Game reviewer sacked for giving bad 'tone' in his review
Mikey 7 comments
Gamespot have allegedly fired veteran game reviewer Jeff Gerstmann for giving a game a bad review. But it wasn't so much that the final score he awarded the game (Kane and Lynch) was bad (6 out of 10) it is apparently the tone of his review that got him axed. You can watch the review below and judge for yourself.
Here's the story. Game publisher Eidos Interactive have been paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to pimp 'Kane and Lynch' adverts all over Gamespots' web site leading up to and after launching the game. Penny Arcade are saying that Eidos has now also pulled future advertising deals worth similar amounts, so Gamespot will no doubt be feeling some financial pain.
Although they would never admit it, Eidos may be under the false impression that paying these sorts of advertising premiums also buys a positive game review. That's just my opinion, and Gamespot may share the notion otherwise they wouldn't have unceremoniously dumped Gerstmann.
More commentary at these sites:
andrew
Monday 3rd December 2007 | 05:54 PMnever heard of him or heard him give a review before so i guess he is just telling it like it is, why buy something that is no good or not up to the expectations that you would expect in a game...he is only calling it as he sees it..what makes him any different to a film reviewer or restaurant critic they are there to give you the pros and cons of a product....
It must suck to be him right now. But he isn't fighting the decision so maybe not.
I used to write game reviews for a now extinct Australia wide game magazine. This was during my years as a technician at Timezone (an arcade game franchise) and there was a major conflict of interest in that the magazine publisher also made arcade games themselves, and I was usually pressured to review their games favourably. It made me feel dirty but I was never sacked - I simply quit that potion.
It's not surprising this sort if thing happens though. You pay that sort of money to advertise your product and there is always the 'understanding' you wont trash their product publicly.
It could be something easily spotted. If you read a game review and they give it a 9 or 10 score, and there is advertising for the game all over the site, yet other game sites review it poorly, then use your best judgement.
Klinger
Monday 3rd December 2007 | 08:05 PMSacking the dude ins't going to fix anything. The reviews are in and the game is said to be a suck fest. Sacking him only serves as a warning to the remaining game reviewers that they better be a little more forgiving or risk losing their jobs. Don't you love fair and balanced!?!!?!
Muzza
Tuesday 4th December 2007 | 09:54 AM"Without paying full price"
That is the line that did him in! hahahah
Muzza: Yeah it almost sounded like he was suggesting you 'acquire' the game by other means LOL.
Looks like they are in damage control mode now. Significant edits have been made to the review, which go a lot further than they say.
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/05/comparison-shows-significant-edits-to-gerstmanns-kane-and-lynch-r/
Jasmin
Monday 3rd December 2007 | 05:42 PMHe has a negative tone in the video but the game sucked so what is he supposed to do? Hype it up like it's great?