startup game walks women founders from idea to first customers.