Gamespot gone a little greedy?

Oh rumors, how cute you are. So, there are some floating around saying Gamespot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann was fired because he gave a game a low score and the makers weren't too happy.

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We've heard an unsettling rumor today from an anonymous tipster that longtime game reviewer Jeff Gerstmann from Gamespot has been let go. That wouldn't necessarily be newsworthy, but the conditions under which he was allegedly dismissed were. According to the source, Gerstmann was fired "on the spot" due to advertiser pressure for his review of Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. A visit to Gamespot shows that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game has taken over the site very prominently, with backgrounds and multiple banner ads all pitching Kane & Lynch. Allegedly, publisher Eidos "took issue with the review and threatened to pull its ad campaign."

Jeff's review was certainly less than glowing. He assigned the game a 6.0, otherwise known as "Fair" on the Gamespot scale. The game is currently enjoying a Metacritic score in the 65 to 69 range, which the site describes as "mixed or average reviews." According to our tipster, it wasn't necessarily the score that was reason for Gerstmann's rumored axing, but the "tone" of the review.

Gerstmann has been no stranger to controversial reviews, as his scores of 10 for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 8.8 for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess had sensitive internet users up in arms. It's now possible that many bitter fanboys may have had their wishes for his firing granted.

As our tipster points out, if the rumor is true, it could point to a distressing precedent at Gamespot and parent company CNet. "As writers of what is supposed to be objective content, this is our worst nightmare coming to life," wrote the tipster.

Our efforts to confirm the story with Gamespot haven't proved successful. Our current requests with PR, Gerstmann and other CNet contacts have either gone unanswered or yielded a "no comment."

Update: We did get confirmation that Mr. Gerstmann is no longer with Gamespot. The circumstances in which he was terminated or left of his own accord, however, were not disclosed.

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Click here and help save Marsha Brady's nose.

And with this rumor comes other rumors, like he was asked to make it a higher score and refused yadda yadda. But if chan boards have taught us anything, it's that anonymous can be trusted. Just remember Kane & Lynch: A perfect 10 from a website wouldn't save you from being a piece of crap.

Personally I've always liked his reviews. And what he said about Twilight Princess backed up the score. 8.8 is still incredibly high, and I never got why people hated him so much over it.

One way or another he's not working there anymore. Miss you Jeff :aimkiss:!

That's too bad. I actually really liked Jeff and his reviews.

Can't use Gamespot to back up your puny arguments now eh, FFX-2 freaks?

http://home.comcast.net/~olsen31/Images/eidos.jpg

Check out the Eidos message boards just before they got locked out. Madness I tell you, madness!

I actually doubt this is why this guy has been fired. He could take legal action if he wanted to, because without a doubt someone at CNET wasnt doing their job properly either. It is a shame however that this guy had to of been fired, from what I remember Jeff was at Gamespot for over a decade. I remember when Gamespot was a credible site back in the glory days of gaming (96-01) and I remember seeing his face alot, he seemed pretty cool. Its just that I havent been on Gamespot properly for years now so I find it hard to really care about what happens to this guy.

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Originally Posted by Dreddz

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Haha oh man, they got raeped.

Check out the user reviews section on gamespot.

It's much more of an issue for game journalism than it is for Jeff. I don't care much about his personal life, but the balance between advertising and writing with integrity is extremely perilous, and it seems to have gotten worse in the past several years as the internet has become the dominant source of gaming news.

I've read the theory that he isn't yet pursuing any legal action or making a huge fuss because it may well have been in the terms of whatever money he got after being fired. He's worked there for 10 years, he had to have some significant form of severance. I don't really know enough about the law in these types of situations to be able to comment much on that.

But it's a bad situation, and I really hope that it leads to some backlash against companies that would push their own advertisements in such a way as to damage the ability of sites like Gamespot or 1UP to be unbiased and credible.

Marsha Marsha Marsha~

Rumor: GameSpot Editor Was Fired for 'Larger Reasons' | Game | Life from Wired.com

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The ads went up and the Eidos brouhaha was settled over two weeks ago. Jeff got fired yesterday. Furthermore, I'd heard a few people tell that he'd already been skating on thin ice for "unprofessional reviews and review practices." I don't know much about that, though, so I can't say one way or the other. My gut tells me that he got canned for larger reasons. Maybe the Eidos debacle was part of it -- I don't know. But I sincerely doubt that Eidos made Gamespot fire him. CNET doesn't kowtow to its advertisers, and I've more than once seen the higher-ups turn away big advertising dollars for the sake of the company's integrity.I think the whole thing is likely a combination of factors, the biggest being poor timing.

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Also, any reviewer that gives Tony Hawk a 10 and Twilight Princess an 8.8 shouldn't be reviewing games in the first place. Good riddance.

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Originally Posted by Dreddz

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Is swearing that much nessacary? And if the guy isn't doing anything about it, aren't they just making a mountain out of a molehill?

Of course Eidos is gonna say it isn't true. And hasn't he been there for like 10 years? He just all the sudden wasn't a professional anymore at this very moment?

Although I am more inclined to believe he got fired for a mixture of other, larger reasons. I can't see them sacking him solely over a score. No matter what really went down, Azar is right: it's a bad situation if there's any truth to it. Ads are getting more prominent in games all the time, and now in gaming websites, etc...Soon Mountain Dew will be telling us what's what.

Anyway, the real point is that Dreddz and Pill's links were good times. That's the important part.

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Originally Posted by Roto13

Rumor: GameSpot Editor Was Fired for 'Larger Reasons' | Game | Life from Wired.com

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The ads went up and the Eidos brouhaha was settled over two weeks ago. Jeff got fired yesterday. Furthermore, I'd heard a few people tell that he'd already been skating on thin ice for "unprofessional reviews and review practices." I don't know much about that, though, so I can't say one way or the other. My gut tells me that he got canned for larger reasons. Maybe the Eidos debacle was part of it -- I don't know. But I sincerely doubt that Eidos made Gamespot fire him. CNET doesn't kowtow to its advertisers, and I've more than once seen the higher-ups turn away big advertising dollars for the sake of the company's integrity.I think the whole thing is likely a combination of factors, the biggest being poor timing.

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Also, any reviewer that gives Tony Hawk a 10 and Twilight Princess an 8.8 shouldn't be reviewing games in the first place. Good riddance.

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I'm a massive Zelda fan, but anyone who's played Twilight Princess can attest to the fact that it is not exactly a radical improvement or departure over the older games. I think it's fantastic, but I'd much rather read a critical review than a really high-scoring one, and in general Gamespot's been better about that than a lot of sites (say, IGN). I don't think him giving Twilight Princess a score of "Great," almost "Superb," makes him suddenly devoid of any right to put forth his opinion as a writer.

I take away from that that he thinks Tony Hawk is better than Twilight Princess. XP That's enough for me to disregard anything he has to say about anything. He's obviously insane.

But Ocarina of Time did get a perfect 10. And if Twilight Princess had come out in its place, it would have too. I know you'll maul me for this, but there are alternatives using the Zelda formula and doing it better these days. Subsequent Tony Hawk games have lower and lower scores too when they haven't pushed much. The latest one got a 6.5. That perfect ten was almost 7 years ago :jess:.

Exactly. If you're going to lambast him for anything, it should be the content of his reviews, the actual words he writes, not the virtually arbitrary number reviewers are forced to tack onto their opinions.

The fact that people disagreed with his reviews shows that he was a good reviewer. People that fall into the hype machine and give games scores that everyone wants to see are dishonest and plague almost every gaming website on the net. People like Jeff balance things out and make Metacritic infinitely times more useful than other gaming sites.

Though his review on that specific game does seem like the most likely cause, loads of people on the GameFAQs boards have been ragging on his reviews lately, especially on Nintendo boards. Since the 2 sites are linked, the complaints may have played another factor.

But both of these things shouldn't even be factors by any means. Reviews are about stating your opinion on something, and not appealing to a certain crowd, or advertising for someone. His being fired should be under entirely different circumstances.

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Originally Posted by Dreddz

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I love how one of the threads spelt the name 'Gertsman' rather than Gerstmann. Must be a huge fan of the guy to not even know his name xD

I've noticed they give 7.0 scores and higher to outright bad games all the time, so I'm not at all surprised that bribery is involved and that any mild criticism is stifled.

Omikron the Nomad Soul was a great game in my opinion, but back in 1999 when it was released it was given 6.0. Now games that are much worse are given much more generous scores. The site started out as being true to the reviewers opinions until it became this, where below average games like Terminator the Redemption are given 7.2!