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GameSpot Insider Claims Editor Was Fired for 'Larger Reasons'

One of the team members who worked on the Kane & Lynch ads for GameSpot says that the timing of editor Jeff Gerstmann's departure is a case of coincidence, not cause and effect

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LOFT316 - contributor
Published: 758 days 1 hour ago | News | PlayStation 3 | Xbox 360 | PC

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1 Hydrollex | 758 days 1 hour ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

gamesR4fun - 758 days 1 hour ago

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1.1 - Amen

But gamespots just one of the ones we know sold out lots more out there 1up for example.

And how about Eidos? They just go around bribing decent scores for all their games? or is it just the crap one like this?

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TheExecutive - 758 days 1 hour ago

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1.2 -

well I agree gs has sucked for some time. It makes me wonder if other sites are getting paid off.

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Gamingisfornerds - 758 days ago

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1.3 - You don't have to be a sorry fanboy about it, you know?!

Do you really think MS goes about all the review sites and pays them money to give better scores? That's just silly.

First of all, any site that has proof of this would've made this public as this would've made them rich as hell. They would've gained a lot more money than MS would ever give them for this so called bribing!

Also, just because the 360 had a better line-up this year doesn't mean that all the better rated games are payed off? How about Mario Galaxy for the Wii, or Metroid Prime? Did Nintendo pay off all these sites as well?

Ofcourse, how silly of me! All companies except for Sony bribe the reviewers because surely, it's impossible for the 360 and Wii to get good scores and the PS3 to have a slightly off year, in terms of software!

Don't act like a little baby and just accept that the PS3 just didn't deliver as well as the 360. It's quite obvious if you aren't blinded by blatant fanboyism.

Next year perhaps the PS3 will dominate in AAA software, and rest assured that all the pathetic 360 fanboys will be claiming the reviews are payed off by Sony.

Lol, gotta love the onesided conspiracy theories!

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BrianC6234 - 757 days 18 hours ago

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1.4 - Gamingisfornerds

"Do you really think MS goes about all the review sites and pays them money to give better scores? That's just silly. "

Didn't they do that for Halo 3? I remember some huge kit Microsoft sent out to the press for Halo 3. Didn't it include a special Halo 360 and lots of other stuff? I remember something about it being worth $800 too. I wonder how many of those were sent out?

I don't trust reviews anymore. I listen to opinions from real gamers if I'm not sure about a game. If it's a game I want I just buy it. Gamespot is terrible though. Maybe they should fire the whole staff and hire regular gamers.

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1.5 Wii60_FTW | 757 days 18 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

TheMART at Xboxkings - 758 days 1 hour ago

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2 -

DAMAGE CONTROL!

It's funny though.

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MK_Red - 758 days 1 hour ago

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2.1 -

I'm with you TheMART. This definitly looks like damage control.

Why was Kane & Lynch video review removed for a bit from GS servers is more than enough proof for why Jeff was fired.

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Gamingisfornerds - 758 days ago

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2.2 - It looks like damage control yes.

What else can they say though? Yes, we fired him for that reason and thereby we lose all credibility?

They will deny this as long as humanly possible. On the other hand, it is possible it's just bad timing. But I think that's a bit of a stretch.

Also, this doesn't mean Gamespot have actually been payed off for certain. Eidos could've just complained about the tone of his review and said that they would stop sponsoring Gamespot if they didn't fire him. It by all means isn't direct proof of companies paying off review sites for better scores.

Though it is very suspicious indeed.

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xionpunk - 757 days 22 hours ago

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2.3 -

yeah the Mart is right, gotta be damage control. I mean thats one helluva "coincidence". And of course the so called inside source would say that...if he works there hes afraid of getting fired now lol.

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3 Hydrollex | 758 days 1 hour ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

3.1 JIN KAZAMA | 758 days ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

Naruto - 758 days 1 hour ago

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4 - TheMART at Xboxkings

mass effect 8.5

Damage COntrol

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TheMART at Xboxkings - 758 days ago

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4.1 -

Mass Effect average reviews still on 92%

http://www.gamerankings.com...

No damage control nescessary. BTW an 8.5 is higher then about any PS3 game average ranked on Gamerankings/Metacritic. SO? Thanks for proving the 360 is the best gaming platform out there!

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PS360WII - 758 days 1 hour ago

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5 -

Yes it was bigger reasons... all dealing with Eidos giving GameSpot more money ;)

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Maddens Raiders - 758 days 1 hour ago

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6 - Today's Lesson Boys and Girls is -

"Spin." Can you say "spin"? Verrry Goooood.

Ok...Do your homework tonight and get ready for tomorrow's exam on "truth in advertising". Ta-ta

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mighty_douche - 758 days 1 hour ago

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7 - thats right....

he had a bigger d*ck than the editor....

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Meus Renaissance - 758 days 1 hour ago

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7.1 -

Lmao.

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mighty_douche - 758 days 1 hour ago

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7.2 - lol...

that comic strip is great! how do people manage to do these things so quickly?!

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shysun - 758 days ago

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7.3 -

lol

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TheHater - 758 days ago

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7.4 -

man that comic strip was really cool.

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Solotov - 758 days 1 hour ago

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8 -

Nothing can save Gamespot now

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Meus Renaissance - 758 days 1 hour ago

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9 -

I want them to review every single PS3 exclusive again. Start with Uncharted. *clicks gun and places it on reviewers head*

*Meus' eye twitches and laughs hysterically*

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falconm80 - 758 days 1 hour ago

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10 -

Sorry insider,, i'm not buying this from you. Gamespot lost a lot of gamers respect and I'm sure people will not take their reviews seriously.

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Real gamer 4 life - 758 days 1 hour ago

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11 -

gamespot official suck, now we know that they are being paid for their reviews. the truth will come out eventually. i dont take that site serious anymore they lost all credibility with alot of gamers including me.

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12 WilliamRLBaker | 758 days 1 hour ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

Dlacy13g - 758 days 1 hour ago

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13 - LOL....I love reading all the conspiracy theory posts...

Look Guys and Gals...people get fired. Even the popular ones. We just canned a well liked rep from my work...everyone loved her, she said all the right things, etc. but her work had dropped to a level that was not tolerable any longer and she had that "I am not touchable" attitude. It's quite possible that Jeff himself had a similar situation and thought he was bigger than the man himself. Well...we know who won that battle.

Bottom line....NO WAY IN H@LL would Gamespot fire Jeff over that "one" review. It just wouldnt go down like that. Eidos isnt paying that much money for the Kane & Lynch ads on Gamespot ( I work in advertising so I know what banners cost...) to justify and/or give them enough weight to push Gamespot on this. There HAD to be much bigger issues going on leading up to the firing.

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falconm80 - 757 days 22 hours ago

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13.1 -

Are you working for gamespot or something?

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Bill Gates - 758 days ago

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14 -

"Cash rules everythang around me. Cream get tha money, dolla dolla bill yal"

This says alot with all the advertising M$ is doing on the GS site.

M$ - "we'll pay you lots of money if you bad mouth Sony's exclusives. Oh and also the games we suspect might sell more on the PS3"

Websites - "DUH, ok"

Shiet rolls down hill folks......AHAHAHAHAHA

...and Gerstmann was the shiet that hit the bottom.

*In other news......XBOTS are stupid.....AAAAHAHAHHAHAHA

Come on XBOTS, you know I always have to show you roBOTS some love.

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Maddens Raiders - 758 days ago

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14.1 - Bill thanks for -

putting Method's ramblings in my head this morning.

I needed something new to hum to instead of "It hurts so good....Come on baby make it hurt so good, cause sometimes love don't feel like it should so baby, make it hurt so good..." Maybe someone at Eidos is humming the same thing as I? 8D lol

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Charlie2688 - 758 days ago

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15 -

While I still think the whole Kane and Lynch thing was the main contributor one thing that this article mentions about about his review is VERY true, if you are a GS regular you will know that theirs been a LOT of complains about his reviews specially since the last Zelda one so yes...I do believe they might have also used that to fire him

for example one of the most vivid memories I have of his "odd" reviewing methods was we he punished Prey cuz according to him he didn't understood why the aliens speaked english and they also sounded stupid (apparently he didn't played the game or he would knew)

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Real gamer 4 life - 758 days ago

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16 -

WE SHOULD ALL BOYCOTT GAMESPOT. ITS CLEAR THAT GAMESPOT IS A BIASED SITE THAT WILL GIVE ANY GAME A GOOD REVIEW ONLY IF THEY GET PAID WELL. ALL REAL GAMERS SHOULD BOYCOTT GAMESPOT WE HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER OR THEY WONT TAKE US SERIOUS. MANY GAMERS HAVE TRUSTED THEM AND THEY HAVE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF OUR TRUST.

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falconm80 - 757 days 22 hours ago

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16.1 -

AMEN!!!!

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17 JIN KAZAMA | 758 days ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

media73 - 758 days ago

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18 -

This is obviously damage control, Edios and Gamespot must be panicking BIGTIME now, this story reeks of false panic damage control. Gamespot and Edios brought this on themselves, they have ruined the industries credibility, I suggest we all cancel our subscriptions to Gamespot and don't buy Edios games.

No review can now ever be trusted, it all comes down to money, just look at halo3, this game should of been 7 max and yet it got 10? utter bull.

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Ravenator529 - 757 days 23 hours ago

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19 - This is great!

So instead of Eidos pulling the ads, Gamespot completely threw every ounce of the credibility out the window. Nice move Gamespot! You just told your readers that money influences your reivews.

The smart thing would have been to let Eidos pull the ads. At least you keep your credibitlity. Credibility is a must have when your website is supposed to run on "honest", "non-influenced", "non-biased" reviews.

We all see whats happening here. We aren't stupid. Spin it all you want. Gamespot and Eidos both look like total douchebags regardless of whether we agree with the review or not.

You don't just "fire" a major staff member and then call it "coincidence" in a case such as this.

Well it's bad for them but all in all, its good for us. It's one site where we don't have to pay attention to their score any longer. They have tainted their credibility in the worst possible way.

Bye bye Gamespot!

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PimpHandHappy - 757 days 23 hours ago

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20 - 2bad for this guy

that Bill Gates got mad over a bad hummer

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kingme71 - 757 days 23 hours ago

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21 -

Talk about horrible timing. Even if the spin is correct and he was fired for a combination of things, how bad does Gamespot look now?

They need to consider future advertising. How can you give an unbiased report when someone is paying you to advertise the very game you are reporting on?

It was mentioned in the article that the K&L ads directed you to the review. Well, there you go proof positive that the review was expected to fall in line.

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PimpHandHappy - 757 days 23 hours ago

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22 - yea kingme71

when ppl started using reviews to see what game there buying is when CORP AMERICA got into the biz of helping along reviews with money to keep the sites up and running

I only use reviews to give me insight into what im buying. There have been very few occastions that i let a bad review make me rent a game. im lucky enough to be able to afford myself many forms of entertainment. Concerts Sporting Events Movies Music Games PPV Fights a nice TV package

and not once did i let someone elses word persuade me into not doing or buying what i want.

I think the younger generation has lost that feeling of having there own mind and most ppl here on this site cant even debate there own pionts because once you counter piont they fade fast.

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