GameSpot Editors Address Controversy
December 4th, 2007 by Will Prusik in Business, Featured story, News, Xbox360
The departure of editorial director Jeff Gerstmann following his critical review of Kane & Lynch has left many gamers with a bad taste in their mouths. Some have begun boycotting the website altogether. A new posting has gone up on the GameSpot website attributed rather vaguely to the ’staff’ which denies the accusations that Mr. Gerstmann was fired due to pressure from Eidos who had been advertising Kane & Lynch on the website. Considering that the ’staff’ of GameSpot could include anyone from copy editors to members of legal departments it’s hard to ascertain whether this is an honest statement from the writers or if it’s a statement coming from higher up.
Before I get further into this I would like to point out that I don’t have any affiliation with GameSpot other than an account I use to post on their forums.
Regardless of who issued this statement I feel it’s important to remind the general populace that there are times when it’s necessary to put aside the conspiracy theorist hat and consider the larger context going on here. Without having been directly involved with the workings and goings-on at GameSpot it’s very difficult to conjecture the real reasons behind this action. Many of us instantly jump on the ‘evil corporation’ archetype and assume that the single individual is the innocent victim of office damnations handed down by sinister executives. There are a plethora of other factors that could have contributed to the decision to fire Mr. Gerstmann. Perhaps he was frequently late to work or behind on company deadlines. The uproar caused by his review could have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
Tags: Business, Featured story, News, Xbox360
