According to Kotaku’s source Gamespot fired Jeff Gertsmann (Editor) due to a review he wrote. According to the article Jeff Gertsmann reviewed a game being published by Eidos (which also happened to be paying out big advertisement checks to Gamespot) as an average game but with a negative tone – Eidos was not happy. You can read the Kane & Lynch: Dead Men review for yourself and probably many others from Jeff such as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Legends of Zelda: Twighlight Princess which were also controversial reviews.
The drama surrounding the issue all boils down to this: wtf happened to objective reviews? Basically Gamespot was being payed (directly or through extortion) by Eidos to pass out positive reviews of their games. Jeff Gertsmann reviewed the game (hopefully honestly) and was fired because of it. It’s obviously safe to bet that Eidos is paying for other positive reviews and that they are probably not the only ones. It would not be a risky venture to say that a great many publishers pay sites to review games well or spin them in a positive light. My response? Anyone who takes part in this can go to hell. If you take money to review a game, pay money for good reviews, or have any part in it then you are a deceitful low life.
I can understand receiving advertisement money and working with a publisher. I can’t however understand how anyone can compromise their integrity and deceive/misinform the gaming community. Who can we trust now? Websites like Gamespot, IGN, GameTrailers, the entire Cnet Network, etc… all are writing reviews and all are enormous corporations with advertisements from major publishers. There’s no doubt in my mind we’re all being spoon fed crap being called ice cream. It doesn’t take a genius to have spotted this a long time ago. I’ve read plenty of outrageous reviews ranging from spiteful dribble to sugar coated crap from all the sites above. Now it’s just out in the open and we can finally put the nail in this coffin.
This goes back to a blog post I wrote in October titled Keeping it Real. I will continue to go back to my statement that blogs are the future. Bloggers out there offer subjective opinions but at least you can find a blogger who you see eye to eye with and can trust. Most of us bloggers are not out there to make a buck. We’re writing because we’re passionate about the games we play. If your game sucks we’ll say it. If your game rocks we’ll say it. There’s no publishers filling our pages with ads and lining our pockets with favors. Bloggers are the real people playing the games and providing feedback.
I’m done with the review sites because they are simply no longer worth my time. I highly recommend that everyone think twice before trusting a review from a site receiving money from game publishers. Shame on the sites AND the publishers. It truly takes one apple to spoil the bunch. Any and all credibility these sites had is shot.
That’s why I don’t bother with review scores and read the actual review for content. It’s a lot harder to make up good things about a bad game (and not get caught) than it is to bump a score on a scale up a bit.
Well according to the information it was the Editor’s tone that they didn’t like even more than the average score. It’s completely ridiculous.
Rock Paper Shotgun posted the video review that Gertsmann did. After watching that video, I don’t understand why the written review gave the game a score as high as 6/10. The tone is definitely sour in the review, but disrespectful. He just tells it how it is, really.
Aside from the obvious ethical issues, this highlights the need for a game company to get an early glimpse at their game’s review before purchasing advertising on a site for release day/week. I think the responsibility was as much on Eidos to ask for that glimpse as on Gamespot to offer it, but the way that review coincided with the advertising blitz definitely represents a major problem that companies need to consider in the future.
I’m sure CNET will broadcast it as he was just not “professional enough” in his review, and that may be the case. Gertsmann has always seemed like more of a plain game nerd than someone who I’d respect as a critic (respected critics… is that possible?).
Still, despite my distrust in his opinions, if he was indeed fired due to giving a game a bad review, and said game’s publisher had paid CNET’s site for a good review… then I think we have ourselves a very strong case for everything that’s wrong in Game Criticism today.
Like Keen said, I don’t go to review sites anymore, except on rare ocassion (I still trust Bozon and Cassamassina at Wii.IGN.com, personally). You just don’t know what you’re getting from them.
It doesn’t take a genius to have spotted this a long time ago.
There’s a reason I don’t read gaming magazines or websites anymore. That’s the reason. The objectivity disappeared a long time ago. Whatever happened to Johnny Wilson and his types ?
I agree with your whole take on it. To be fair to Gamespot though, they do list their review score, as well as both the average scores from critics and users. What I find interesting is that for years the average user scores tend to be about 1.5-2 points off Gamespot’s own “official” scores.
Unfortunately, there’s no money in honesty.
Or, at least, not nearly as much.
Sigh.