What Kotaku Wants in Freelance Pitches: Payment and Process

Kotaku welcomes pitches from freelance writers looking to contribute to the publication. Over the years, the outlet has worked with numerous contributors from outside its permanent staff. But understanding what Kotaku actually wants separates a pitch worth considering from rejection.

The Case Against Standard Pitches

Kotaku receives a constant stream of review and preview pitches. These are also the submissions the publication is quickest to reject. The reason is simple mathematics: every gaming outlet covers new releases and upcoming games, so reviews and previews represent commodity work. Kotaku receives hundreds of such proposals precisely because they’re the obvious story type to pitch, which is exactly why they’re the easiest to decline.

What Kotaku Values Instead

The publication gravitates toward stories that wouldn’t exist without a writer’s specific reporting, access, or creative thinking. This might be a developer interview that reveals something unexpected about a game from years past, or an investigation into community drama that unfolded inside a private Discord server. It could be reporting about why a troubled studio project never shipped, or a profile of modders attempting something ambitious in a beloved game. The defining quality: the story only gets written because the reporter did legwork no other outlet pursued.

Kotaku also values pieces operating at scale. Features examining how industry trends are reshaping game development or consumption, essays arguing a position about gaming and culture, and reported investigations, especially those involving multiple interviews and substantial research, represent the kind of work the outlet prioritizes. Kotaku acknowledges, however, that even stories operating at smaller scale, with deep focus on niche community details and specific anecdotes, can be among the most interesting reads when executed well.

Story Architecture

According to Kotaku’s public guidance, the best stories contain characters, conflict, and tension. Some reach definitive endings, others leave threads unresolved, and sometimes ambiguity strengthens the piece rather than weakening it. The publication doesn’t demand a single story type. Opinion pieces, reported scoops, investigations, and interviews all find homes, provided they offer readers something unavailable through five minutes of searching.

How to Pitch Effectively

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A pitch itself should be concise and energetic, signaling what the final article will be like. Kotaku wants a projected word count, a realistic timeline for delivery, and a working headline. Beyond basics, explain what makes the story significant, why Kotaku specifically needs to publish it, and most importantly, why competing outlets won’t have published their own version within the next few minutes of searching.

Supporting Materials

Include links to previous work. Kotaku doesn’t need your full publication history; one or two strong samples demonstrating your ability to pull off the ambitious pitch you’ve described will suffice. Those examples can come from major publications or personal blogs. The bar is showing you can execute.

Submission Process

Send pitches to [email protected]. You can also reach individual staff members directly. Following up on pitches isn’t discouraged if you don’t hear back immediately. Kotaku reads all submissions. It cannot guarantee responses to every pitch, but the stated expectation is that all submissions reach someone’s desk.

One firm boundary: Kotaku explicitly does not accept work produced by AI agents or drafted with their assistance. If you’ve outsourced the writing to a language model, your pitch will be rejected.

Understanding Kotaku’s Payment Structure

Payment depends on project complexity and scope:

• Short news posts (300 to 450 words): $50
• Short features (750 to 1,000 words): $150
• In-depth articles requiring multiple interviews, intensive research, or substantial hands-on time with a game: up to $300
• Work falling between these categories or exceeding them: negotiable case-by-case

Short features at the $150 rate generally involve light research and original sourcing, meaning quotes or information appearing in print for the first time. These pieces often work to illustrate a trend, make a larger argument about gaming, or examine community dynamics. Some of the outlet’s most popular work, however, comes from hyper-detailed accounts of specific incidents or chains of events within smaller communities.

The $300 tier represents projects demanding genuine depth. Multiple sources, weeks of research, hands-on gameplay time, or investigation spanning extended periods fall into this category. Anything that requires that level of commitment typically warrants the higher rate.

The Exceptional Case

Kotaku acknowledges that extraordinary circumstances exist. A writer who arrives with a leaked game build or an exclusive interview with a major figure like Shigeru Miyamoto enters negotiation territory where standard rates no longer apply. This is explicitly framed as a what-if scenario, not a realistic expectation. The practical path involves pitching original, well-reported stories within the standard categories and rate brackets.

Clear Boundaries

Kotaku’s stated preferences are straightforward. Reviews represent commodity work because they’re available everywhere. Original stories—those requiring real reporting—are scarce. Access, exclusive reporting, and unexpected angles are what drive editorial value. Pitches should reflect those realities. Send complete, energetic pitches rather than tentative explorations. Demonstrate your ability to execute. And understand that while the outlet reads everything, it will be most responsive to the kinds of stories it actually needs.

Source: Kotaku