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Kotaku UK will be launched by Future in a matter of weeks.
The popular and controversial US website already attracts 1.1m UK users every month. Future says that adding the site to its portfolio automatically makes it the second biggest online games media firm in the UK with 3.3m monthly users behind IGN, but ahead of rivals GameSpot and Eurogamer.
Former IGN games editor and award-winning journalist Keza MacDonald will run the UK arm of Kotaku.
We will be going as big as we can with our launch,” Future’s head of digital Keith Walker told MCV. If we were talking about a regular launch I’d be saying ‘we anticipate traffic levels of X, Y and Z and we will get this many page views.’ We’d be generating numbers that are a bit finger in the air. With this, we know we are going to have 1.1m UK unique users in month one because we’ve had that for the last six months.”
MacDonald added: I have experience with global games brands. The UK news time zone is really important to any website, but more importantly it is about having a UK voice that is local and relatable. This, as proven by other games media properties, makes a massive impact with the industry and audiences.”
The launch is part of an on-going partnership between Future Publishing and Kotaku parent Gawker Media. Future launched Gawker’s Gizmodo brand in the UK in September 2011 and within 12 months increased its UK traffic from 330,000 uniques to 700,000.
Gizmodo more than doubled the size of its audience by offering the local, relevant content,” added Walker. That’s what we’re trying to do with Kotaku. I’m not saying we are going to double it to 2.2m UK uniques, but we want to grow. And we start with a massive number.”
Gizmodo UK editor Kat Hannaford has been promoted to senior editor for Gawker Partnerships which includes Kotaku UK and a further editorial hire will be announced imminently.
