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Gamespot’s Gerstmann fired?

Tuesday, Dec. 4 2007 | Author: Mel

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This is news that I just have to blog about.

I’ve been a loyal Gamespot.com fan for years. I frequently get all of my gaming news and reviews from the site and have found their reviews to be fairly accurate. I even love their weekly e-broadcasts because it gives me the opportunity to get to know more about the guys who run Gamespot. So it was a big surprise when I read that the site’s Editorial Director Jeff Gerstmann has left Gamespot after being with them for almost 11 years.

What was surprising about the news though are the speculations that Gerstmann was fired over a bad review he gave to Kane and Lynch, a game that was distributed by Eidos. The rumor is that Gerstmann was fired because of advertiser pressure. Now, i’ve been a journalist and writer for almost 15 years now (hey, maybe Jeff and I are of the same age!) and I can see censorship a mile away. The accusations do constitute elements of censorship and this is what is making this whole thing so controversial at the moment. Are gaming journalists being sacrificed because of the growing influence of bigtime gaming companies who can brandish about their big fat wallets just to get what they want out of the media?

I am fervently hoping that Gerstmann’s departure is not based on those allegations but if it does then authorities should really look into it.

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4 Responses for "Gamespot’s Gerstmann fired?"

maail

December 5th, 2007 at 1:38 am
1

I’ve been looking into the situatation and I think Gertsmann is to blame for the poor video review of the game. Just look it up on YouTube and you will see what I’m talking about. They guy starts off the review saying this is like the worst game that he has ever played or something of that nature which I don’t remember at the moment, but you can see that he had clear hatred for the game from the get go. Might be his boss’s influence of him stating that he was going to give the game a 6.0, who knows? But all I can say is he was totally unprofessional in making the review and he deserved to get fired.

My first comment on this blog and hope to comment more if any interesting stuff pop up. Cheers
mahes

December 5th, 2007 at 6:43 am
2

I’ve been following this story as well as GameSpot WAS one of my favorite game review sites. Joystiq has and interview with Gertsmann, though he was unable to comment directly about the firing:

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/03/exclusive-gertsmann-speaks-about-kandl-review-future/

Kayne and Lynch got 60’s across all consoles on Metacritic, so his review seems to have fit in with statistics. I think Eidos was looking for a positive blurb to add to future ads, and thought that investing in a “bit” (read massive amount) of advertising on Gamespot would net them that despite lukewarm reviews elsewhere. Gerstmann tries to say this doesn’t mean that game journalism is morally bankrupt. That may be true, but this isn’t the first time issues have popped up that suggest that are on that path.
JC

December 5th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
3

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/11/29
Mayhem

December 6th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
4

What happened? You guys don’t update nearly as often as you used to.