Penny Arcade 11/30/2007 Jeff Gerstmann fired from Gamespot, allegedly for K&L review

[mosaic]

So, tomorrow's comic was put up early:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic



And, umm, yeah... what happened in the last panel did happen... yesterday.

Summary of latest development: - CNET issues totally predictable non-denial-denial statements trying to dodge their way out of this - Josh Larson, the guy in charge who replaced Greg K when he left, is a marketing guy and he's in charge of the editorial content - Previous article by Josh Larson: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/9509.asp - an anonymous account by a possible gamespot editor of this whole debacle: http://valleywag.com/tech/jeff-gerst...wer-328775.php - Alex N, a gamespot editor, posted this on his blog http://www.gamespot.c-om/users/AlexN...m-100-25234567 - Kevin V, another gamespot editor's blog post: http://www.gamespot.c-om/users/Kevin...m-100-25234747

[Grecco]

Gertsmann got fired? What?

[CoG]

Gertsman got canned?

[typo]

Jeff was fired?

[OatmealMu]

Eh?

[BastardSamurai]

Buh?

[Vark]

Seriously?

[The Orange]

You guys are all puzzled by the last panel, I don't even get the middle one.

[polyh3dron]

Girthmann got fired for giving KANE & LYNCH a bad review?? After all the bullshit reviews it was finally this one that killed him then.. life is funny sometimes..

Oh yeah, 8.8 or something.

[allegate]

[Costanza]

hmm?

[DKnight]

Is that true?

[Vark]

You guys are all puzzled by the last panel, I don't even get the middle one.

Talking about the promotions and advertisements on the site. 'Sponsored events'.

[Hellsing321]

Is this for real!? Did they finally give into the Nintendo fans demands?

[FartOfWar]

8-10 scale, bitches. Enthusiasts ask for it more than the publishers.

[Rlan]

Gertsmaaaaaaan!!

He's been there for forever, hasn't he? He fits in very well with their whole group of people if the podcast is anything to go by.

[explodet]

http://www.gamespot.com/misc/editorial.html

If he did get fired, they'd better get off their duffs and update this page.

[DeathbyVolcano]

Sucks for him, but he'll probably get a job somewhere else. He shouldn't be worried.

But Nintendo fans everywhere are cheering.

[BastardSamurai]

8-10 scale, bitches. Enthusiasts ask for it more than the publishers.

Wait, 8-10 is the new 7-9?!?!?!

[ohmycar]

You guys are all puzzled by the last panel, I don't even get the middle one.

There are huge ads for Kane & Lynch on GameSpot. Jeff gave Kane & Lynch a 6...put two and two together and so on and so forth.

[jetjevons]

Confirmation people? Was he fired?

[DKnight]

Wait, 8-10 is the new 7-9?!?!?!

yes

[mosaic]

I only have second-hand information, so I don't feel comfortable relating any of it.

But, did y'all notice there was no "On The Spot" show today? And no reviews went up?

The staff are, to put it mildly, skittish.

[calder]

I'm a little alarmed that anyone could read a web comic as a literal recounting of actual events. Stay away the Bible kids!

[NichM]

I hope no one's cheering if this is true, Nintendo fan or no. There's supposed to be an iron wall between advertising and editorial, and if it's been breached, that's a really sad thing both for Gerstmann personally and GameSpot professionally.

[ninj4junpei]

Jokes aside, it's sad to see he lost his job. :(

[rs7k]

I hope no one's cheering if this is true, Nintendo fan or no. There's supposed to be an iron wall between advertising and editorial, and if it's been breached, that's a really sad thing both for Gerstmann personally and GameSpot professionally.

That's what I was gonna say. If it's true, then it'll be hard to consider Gamespot reviews as seriously as I used to.

I don't believe in review sites having biases in general, so whenever there's bitching about scores, I usually laugh at it.

[TTG]

That's the first genuinly funny PA comic I've seen.

[jetjevons]

I hope no one's cheering if this is true, Nintendo fan or no. There's supposed to be an iron wall between advertising and editorial, and if it's been breached, that's a really sad thing both for Gerstmann personally and GameSpot professionally.

Not to mention it'll give the conspiracy nuts material for the forever.

[tanod]

WHAT?! I was wondering why he wasn't on the Hotspot. Nobody said anything about him either.

[TurtleSnatcher]

I think they are just teasing the whole fact that the sites smothered in Kane & Lynch ads etc, yet it got a meh review from the site itself.

[DKnight]

I'm a little alarmed that anyone could read a web comic as a literal recounting of actual events. Stay away the Bible kids!

Well, the OP stated the last panel is actually true.

[FFChris]

I'm a little alarmed that anyone could read a web comic as a literal recounting of actual events. Stay away the Bible kids!

Penny Arcade, the new source of game journalist news!

Well, the OP stated the last panel is actually true.

Wow, I stand corrected. Giving a mediocre game a mediocre review is grounds for being fired now?

[Rockman]

The beginning of the end for Gamespot if true.

[Bildi]

You guys are all puzzled by the last panel, I don't even get the middle one.

Indeed.

Did you happen to see that our readers can skin the entire site with Kane, Lynch, or with Kane and Lynch?

I have NO idea what that means. NO IDEA. Or the sentence after that actually.

[pilonv1]

I think they are just teasing the whole fact that the sites smothered in Kane & Lynch ads etc, yet it got a meh review from the site itself.

Win.

[duckroll]

wow

[Ganondorfo]

But kane and lynch is a 6.0/10 game, he is right.

So everyone who gave kane and lynch a bad review must be fired?????

[radioheadrule83]

I'm certainly not cheering even though I seemed to disagree with him a lot.

I'll be interested to hear what happened. If he is fired wow, PA, fingers on the pulse at all times..

[beermonkey@tehbias]

If Gerstmann got fired for any content, I disagree with the decision, regardless of how GAF feels about him. I think he is an asset, even though I sometimes disagree wtih him strongly.

[Gary Whitta]

This is an outrage if true. Especially since his score seems largely "correct" (mid-60s on metacritic)

[Tyrone Slothrop]

erm

if he let go i doubt it had anything to do with that score. i like how everybodys so paranoid about this sort of thing. i understand there're moneyhats abound but its dramatized

[skip]

this is horrible. absolutely horrible.

[Ganondorfo]

They should fire some of the guys who worked on kane and lynch, that would be justice

[Salmonax]

Can't be true. Must be them poking fun at... something.

[Dante]

To put it mildly the state of video game reviews is a total mess right now.

[Linkzg]

if this is true, my Gerstmann rookie card will be worth thousands!

[gwiz210]

Just for ole' times sake...

[BrokenSymmetry]

Indeed. I have NO idea what that means. NO IDEA. Or the sentence after that actually.

On the home page of Gamespot, there's an ad for Kane & Lynch, with "click a character to skin the site". With this, gamespot visitors can skin the site with either Kane, Lynch, or both.

[Rody]

If he did get fired, I doubt it was because of the review. PA is just joking about the coincidence, maybe?