The whole Jeff Gertsmann/Gamespot incident has sparked some controversy lately as to whether or not review sites can even be trusted anymore. In an effort to cover up their flagrant disregard for the integrity of the gaming community Sarah Cain (CNET Spokesperson) had this to say over at Joystick.
While reiterating that CNET does not discuss personal employee matters with the press, Cain said directly that “we do not terminate employees based on external pressure from advertisers.” When asked specifically about whether any such pressure was even attempted on Eidos’ part, Cain had no comment. We’re still waiting for a response to multiple e-mail requests for comment by Eidos PR.
While we had Cain on the line, we also asked her about the odd disappearance of Gerstmann’s video review of the game from the GameSpot site. She responded by pointing out a note at the bottom of the still-running text review for the game, which states that “this review has been updated to include differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions and a clarification on the game’s multiplayer mode.”
When pressed for clarification, Cain said that this note applied to the video review as well. “At the bottom of the post of the [text] review we made a note that we have updated the review, and we made those decisions based on our own editorial standards,” she said. “It was our decision to take down the review.” Given this justification, we can’t help but wonder why GameSpot couldn’t just edit the video review, as they did the text version. Why remove the entire thing if the problem was really just a “clarification?” When asked just that question, Cain reiterated her initial statement.
Why even bother trying to cover it up if you’re just going to give horrible answers that lead the readers around in circles? It just makes you look even more guilty to try and cover it up. No one in their right mind believes that the review was merely edited to show the difference between platforms nor would anyone with half a brain accept the idea that the video review, the entire advertisement campaign on Gamespot, AND the taking down of their reader reviews section are unrelated to any pressure from Eidos. And to top it all off they took down their forums (both Eidos and Gamespot) to scrub them clean of anything related to this topic. Poorly played.
According to several commenters on these articles, many Gamespot subscribers are canceling their accounts as a result of this revelation. I don’t blame them. Why would you give money to a site that is obviously in the business of fabricating and misconstruing material which was supposed to be objective?
*chuckle* Yeah, you don’t fire employees based on pressure from advertisers. Riiiight.
For anyone interested in the Video Review you can find it on Youtube. Nothing is hidden on the internet. Gotta love it.
Gamespot is evil, and should be relegated to the deepest circle of hell.
(The preceeding opinion from Inhibitor brought to you by IGN.)
That’s something no one’s thinking of in all of this…it’s only one more step beyond this before we reach the point where the review goes to the highest bidder, and if your competitor outbids you…well, let’s just say the review won’t be pretty. 🙂
That’s exactly right. In fact, I can point you to a few reviews where I can guarantee it’s done out of spite.
If a game isn’t going to get a good review at one place, then the publishers will just take it to another where it can. It’s a completely heinous practice.
Well, to be perfectly honest all of those sites depend heavily on game companies and the ad money that they get. I have had a problem with the official review sites and print mags since… hell a few years ago when PC Gamer went to hell. They get their games for free. They get them early, they get access to devs and early looks etc and peopel don’t think that they are biased? Great games that aren’t from huge publishers are outright ignored and when they aren’t they are bashed to hell and back. Then when the big boys come out with a game they (the reviewers) are super forgiving of horrific bugs and game breaking issues.
Personally, I have been playing these games since before most of these reviewers were a gleam in their daddy’s eyes and I sure as hell do not need to rely on a 20 something to tell me what I like or don’t 😀