Jeff Gerstmann, one of Gamespot’s editors who has been around the longest, was recently fired. Rumour is that Eidos was paying Gamespot big bucks to advertise the game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men all over their site but Jeff’s honest review of the game gave it a dismal 6/10 ratings, thus obviously making the advertisement worthless. Apparently Eidos wasn’t too happy about this and it led to Jeff’s firing.
If this rumour is true then CNET, who owns Gamespot, has officially shot some of their extremities off. Anyone who has read The Cluetrain Manifesto or Gonzo Marketing knows about this kind of thing and the need for integrity when relaying news and reviews. As soon as that integrity is gone, people are going to jump ship and go elsewhere for this type of information. From the sounds of it, many people are already indicating they won’t renew their Gamespot subscriptions due to this fiasco.
BTW don’t know if this is a coincidence or not but the Eidos site is now timing out and inaccessible (however their Eidos Interactive site is still working).
Related: Blues News, Penny Arcade, Destructoid, Digg