FYI: Patrick is now a Senior Reporter at Kotaku

Here's the story:

http://kotaku.com/hi-kotaku-im-patrick-klepek-1677103784

You might know me, you might not, but my name's Patrick Klepek, and I'm the newest addition to the Kotaku family. I've been writing about video games in various forms since I was 14-years-old, and spent most of the past four years as the news (and horror) editor at Giant Bomb.

Yep, 14-years-old. I somehow convinced my parents to let me travel from Chicago to Atlanta for E3 1998, where Metal Gear Solid debuted, and coerced E3's organizers to let me walk around. My dad was with me the whole time, too. He even sat in on my first appointments with companies, in which surprised but gracious PR people suddenly learned I was still growing up. I was hooked early and have doubled down on the decision ever since. The gaming community has treated me exceptionally well over the years, and I've tried to pay it back to them in kind.1

Even if you're unfamiliar with my byline, it's still possible you've read some of my work. I broke the first news about Infinity Ward's troubled relationship with Activision after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 shipped, and was one of the first to report about Microsoft's decision to completely reverse course on its heavy criticized DRM policies for Xbox One. (I was technically beaten by another, relatively unknown outlet by a minute or two. Credit where credit is due!) I'm also responsible for getting Halloween and They Live director John Carpenter to answer my emails, which has resulted in a series of entertaining and ridiculous stories on Giant Bomb.

It's an honor to join Kotaku and reunite with my former boss, Stephen Totilo. We worked together at MTV years ago, and I learned much from him. I'd hoped there would be a reason to reunite someday. The stars aligned late last year, and I decided to come on board. I've met and hung out with many of Kotaku's stellar writers in the past, and I'm now looking forward to calling them colleagues. It's clear I'm joining an already talented group.

As talented as this personal highlight from playing Dark Souls, though? I cannot say yet.

I'm pretty sure my new title at Kotaku is senior reporter. It means I'll be spending most of my time researching, reporting, and telling stories. Reporting has been my bread 'n butter for years, even as I've taken detours into video. Sometimes, those stories will be breaking news. Other times, it's trying to explain why the gaming scene is the way it is. You know, like attempting to figure out whyHalo: The Master Chief Collection shipped in such a broken state. (Though seriously, if you know, drop me a line at patrick.klepek@kotaku.com).

There's a good chance you're following me from Giant Bomb, too. In that case, my work is going to be a little different over here at Kotaku. You're not going to see as much video on a daily basis. In my goodbye letter from last week, I'd promised news about Worth Reading, Spookin' With Scoops, and other features I'd become known for previously. It's possible others will continue what I started at Giant Bomb, but that's also out of my hands. I had so much fun doing those features, though, and I intend to develop some new variation of them. Importantly, I'm going to keep sharing links to my favorite writing and streaming horror games. Stay tuned.

I'm not sure what else there is to say, so ask away in the comments! Some random facts:

• I was born and raised in Chicago, but moved to San Francisco after college. After my father passed away, my wife and I decided to come back to the midwest. It's cold here.
• Outlets I've written for in chronological order: 1UP, MTV, G4, EGM, Giant Bomb.
• I turn 30-years-old next month, which is both humbling and terrifying.
• Pizza is great, and deep dish pizza is king. (Specifically, Pequod's is the best.)
• The Chicago Bears are not great, but I root for them anyway. At least it's not the Jets.
• Yoshi's Island might be Nintendo's best platformer. TOUCH FUZZY, GET DIZZY!
• Mega Man 2 or Deus Ex is my favorite game of all-time, depending on the day.
• No film scarred me more than my first viewing of The Blair Witch Project.
• I could use a haircut, and I'll probably get one on Saturday.
• It's a little too early for stores to be putting out Valentine's Day stuff, don't you think?
• I'm always looking for a new horror movie to watch, so send me your suggestions!
• Majora's Mask is my favorite Zelda game. People who don't like it are weird.

If you want to get in touch, drop me an email at patrick.klepek@kotaku.com. My inbox is always open. Truly. I read every email sent my way, and do my best to actually respond to all of them. You can also follow my ramblings on Twitter, and ask me questions publicly on Tumblr. If you have a story you'd like me to look into, please let me know! For now, it's time to get to work.

Just so you all know where you can keep up to date with him from now on :) Thoughts?

Edit: Link went down - updated with new URL

A bit surprised its there, but personally happy since its a site I already visit.

I will continue to miss him here on GB, felt like what I imagine sending your kid off to college feels like. But man, this seems like a perfect fit. Put Scoops in the ranks of Totilo, Kirk, Jason, Tina, and Evan. Kotaku keeps getting better, never thought I'd say that.

I've never been a huge fan of kotaku, so I guess I will have to see how the rest of the site is now that Patrick went there. I really thought he was going to be working with the CAH crew, so this has kind of caught me by surprise.

I was initially surprised to see he went to Kotaku, but then I remembered the Totilo connection, so I guess it's not actually surprising at all. Congrats on the new gig, Patrick!

Nooooooo

I can't say I'm thrilled by that news. I have very little respect for Gawker or anything related to it.

At first I was honestly shocked/surprised but when I read about what he wants to do with his time at Kotaku, namely reporting on stories like what happened on the Master Chief Collection, I can totally see why he would want to do it outside of GB. Best of luck to him.

Personally i don't like the Gawker style of reporting. Patrick might be wasted there but let's see. Good luck Scoops.

what the heck

That doesn't surprise me. Still won't go there.

Seems like a good fit. Kotaku is one of the few outlets out there doing serious investigative games journalism (such as it is), and that's certainly one of Patrick's strengths. Plus, I think their commitment to shift from preview coverage to post-release coverage will suit him well. Looking forward to seeing his work there.

*sigh*

At least it's not Polygon. Best of luck duder.

In the UK we are restricted to the UK ghetto and only see select articles from Kotaku US. I'd like to read more from you, Patrick, but the way they have the site right now is so weird.

Also feels slightly like we aren't good enough for Patrick so he had to go elsewhere. :/

Seems like a good fit.

Congratulations, @patrickklepek. Seems like a really good fit. That's somewhere I definitely go for big news breaks, as they get news out very quickly (albeit sometimes too hastily). Just hope the 24-hour news cycle doesn't lead to him writing too many "Top 10 Best Yoshi Games" pieces, or whatever.

And it's 14 years old, for Pete's sake. Hyphenate if noun or adjective!

I haven't been to Kotaku in years ever since they started changing their layout every month. Does anyone know if there is a better layout than the default one?

All I see is a tiny trending list on the top left, a vertical list of what I assume are stories without distinct borders/dividers and tons of empty white space.

@jerseyscum: What's wrong with Polygon?

Not surprised, he fits in with that crew...

@alistercat: I sometimes get redirected to the UK Kotaku. Why do they do this?

Either way you could fix it easily with something like the Hola extension...

Kotaku's definitely been moving in the right direction. Hiring Tina and Patricia helped bolster an "up-and-down" writing staff. I visit Kotaku often as they churn through and churn out a high amount of content. Hoping Patrick's voice, experience, and gravity will add to the quality of content they produce.

I've been going to Kotaku a lot more lately since I frequent other Gawker sites like Deadspin, so I now have more reason to keep tabs on the site.

Seriously.
This is massively disappointing, but whatever makes him happy I guess. I have no intention of following him there. Guess I'll stick to his twitter feed.

Damn shame.

Shitty outrage bait, Ben Kuchera....need I go on?

Personally thought GB was about as high as you could get in terms of gaming personality sites. I don't have particular beefs with Kotaku; there is a fair share of fluff on that site, but also some interesting pieces and i do visit it fairly frequently. I suppose this gives me a reason to visit it more. Plus in that format we should hopefully see spookin and other streams/stuff from him still.

Good luck patrick and i'm happy for him if this is what he wanted and it works better for him.

Seems appropriate.

Can't say that I'm going to start reading Kotaku, but I am happy for him. I wonder what led to him wanting to write for them instead. Maybe it makes more sense because video stuff is hard to do off-site, while he can write from wherever. Is he still working in the CAH offices? This kind of makes me more bummed than just knowing he left. I won't go so far as to say I feel burned, but it will be weird with him writing for another site. Oh well, good luck Patrick. We love you.

Never spent enough time at Kotaku to really have a strong opinion about it...

Perhaps I might check his stuff out if I fell like it. In any case I wish him the best.

I wasn't really expecting this but it's something. It still won't get me to go to Kotaku though.

I'm...honestly a little bummed I guess? Not for Patrick, if he's happy that's all that matters. But when he came here he started something totally new and brought a fresh set of talents and fresh perspective. Kotaku hiring a reporter just kinda feels like another addition to the meat grinder over there. I was hoping he would go and do something radical like starting his own site or joining a company that wants to use him to shake things up. Oh well.

Funny thing, Polygon seems to be a killer of reputations. I really liked Ben Kuchera back in his Ars Technica days...

I hope they're paying him a lot. That site is... just not very good.

Sweet. Kotaku is making some good changes to actually allow games journalism to exist above marketing.

Never understood the dislike of Kotaku. They have a bunch of talented writers there. I wish Patrick Luck.

Seems like a good fit for Patrick. He gets to focus on writing articles and I assume he is working in an office again too. It's a shame about no more video stuff though, but that is probably a major reason Patrick decided to leave in the first place.

Best of luck to Patrick, will be checking out Kotaku more depending on the amount of Patrick content.

However, my biggest gripe that I've always had with Kotaku and its network of sites has always been the website design/layout. Don't really like it and think it is counter-intuitive. Or maybe I just haven't spent a proper amount of time navigating the website

If Im being generous I call this a lateral move. But Kotaku is a rumor rag. Maybe he'll not being doing that sort of stuff and be writing on like why Crem is an important statement character in 2015 idk. Probly both. I'll never know, don't want to enable what that place is about with clicks. But good luck I guess?

I kind of stick with GB specifically because they cant be bothered to spit out a story 'scoop' the minute it comes out only to retract or amend it later with new or more vetted info. Being lazy lets them avoid that whole mess altogether and its a better site for it. Except for that messy stint where they had a guy here putting up Kotaku style garbage on the site. But that ended quickly.

@elitefury: For one thing Kotaku is a part of Gawker media, whose namesake site is one step below internet sewage.

The site itself is alright for the most part (and getting better).

so i wasn't too far wrong in thinking he'd pull a Sessler & show up on feminist frequency :)

He will certainly be the best writer there! I'm surprised that some people seem to think that Kotaku has gotten better. So many of their post release articles seem to be fluff stuff like "Sex scenes of Dragon Age, Strange sex scenes in the Sims...etc. I've felt like their move away from preview coverage has left me with much less interesting things to read there. Although, that is totally down to personal taste. I hope he enjoys his time there!

I feel like everyone and their mother called this or Polygon.

Happy for Patrick but Kotaku.....ugh

Il stick to his twitter feed!

I kind of feel bad for Patrick. Working for a blog makes logical sense with him being stranded out in Chicago though. Hopefully he can find a route to going independent on Youtube or something, because he's way better than the low standard of a place like Kotaku. Big get for Kotaku though.

I stopped going there a few years ago when they published a story explaining how to cheat on your spouse and not get caught, providing links to cheaters dating sites and gross shit like that.

Is that reason enough?

@alistercat: I'm in the UK too, but I only head over to Kotaku UK every now and then. Just put 'us.' in front of Kotaku's url, and it'll take you to the original site. I've done it often enough that Chrome just directs me there automatically when I type, 'K' in the box.

(us.kotaku.com)

Anyway, when I first saw 'Hi Kotaku, I'm Patrick Klepek', I actually yelled 'WHAT?' out loud, but having thought about it for a bit, it does make sense. Outside of Patrick's occasional hot scoops, Giant Bomb's never really been about industry news as such, so Kotaku'll probably be a better fit--particularly as, since the move to Chicago, Patrick hasn't been able to appear in more conventional GB content like he used to.

They have awful web design, so I hardly go there. It's easily the worst between other big sites (here, Gamespot, IGN, Polygon, even GameTrailers are better designed). They could spend a few bucks on a template and get a better site than that. Good luck to him though.

Its so easy to be cynical about this. When he left Giant Bomb I thought he was going to do something new and innovative, but just 2 weeks later to show up on a Gawker site? That's just so sad. I wish the best for him, and I'm sure he's getting paid much more over there, but I'm afraid he will bleed back into the bland game critic rabble for me.

Also hope the new news person (*cough* Cara *cough*) will be enough to fill his shoes here. In any case it is a strange and hopefully exciting future.

Good luck to him - hope he does good things for the site. Will take some convincing to make me visit it.