Our compatriots at Joystiq have uncovered some more information regarding the firing of Jeff Gerstmann, GameSpot's (now former) Editorial Director. The news that he was fired broke this morning, with certain sources citing that he was fired do to pressure from Eidos in the wake of Gerstmann's harsh text and video review of Kane & Lynch. Eidos publishes the game in question, and had purchased pervasive ads on GameSpot including a page skin that was removed soon after Gerstmann's firing.Joystiq has now secured new comments from CNET, which owns GameSpot. The comments come in the wake of a fairly ambiguous statement made by CNET earlier today. According to Joystiq, a CNET spokesperson by the name of Sarah Cain noted, "we do not terminate employees based on external pressure from advertisers." When asked whether or not such pressure had been exerted, Cain provided no comment. Joystiq also inquired about the video review, which has since been removed from GameSpot. Cain said that a note of "clarification" had been added to the text review -- which also applied to the video review -- and that it was CNET's decision to pull the video review.
Make sense to you? Yeah, well we don't get it either. Check out Joystiq for more details.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-30-2007 @ 6:40PM
Angryfinne said...
I'm gonna throw this out there and speculate that it was the use of the f-word in the review. A few weeks ago the guys got real carried away on the Hotspot with that word and my addition to the rumor mongering i that he was on thin ice and it finally broke.
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 7:18PM
JimyD said...
I doubt his use of the F-word is the reason. First of all, it is bleeped out in the video review and he uses it to tell you how one of the game characters responds when you direct them with a tactical "go to" command in the game. Gerstmann also mentions the F-word is used in every other sentence in the game and that is comes across as not being cool. His video review is pretty close to the written review but his visual expressions reinforce his dislike for the game. The funny thing is the video backs up what he is saying.
Weak move by CNET. There reviews are now officially useless since everyone knows they cave to publisher pressure.
11-30-2007 @ 6:42PM
RudyHuxtable said...
I just went to the GameSpot forums, and wouldn't you know it they were "Down for maintenance." There's a few things I could say about that, but I won't. This is a neat way to end the week (nice bit of holiday excitement), but not so great for Jeff.
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 6:58PM
mike said...
CNET will not admit they take moneyhats thats for sure, management pressure for advertisibng revenue was the reason
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 7:15PM
john said...
I hope they really discuss this on their next podcast. If it is true, this sets a major precedence of game reviews being influenced by corporate advertising dollars. All I have to say.....GameSpot........u suck
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 7:15PM
SadisticHam said...
Gee i wonder why they didn't admit to firing someone over advertisers pressure, could it be something to do with the huge amount of credibility gamespot would lose?
Honestly, they yanked the video Eidos has admitted to being pissed, bla di bla. If you want the video it's nothing major.
They can cover it up however they like, I'll be ignoring there reviews from now on.
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 7:22PM
kHz Glitch said...
This isn't looking good for the future of reviews, if a publisher can have this kind of power...
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 7:30PM
fraeone said...
This stinks of lies. Gamespot is covering their butts because they know if they admit that they fired him due to advertiser pressure they will be out of business tomorrow.
I for one will never go back.
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 7:45PM
Jon said...
crap, crap, and more crap. I think they're trying to distract us from the fact that fall update doesn't include 16:10 or 4-way chat support.... wtf?
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 8:20PM
Jim Halpert DM said...
Four way chat would be nice, but it's nothing to complain about, I can't do it on the computer with messenger, so oh well... If you really need to four way chat, I suggest Uno, that game was made for it.
11-30-2007 @ 8:45PM
Jon said...
Actually, I want the ability to voice/text chat with my friends from the dashboard. We need chatrooms! Maybe its just me, the people i live with, and all the friends on our lists, but we find it quite annoying having to switch from friend to friend...
12-01-2007 @ 5:48AM
Anticrawl said...
I agree Jon, I mean the original Xbox had chatrooms you could use from the "dashboard."
Even so there is no reason a console that is considerably more powerful can't handle a little in-game 4-way chat. If you can talk to 16 people while playing a game with the ingame team-talk there is no reason you can't have 4-way chat with friends if there are a bunch of jackasses in each game you join.
11-30-2007 @ 7:47PM
BananaBoat said...
I think it's time for a delisting of gamespot from metacritic, less their dirty reviews taint the overall score. Then again, Gamepro and Game Informer have been selling out for years, and they still get counted, and people still read their reviews. I have no doubt that people will continue to read gamespot reviews.
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 9:12PM
haukke said...
i can see why they are mad i read the review and rented the game instead of buying it.....thanks jeff you saved me money....what a steaming pile that game is.the multiplayer is cool.
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 9:45PM
bigd7387 said...
As far as it's concerned Gamespot and the other sites can all goto Hell. I really don't have alot of money and when I need help deciding on a game I usually read posts by the gamers who own it and played it. Real people not making money off of whether they like a game or not is what I like to use in helping me make a decision.
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 9:57PM
duh said...
I'm not speculating on the reason they fired him, but of course this is what they are going to say regardless of the actual reason.
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 10:15PM
Ithilis said...
Like CNET is going to admit it? Here's an article, featuring a forum post from an anonymous Gamespot staff member, that tells a different tale:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/rumor/alleged-gamespot-employee-spills-guts-on-valleywag-328797.php
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 10:25PM
SHNuKMS said...
PLEASE BOYCOTT GAMESPOT ... this is what the employees would want in terms of sending a message, we know that they're too scared that they maybe next.
BOYCOTT GAMESPOT
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 11:18PM
DiminishCap said...
BananaBoat - Cnet owns metacritic, along with gamespot, so that probably won't happen.
Also I doubt they will say anything about it on their podcast, Jeff wasn't there on this weeks podcast and they didn't even mention it.
Reply
12-01-2007 @ 12:00AM
AG said...
No, we aren't compromising our journalistic integrity to pander to our sponsors. We didn't do what we did....please visit our sponsors.....brought to you by our editors choice review of Kane and Lynch.
Reply