Meh. Money talks.....that is life, that is management. The trick is to make it do what you want and fool bureaucracy. Most of these review companies are full of fat, americanized (because they are American) BORING people. You literally have to SHOVE innovation down their throat.
We just got off the phone with Sarah Cain, a CNET spokesperson who wanted to amend CNET's previous statement to Joystiq on the recent firing of executive editor Jeff Gerstmann. 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 [video] 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.
The past week marked the end of an era at GameSpot. After over a decade in a variety of editorial roles, Jeff Gerstmann's tenure as editorial director has ended. "Jeff was a central figure in the creation and evolution of GameSpot, having written hundreds of previews and reviews, and anchoring much of our multimedia content," said Ricardo Torres, editorial director of previews and events. "The award-winning editorial team he leaves behind wish him nothing but good luck in his future endeavors." Due to legal constraints and the company policy of GameSpot parent CNET Networks, details of Gerstmann's departure cannot be disclosed publicly. However, contrary to widespread and unproven reports, his exit was not a result of pressure from an advertiser. "Neither CNET Networks nor GameSpot has ever allowed its advertising business to affect its editorial content," said Greg Brannan, CNET Networks Entertainment's vice president of programming. "The accusations in the media that it has done so are unsubstantiated and untrue. Jeff's departure stemmed from internal reasons unrelated to any buyer of advertising on GameSpot." "Though he will be missed by his colleagues, Jeff's leaving does not affect GameSpot's core mission of delivering the most timely news, video content, in-depth previews, and unbiased reviews in games journalism," said Ryan MacDonald, executive producer of GameSpot Live. "GameSpot is an institution, and its code of ethics and duty to its users remains unchanged."
Eidos stretches truth about gameKane and Lynch 'reviews' nonsenseBy Nick Farrell: Wednesday, 05 December 2007, 9:55 AMWHILE reviewing dire game 'Kane and Lynch' truthfully has already caused one hack his job, it seems that the game maker Eidos has been spinning the mediocre reviews it has got into winners.If you visit the game's official site, you would think that GameSpy and Game Informer are both recorded as giving it great reviews.According to kotaku.com, the reviews are made up and complete porkies. Both reviews are glowing and give the game five stars.But GameSpy did not say "It's the best emulation of being in the midst of a Michael Mann movie we've ever seen" in their review of the game.They actually said that after seeing a preview during this year's E3. When they did review it, they gave it three stars saying that the bad outweighs the good.Game Informer does not give stars, but scored it seven out of 10, and the quote on the site does not appear in the review. In fact, the review complained that most of the time, the player is left scratching his head.It seems that in an absence of good reviews, the good people at Eidos decided to make a few up and hope that the punters wouldn't check them out.
