Rumorama: Journalistic Integrity For Sale - A Few Million OBO
Normally, I try to avoid writing on rumors, but this is likely to send shockwaves through out the game reporting world. The blogotubes have been ablaze today with news that Gamespot editor Jeff Gerstmann was fired for his less than positive review of the Eidos title Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.
The 6.0 (out of 10.0) award was for a game which Eidos had been feeding Gamespot a lot of money for. Up until very recently the web page featured a rather large and obviously expensive Kane & Lynch overlay, a promotion that isn't uncommon with upcoming releases. Things get a little hazy from this point on, there was apparently pressure applied to Gamespots higher ups. Long story short, Mr. Gerstmann is now without a job, the review and the advertisement is now pulled.
According to a fellow Gamespot contributor and close friend of Gerstmann who wished to remain anonymous, the editor was fired Wednesday morning because of his negative review of the game, which he awarded a 6.0.
It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that writing a less than flowery review of a game that your employers are getting a large sum of money to promote is going to make some people mad. On the other hand, it is not something anyone should be fired for. Eidos should not be able to buy a good review, or even pay for a lack of a bad one. This is still very much a rumor, and nothing has been confirmed. The coincidence really does raise a few eyebrows though.
Penny arcade satirizing the situation
YouTube copy of the pulled Video Review
Fellow editor Tim Tracy's farewell to Gamespot
Gamespot’s Gerstmann Fired, Allegedly Over Kane and Lynch Review [Primotech]
[via Destructoid]
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 30 November 2007
· Comments (11)
Other stuff like this: don't anger the ad machine, fired, gamespot, journalistic integrity, video reviews
I always suspected this is how things worked. This is why I rent regardless of scores a game gets, because I never know if the review is an honest review or a paid for review. It goes without saying, but if this is true it's disgusting.
I actually just removed my GameSpot RSS feed from my iGoogle homepage. Not that the articles were ever really up to date anyhow.
GameSpot = Bogus, imho.
Doesn't matter if it's true or false, Eidos will never get another penny from me. I never went to gamespot anyway but I can now say I will never go there for reviews.
Holy crap. I wish I could say this is a new thing, but does anybody remember the Donkey Konga review that was pulled?
I just think it's funny that a company in 2007 could actually think a story like this *wouldn't* blow up all over teh intarwebz.
I thought it was pretty much official when the guy who got fired posted his current situation although he said he couldn't say too much for now - lawsuit pending?
Holy crap! I mean Holy Motherf****** Crap! I get my PA feed directly via CSS and saw the comic first - hadn't been on gamespot for a few days, and since kasavin left, only visit to check on my man Jeff's video reviews. Couldn't find the review alluded to in the strip and thought to myself "well, they probably made that one up just to mess with the reviewer industry a little more after the incident with the IGN reviewer who got pissed at them for no reason other than his overinflated ego".
Incidentally I also get my gaygamer fix via RSS, too (you guys need to fix the *from* line, most of them are garbled since the introduction of the new system, brute's is even from one of the sister sites). SO I read this headline and think to myself "yeah well, some of them gaygamer guys love thems some PA" and now this totally blows me out of the water.
Not that I thought the industry wasn't as shady and capitalistic as any other. But, first reviewer extraordinaire Kasavin and funny boy Gallup (by choice, though), now Gerstman and the Tim? What the heck would I go to Gamespot now for? They nixxed the second host for On the spot (and it hasne't even been 2 months!) and second best reviewer in Gerstman. All that is left now is Ryan McDonald, who can't host worth sh*t but at least does OK reviews. That's it.
Gamespot's gonna go behind the shed now for sure...
i'm not sure if i'll continue to subscribe to the podcast without Gertsman...he's the only guy on the show with some personality and a wacky sense of humour that i love. I think it's safe to say that the reason he got canned IS due to the bad review for K&L, and not (like some suggested) for his behaviour prior to this incident (reason why the video review was pulled after the news broke).
Gertsman has been with the company for close to a decade and has made major contribution to Gamespot, in doing so, Cnet/Gamespot probably gave him a sizable severance pay on the condition that he won't talk about the incident publicly, and also preventing him from suing Cnet.
i wonder if Jeff would still be involved in the gaming industry after this. :\
Ryan is cute tho.
Slept over it, but still can't believe it. This is ricockulous. They were already short on talent and now they're pretty much out (Also soooo sorry for forgetting Navarro, he's a great reviewer as well, but he isn't a host either). There is no way the rest of the crew can hold together the gamespot legacy, absolutely none. My favorite video review site is done for.
And once it gets out how exactly the circumstances surrounding this incident went down, CNET better be ready for the shit to hit the fan. This behavior is outrageous, and while I kind of saw the video reviews as genuine content (probably because most of them were), this is just so over.
Bye Bye Gamespot, it's been fun while it lasted. You will be missed.
On another note, finding info on gerstman, navarro et al outside of the gamespot sphere is a really hard task. I'm afraid they did not think to extend their portfolio and become popular with google. Anybody still with gamespot reading this, I highly recommend promoting an off-site blog and to make appearances on other sites that don't conflict with your contract. You'll thank me later.
Well, at least we have proof now that Gamespot reviews suck.
So this is how Halo gets those good reviews. Makes a lot more sense now.