New game releases of May 20-26
Killzone: Mercenary shoots onto Vita on September 10
Trion Worlds hit with more layoffs, Defiance team impacted
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault defending Vita next week
Game & Wario was originally going to be pre-installed on Wii U
The Last of Us digital download lets you start playing sooner
Weekend PC download deals: Borderlands 2 for $11
Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection coming to PS3 in July for $50
Madden NFL 25's $99 'Anniversary Edition' includes Sunday Ticket
Final Fantasy 8 getting PC re-release (in Japan)
Report: GameSpot's Gerstmann Fired Due to Negative Kane & Lynch Review
by Chris Remo, Nov 29, 2007 7:09pm PSTRumors have been swirling today that Jeff Gerstmann, executive editor at CNET-owned major video game site GameSpot, was fired after giving a generally unimpressed review of Io Interactive's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Gerstmann awarded the game a 6.0. [Edit: Gerstmann had particularly negative words in his video review, which was removed from the site by GameSpot today.] (Though Shacknews does not score its reviews, our own Kane & Lynch review was similar in its verdict.)
According to the reports, the layoff came after Kane & Lynch publisher Eidos took issue with the review and threatened to pull its considerable ad contract. GameSpot's front page is currently almost entirely re-skinned with Kane & Lynch imagery.
The rumor began bouncing around various industry circles over the past day, and this evening was reported by Kotaku. Popular webcomic Penny Arcade posted a strip about the alleged incident tonight, outside of its normal publishing schedule.
Shacknews can confidently confirm via its own sources that Gerstmann was indeed fired yesterday from his position at GameSpot. The source declined to comment as to whether the firing was directly related to the reported Eidos situation, but the circumstances are suspicious at the least.
Gerstmann had been an employee at GameSpot for about a decade, and took the place of former executive editor Greg Kasavin when Kasavin left the company to work for Electronic Arts as a producer.
Update: CNET employee Tim Tracy has posted what appears to be a farewell notice on his GameSpot blog. Until July, Tracy was an editor at GameSpot, and since then has been working for CNET-owned MP3.com. If indeed Tracy is departing, it is unknown if it is related to Gerstmann's dismissal.
Comments
As for those comments about reviews being paid for. Actually giving items apart from the review unit isnt in fashion anymore. What you get now are huge "launch events". These are just shameless plugs to make a mini-E3 so you go "wow if its got this hype it must be good". I dont mind giving bad scores on games but there was one occasion when I was told by the company that sent me the game to "rethink your review because IGN gave it a good score". That was in reply to a 1/5 for a game that just stank. So you know I didnt cave and the review was shelved. Even if the reviewer isnt worried you can get blacklisted by the companies so you dont get any future games from them. If you get blisted with some of the big ones then you are in trouble!
I think it is very possible that Jeff got fired for a few bad reviews but just the one is possible but I dont know.
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