This Blog Goes to 11

There's been a bit of controversy in the video game community the last week and a half that centers around the firing of Jeff Gerstmann, Editorial Director and 10 year veteran of the gaming site GameSpot.com. GameSpot provides news, reviews, previews, and downloads of electronic gaming across all platforms - computer-based, handhelds, home console systems, etc. Users can also write their own reviews of games, create blogs, and participate on the site's forums.

In addition to providing news, images, and videos of their games in development, video game publishers also spend large sums of money to advertise on GameSpot based on the high amount of traffic the site generates. And if there is one place on the entire site that is visited without fail, it is the GameSpot game reviews. So what happens when a company who has just spent thousands of dollars advertising their new game on a gaming site has that same site give the game a bad review? That's exactly what Jeff Gerstmann found out.

The game in question is called "Kane and Lynch: Dead Men." The player takes the role of Kane, "a death row inmate on his way to criminal execution, apparently convicted of being a very savage criminal as part of a notorious gang called The7." At the beginning of the game, the other members of The7, including Lynch, bust you out of jail and thus starts your ultra-violent exploits in this blood-soaked, action packed, "crime-themed shooter."

Now before I go any further, something that you must understand is that amidst all of the development interviews, storyline details, and reports on early builds of games, sites like GameSpot pretty much become hype machines for said games. Early reports on games in development do mention possible issues that a game might have, be it spotty control or iffy graphics or a bad camera system, but, for the most part, these early reports always seem to feature phrases like "we're excited by what we see" and "we can't wait to get another crack at this game." So, obviously, game publishers are going to want to advertise their new games on sites that are generating a lot of positive buzz about them. But after those ad spaces are paid for come the reviews. And that's when reality may set in. That's when the user may find out that the game he or she was looking forward to and had set aside money to buy may not really be worth spending that money on after all. And that's when the game publishers who shelled out the dough advertising their game may see a bad review that will equate to game sales not being as high as they were hoping for and get upset.

Gerstmann gave "Kane and Lynch" a 6.0 out of a possible 10. This equates to a designated game status of "Fair." Any game that is reviewed with a score of 8.0 (maybe even 7.5) or above is considered a quality game worthy of the gamers' hard earned money. But a 6.0? That's a rental at best. For those who would like to read Gerstmann's review, here you go.

"Kane and Lynch" was released on November 13, 2007. Gerstmann's review of the game was posted on GameSpot's site at some point between then and November 28. I'm not sure of the exact date his review went online. On November 29, numerous gaming sources began reporting that Gerstmann had been fired from GameSpot allegedly over his negative review of "Kane and Lynch." Now it's important to mention that Gerstmann had been at Gamespot for nearly 11 years, and had reviewed games during his entire tenure there. I think it's safe to say that he had given poor reviews to games before, so what happened here? Why was he fired?

The sources said that Eidos Interactive, the publisher of "Kane and Lynch," saw the low score and threatened to pull all of their advertising from the site. At the time that the review for the game was posted, the entire GameSpot site was filled with "Kane and Lynch" backgrounds and multiple banner ads. GameSpot has completely denied these claims, and has issued their own account of Gerstmann's dismissal in what has become known as "Gerstmann Gate." I won't detail GameSpot's response, but here it is for anyone who is interested.

Now I don't know if Gerstmann was fired for giving a game a bad review or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. Eidos publishes many games, and if they really did threaten to pull their advertising, it would mean thousands and thousands of dollars of lost revenue to GameSpot. Regardless of the reason for Gerstmann's firing, the whole episode has put the legitimacy of sites like Gamespot in question. The tactic of game publishers throwing money at the outlets who review their products to influence a positive review isn't a new concept. But the firing of Jeff Gerstmann might just be one of the highest profiled examples of such a thing actually happening.