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192 Comments
- geartype2, on 12/01/2007, -2/+199I'm digging this up, not because I believe it's true, but because it's the most plausible explanation I've heard so far.
- jggr, on 12/01/2007, -1/+132Well if true, and it does sound plausible, then at least it's Gamespot and not Edios (directly). I can avoid one game review site if needed, but I'd hate to have to cut out a game developer due to these shenanigans.
To the folks at Gamespot, I'd suggest you work on your resumes. Chances are that unless the jerk-off suit who quarter-backed this decision is held accountable (both professionally and publicly), you can rest assured that your site will never again be visited by me (and I'm sure many others). - Luieburger, on 12/01/2007, -20/+125Kane and Lynch is piss and it got what it deserves.
I love Gamespot and I'm not about to watch some money grubbers ruin solid reviews because of cash. Although it is already happening with games like Halo3. Run of the mill games like that don't deserve 9.5s. - wolfofwar, on 12/01/2007, -15/+120I give Jeff Gerstmann's firing an 8.8
- Swampthing, on 12/01/2007, -2/+102WRONG. Gerstmann was supposedly fired for the tone of his VIDEO review of Kane and Lynch, not written. In fact, it was removed from Gamespot and the forums were even closed down yesterday for quite awhile. The Kane and Lynch Gamespot forums had been overflowing with negative comments about the firing. Here's a link to a copy of Jeff's infamous video review on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBD0cUeeEQc
- smookyfufu, on 12/01/2007, -0/+88I'm convinced. It took over a week for them to put up a review of Hellgate because of the crappy score they gave it. Remember?
- implementor, on 12/01/2007, -1/+76I've been in sales and marketing for a long, long time - and I think this was a tremendously boner move on the part of Gamespot. People look at your advertising for one reason, and one reason only - they believe that your content is legitimate and worthwhile. The content is what attracts people to your advertising, not the other way around. If you ***** with the integrity of your content, then no one will believe that it is legitimate and worthwhile anymore, and you'll lose readership - which will mean you will lose advertising dollars. It's pretty simple.
- Sep11insidejob, on 12/01/2007, -0/+69That was a good review
- PhilMoskowitz, on 12/01/2007, -0/+62Sounds like it's time to abandon even the odd visit to gamespot.com. I've long since stopped trusting the reviewer numbers, but I'm not going to be a party to this kind of corporate ***** device.
- darkchild82, on 12/01/2007, -2/+52great ! so they hire a guy from MAXIM to take over from Greg Kasavin ?!?! f**k you Josh Larson. Here's the ***** in question - http://www.imediaconnection.com/profiles/iMedia_PC ... . There's a contact form there, I've already given him a piece of my mind.
- Terra21, on 12/01/2007, -1/+49This sucks, i always wen't to gamespot before i considered buying a game to see what the review was like, now it seems people are gonna be writing good reviews of bad games that they advertise because high-ups will sack them if they don't, last thing i want is to buy a game cause of a good review and it turns out to be *****.
- saisumimen, on 12/01/2007, -2/+49Problem is... it was *too* honest. Apparently video game companies these days want all reviews to sound like the ones the tools at G4 spew on TV.
- Sniper001, on 12/01/2007, -0/+46Jeff Gerstmann wasn't fired because of his Kane & Lynch review, but because of multiple instances of negative tone? Right. If CNET was displeased with his tone in the past, why did they promote him to editorial director after Greg Kasavin left? Companies generally don't promote people they consider to be loose canons. As a former magazine editor who no longer wants to be a magazine editor because I was driven crazy by advertising sales staff who constantly made my job an exercise in frustration, I can easily surmise Gerstmann was fired for honestly expressing his opinion. Sadly, that's the way publishing dysfunctions. Editorial integrity is easy to maintain when money isn't an issue. But when publications become popular because of that bedrock editorial quality, they become victims of their own success. Editorial bedrock always crumbles under the sales and marketing avalanche.
- drlha, on 12/01/2007, -3/+43Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the 2.6 average score for Kane and Lynch has more to do with this guy getting fired and the Gamespot users protesting, than how good the actual game is.
- TheZorch, on 12/01/2007, -0/+36Boycott GameSpot, send a clear message to Larson that we the gamers WILL NOT stand for this sort of *****.
- Charlotte_Web, on 12/01/2007, -0/+34"Honesty is a bad thing in the New Economy."
On the contrary. This is the best possible thing that could happen to Jeff Gerstmann. Last month, he was just another GameSpot reviewer. Today, he's a celebrity and the poster boy of journalistic integrity.
He'll definitely land on his feet. - WaltJay, on 12/01/2007, -0/+34It looks like the user reviews are in full swing. 800+ reviews with 75% being "1 out of 10".
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/kanelynchde ...
My favorite review:
"I'd rather have sex with my dog...." - buckrogers1965, on 12/01/2007, -0/+32And Gamespot jumps the shark. It's all downhill from here, sorry fellows.
- Picer, on 12/01/2007, -0/+31This is wrong and disgusting gamespot can go with ign in the ***** pile.
Also ign has so many ads its more of an adfarm than a games site anyway, its disgusting. - Laxaloot, on 12/01/2007, -4/+34Dugg yet.... I'm skeptical of anything at all from valleywag.
- a0me, on 12/01/2007, -0/+27Yeah but marketing and advertising is done by the publisher, Eidos.
- toasty168, on 12/01/2007, -0/+26i definitely won't be heading back to gamespot's site again.
- nathanstarr, on 12/01/2007, -2/+28His firing it just stupid, they said that they check all of the reviews. If they thought that the review was too harsh then they don't publish that review. You don't fire a guy for his opinion, especially if he's right. It seems like Larson just didn't like the guy and was just looking for an excuse to pull the trigger.
- chaser324, on 12/01/2007, -0/+25Go to youtube and look up the video review. Aside from really picking apart every aspect of the game, towards the end he pretty much says that you should only play Kane and Lynch if you don't have to pay full price for it. This is what I imagine could have been the breaking point.
- potterboy, on 12/01/2007, -0/+25I love Gamespots content (OtS, TTV, BMashing, Hotspot, etc) but I am seriously questioning their reviews that I have trusted forever. Whats going to happen to On the Spot? 3 hosts in less than 6 months? Who is left?
- PhilMoskowitz, on 12/01/2007, -0/+25But if you can keep all the corruption hush hush and your inside deals quiet... see that's the temptation and how douchebags in management can derail a company.
- inactive, on 12/01/2007, -4/+29Or you could play GTA and pretend to be a good criminal...
- GaiaAP, on 12/01/2007, -17/+42A direct link to the review he was supposedly fired for writing: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/kanelynchde ...
- jdoughert, on 12/01/2007, -0/+24Doesn't this have to bring in to question all of the reviews that are provided by cnet.com - not just the video games?
I have been looking to them for years for reviews of new digital products, and now shouldn't it be the natural next step to wonder how much of the entire editorial sanctity has been penetrated by the advertising heathens? - MagicCake, on 12/01/2007, -0/+23Low replay value :(
- inactive, on 12/01/2007, -0/+22Firing those who speak the truth, firing those who are serving their customers, firing those who have integrity and will not be bought.
Sinister and all too familiar, bye Gamespot. I'm tired of being lied to 24/7 in politics, I'm not going to accept that in my leisure time as well. - inactive, on 12/01/2007, -3/+25Honesty is a bad thing in the New Economy.
Loopholes are the norm.
Ignorance is Strength.
War is Peace.
It's all a direct result of the compromising of ethics in society in general. Everyone else has to become evil or they are obsolete. - swr1ght, on 12/01/2007, -1/+21It's funny, but for quite some time I have had a policy where if a game does not get reviewed at least a couple of days before it comes out. I do not buy it. All the major game review sites follow this policy: If they are going to bash the game, they wait till after it has been on the shelves for a while before they bash it. They do this as a favor to the game publishers, and it is pretty freaking obvious. But I was amused to see someone who claims to actually be in the industry blatantly admit to this policy.
My policy has been in place ever since the latest Master of Orion came out. Horrible game, but I loved its predecessors. I decided to buy it three days after it came out, even though none of the major sites had reviewed it. Thus the policy. - juicebag, on 12/01/2007, -0/+19Then why are you here?
- b-dizzle, on 12/01/2007, -4/+23COD4.
- cerealjynx, on 12/01/2007, -3/+22Just remember people, if you boycott Gamestop, that means you really shouldn't use GameFAQs.com either. ;)
- NaziHatinChimp, on 12/01/2007, -0/+19Ok Did anyone see the UNEDITED review? What exactly did he get fired for?
Jeff Gertsmann will get another job pretty quick anyways. - Sagarian, on 12/01/2007, -0/+19this is very definitely the case. I am friends with a former EA honcho. They figured out long ago how strongly reviews affect sales, and they can even project lifetime unit sales within a few % based on the first sales numbers and the reviews (and another factor or two like genre).
so while they MAY pressure sites not to bash early, what they definitely do is:
great game? put it in the reviewers' hands early
crappy game? put it in the reviewers' hands a day before it hits the shelves - Malarie, on 12/01/2007, -1/+19I bet 10$ that this guy will be over IGN with a huuuge salary upgrade soon enough and i wish that for him. You are a reviewer, and you lose your job because you stood to your standards as a reviewer? Give me a effing break.
- eddie72, on 12/01/2007, -3/+21What the hell? Fun? Are you playing the same game. WTF?
- pussieLicker, on 12/01/2007, -1/+19That guy looks like a total ashole in that pic
and stupid too... - aelias, on 12/01/2007, -1/+19It would be a cool protest of the office to submit "10's" for every game next week.
- Qumahlin, on 12/01/2007, -0/+18Um, yes, but Eidos is the publishing company...you know the company that backs the developers ideas because in the end they make more money then the developer does. IO handled development, Eidos handled financing, marketing, production of discs, etc, etc. Hence Eidos would be the one to pull any advertising dollars, IO has nothing to do with it
- Sagarian, on 12/01/2007, -5/+22Over 3,000 users of the site have reviewed the game and the AVERAGE is 2.6, where the reviewer gave it a 6.0.
If he thinks his users are that stupid that they will ignore each others' opinions in favor of that of a reviewer who is a paid shill, he should eliminate user reviews also. Then we can all just go elsewhere for game reviews and be done with gamespot. - ShrimpCrackers, on 12/01/2007, -1/+18IGN admitted to giving higher scores for exclusive-review titles after their management was replaced by a former Maxim editor. So youre very wrong.
- chris9902, on 12/01/2007, -1/+18K&L is awful. It's like Hitman without the fun of sneaking about.
- dansmeek, on 12/01/2007, -8/+24yes i am with you two fold. i never really read this guys review, but i see exactly why eidos did not care for him. just his attitude. he was too biased towards FPS in reviewing K&L. Kane actually looks fun, i'd have rented it. But haha. The guy is almost a martyr now because of gamespot's ridiculous decisions. I don't think they understand what happens when stories like this get on these social web sites and gamers just go crazy. They probably figured that it would go by unnoticed.
- Muncher, on 12/01/2007, -0/+15Your job is secure, then.
- chaos7, on 12/01/2007, -0/+14i've definitely noticed good reviews going up early..and not so good reviews not going up early.
- Clevinger, on 12/01/2007, -1/+15Haha, Kate and Lynch reviews are disabled: http://www.gamespot.com/error/knl_review.html
I buy the post. For a long time I have used Gamespot as my sole review site... looks like I'm going to have to find one more concerned with objective reviews. The poster recommend The Onion: http://www.avclub.com/content/games. -
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