Well, here’s something unexpected: Kong Studios is back. The OG Gorillaz Flash-powered site from the late ’90s was a popular destination for fans and features mini-games, music, and more. And now you can return to an updated and modern version of Kong Studios.
Kong Studios first launched in 1998 and was the coolest place for fans of the fictional animated band. I should know, I used to visit it many, many years ago and struggled to use it on my dial-up connection. The site was powered by Flash (RIP), and over the years following its launch, it grew bigger and bigger, adding more content to find, virtual rooms to explore, songs to jam out to, and lots of fun Easter eggs for fans. Then in 2008, after a decade of support, the site was closed and forgotten. However, that all changed today as Kong Studios is operational once more.
On September 10, Gorillaz released a new updated version of Kong Studios that features a Doom-like first-person shooter experience where players have to fight off the zombie apes as seen in the band’s video for “Clint Eastwood.” You can skip that and just enter Kong Studios directly, and if you do, you’ll find a much higher-res version of the nostalgic site. There’s plenty to click on and explore in the lobby of the place, and Gorillaz promise that more rooms and content will be added to Kong Studios in the future.
“Kong Studios is the home of Gorillaz and a gamified fan experience where you can explore the rooms and spaces of 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel,” explained Gorillaz on the site’s FAQ page. “It’s also a place to go to find out everything you want to know about Gorillaz, first.”
I’m very happy to see Kong Studios return, and not just because I’m a big Gorillaz fan. Over the last decade or so, we’ve seen more and more of the internet and the culture around it move from distinct places to large social media networks and apps. Forums are closing. Fan sites are dying. Instead, everyone and every brand is just using Facebook, Instagram, Discord, and TikTok to interact with fans and other people. And while that’s fine, it isn’t as cool as the old internet, where every band and person had their own site. Or where forums were controlled directly by the companies or groups themselves.
The old internet was a weirder, wackier, and often more interesting era that I miss. While Kong Studios won’t bring that back by itself, it’s great to see a band as popular as Gorillaz realize that having your own place on the web might be valuable in 2025 as apps and networks get stuffed more and more with AI and bots.
Anyway, here’s a walkthrough of the old Kong Studios so you can see what they took from us.