The abrupt end of Kotaku Australia and decline of Australian gaming journalism

The website's fall is the latest chapter in the gradual decline of local games journalism. Editors are short on solutions and are concerned for its future.

It’s a bleak time to be a games writer. Source: DALL-E

He didn't know it at the time, but Jackson Ryan was foreshadowing the fate of video game journalism in Australia.

Ryan, who until a month earlier was the ABC's Technology and Science Journalist, offered a bleak acceptance speech for his joint award for gaming coverage at the 2024 IT Journalism Awards last March.

He called for further funding and support for games journalism in Australia, saying that while his former employer had a track record of successes with shows like Good Game, the ABC, alongside other major newsrooms, had pulled back their coverage on the topic. The comments reverberated around the room, adding a somber note to what is typically a night focused on celebrating success in the industry. Amid the flurry of achievement, Ryan's words had become somewhat of an afterthought until last week.

Seemingly out of nowhere and to the surprise of many, one of Australia's largest publishers, Nine Entertainment, axed one of the c…