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Mass resignations immanent at Gamespot

Because of an air of confusion, fear and “irreconcilable despair,” Gamespot could soon be facing the resignation of a “large number” of editors, Kotaku is reporting, citing an anonymous source who works at Gamespot.

The source also confirmed that another anonymous poster, identifiying themselves on Valleywag only as “gamespot,” was right on with their assessment of the situation.

“[It] could have been written by a stenographer,” the source said.

Kotaku goes on to report that the other Gamespot staffers don’t know why Jeff Gerstmann was fired, adding that “Money has never played a role in reviews before” and “Gamespot has never altered a score.”

The source speculated that friction between Gerstmann and Vice President of games Josh Larsen could have been the root of Gerstmann’s firing.

The source also indicated that Larson’s paraphrased assertion that “AAA titles deserve more attention” was not necessarily a hint that Gamespot’s reviewers be more lenient to those titles. Instead, in light of some rather controversial review scores—for example, the 7.5 for Insomniac Games’ Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction—the editorial team needed to be more conscious of accuracy and impact of its scores.

Reports that Gerstmann’s review quality had been slipping are anecdotaly corroborated by the source.

As for the now-pulled video of review, it appears the reasons for it’s removal are less nefarious than assumed. “Jeff showed up late. It was thrown together quickly, the sound sucked, there was only footage from the first level of the game—it was a mess,” our source said. We were told that the redacting of the clip was based on a producer’s decision and not a demand from upper management.

The source also said the brand has been irrevocably tarnished, and the staff are in near mutiny. The controversy is a “cataclysmic event in Gamespot history.”

It appears as though my predictions of the ruining of Gamespot’s reputation and the eventual downfall of Gamespot if they didn’t reverse course quickly are becoming a reality.

Gamespot has been a video game fixture on the internet for years, and I would hope that their previous reputation as a really pretty hard reviewer would stick with them when the going got tough. It appears they’re learning the hard way that, while it takes years to build a good reputation, it only takes minutes to get a bad reputation.

Gamespot, CNet, someone needs to act fast to save their credibility, not to mention reverse the feeling of despair among the staffers, or there won’t be a Gamespot much longer.

Kane And Lynch Web Site Doctors Review Scores

CNet has officially said that the firing last week of GameSpot executive editor Jeff Gerstmann was not the result of editorial pressure from outside advertisers. It does look like the game could is fact be part of Gerstmann’s dismissal.

The Kane and Lynch: Dead Men web site may be doctoring review scores and placing the doctored scores on the official game web site. Kotaku  has pointed out that two of the review scores from Game Informer and GameSpy don’t match up. Both have five stars as the review score but GameSpy’s actual review only has three stars and GameInformer doesn’t use stars but a 10 based number system and it only gave the game 7 out of 10.

It looks to me that there is more to the story than Edios or CNet want to admit.

ESA hires former MPAA exec

The Entertainment Software Association has hired former Motion Picture Association of America senior vice president Rick Taylor, Gamespot is reporting. Taylor’s new job as senior vice president for communications and research will be similar to his old job, in which he headed the communications department, overseeing press relations and serving as a senior strategist.

“The ESA and MPAA share many of the same goals, such as promoting intellectual property rights and reducing piracy across the world,” said MPAA CEO Dan Glickman. “Rich will hit the ground running in his new position, and his insight and creativity will be valuable to ESA, just as it was for the MPAA.”

Let’s just hope the ESA doesn’t start going so far in the same direction as the MPAA and RIAA have in regards to pursuing copyright violaters.

Gamespot, advertising-supported media, and the rage of the internet

In case you haven’t heard, the word on the street is that Jeff Gerstmann, long time reviewer and current editorial director for Gamespot, has been fired for giving Kane and Lynch a mediocre, though very negatively worded, score. According to the rumor mill, Eidos got pissed and threatened to withdraw the huge amount of advertising they were doing with Gamespot.

According to a statement from CNET, the only official statement I’ve been able to find, “GameSpot takes its editorial integrity extremely seriously. For over a decade, Gamespot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis.”

“It is CNET Networks’ policy not to comment on the status of its employees, current of former,” the statement said.

I can’t bring myself to really believe Gamespot would do something this stupid until it has been confirmed by someone, but if it’s true, this makes me at once very angry, very sad and very afraid. Very afraid for my future in business, very sad that it’s still the bottom line that media companies care about and very angry at what would be an unjust firing.

Gerstmann certainly would not be the first journalist fired for not appeasing the advertisers, and he definitely won’t be the last. This past May, Harry McCracken, editor in chief of PC World, quit for a few days over the chief executive’s refusal to publish an article, “10 Things We Hate About Apple.” McCracken didn’t come back until the article was posted on the magazine’s website. Pulitzer Prize winning automotive writer for the Los Angeles Times Dan Neil provoked the ire of GM, who removed their advertising from the newspaper. At a smaller publication this could have gotten Neil fired.

This kind of back and forth between an outlet’s integrity and keeping advertisers has been a part of the journalistic world since the very first advertisement in media. The scariest part is the subtle effect this could have if it’s true. While the temporary outrage (and you can be sure, the anger will fade) will make journalists even more independent-minded, the long term effect could be a reluctance on the part of journalists to put the truth out there, whether because they fear for their jobs if the advertisers threaten to pull their ads or not getting published because the editors don’t want to risk it. The fall out of this firing could be chilling, if the rumors are true.

Of course, whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter on the internet. What matters is the perception of the internet at large, and their perception is clearly that this firing was in response to the Kane and Lynch review. The most noticeable effect of this rage is the Kane and Lynch user reviews at Gamespot, which has become about 70 percent 1-out-of-10s. The reviews no longer argue the merits of the game but declare Gamespot is no longer credible.

“Hell hath no fury like gamers scorned,” said one user.

“Down with CNET,” another user, who signed his review with Anonymous, said (I’ll spare you the all caps). “The game that ruined Gamespot.”

It’s ironic, but the person who will benefit most from this is Gerstmann. With one review he has become a hero of the internet, and the positive PR any website or magazine that snaps him up gets will be huge, not to mention his quality as a long-time video game journalist. On the internet, positive feelings tend to not be as strong as rage on the internet, but I have no doubt the effects will be well worth it.

The ultimate loser here is going to be Gamespot. Regardless of whether they actually fired him for the review or not, the damage to their reputation has been done, and every review on the site must now come into question. A huge site like Gamespot can take the hit to their userbase, but if they don’t act soon to mitigate the damage, either by taking Gerstmann back (if he will go at all), refusing to take advertising from Eidos or, with Gerstmann’s consent, saying exactly why he was fired, it may indeed be the game that ruined Gamespot.

UPDATE: Saw this over on Valleywag via Kotaku:

When companies make games as downright contemptible as Kane and Lynch, they deserve to be called on it. I guess you’ll have to go to Onion or a smaller site for objective reviews now, because everyone at GS now thinks that if they give a low score to a high-profile game, they’ll be shitcanned. Everyone’s fucking scared and we’re all hoping to get Josh Larson removed from his position because no one trusts him anymore.

Still anonymous source, but still…

Stranglehold’s PR Bandwagon, Will Any Body Care?

With more than A few Good games coming out around the same time *Cough* Halo 3 will anybody even have the cash remaining for this game?

Midway, today announced it’s multi-million dollar, global marketing campaign for the highly anticipated and award-winning , expected to release in North America for the Xbox 360 on September 5. The PC and PlayStation 3 versions will follow on September 18 and September 25, respectively. Stranglehold’s marketing campaign, Midway’s most robust campaign ever, is anchored by the pioneering integrated Fox Interactive Media campaign which includes the True to John Woo Short Film Contest, and the special, limited collector’s edition on the PlayStation 3 that features the game and a full-length version of John Woo’s critically acclaimed action film “Hard Boiled” together on the same high-capacity PlayStation 3 Blu-Ray disc. The expansive TV advertising campaign kicked off last week with a sneak peak at Stranglehold and the debut of the winning short film of the True to John Woo Short Film Contest, during the Saturdasian Invasion Film Marathon, on Spike TV.

“Our strategic and unparalleled marketing campaign for Stranglehold has produced immense awareness among consumers,” said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. “We’ve reached outside the typical marketing campaign and tapped into new avenues to reach the mass consumer.”

The Stranglehold marketing campaign will cover all pertinent mediums worldwide and include:

• National television advertising campaign on multiple mainstream broadcast and cable networks such as Spike TV, ESPN, MTV, USA Networks, Comedy Central, and Cartoon Network.
• Outdoor advertising such as billboards, bus shelters, trolley cars and wallscapes in top markets including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles
• Sponsorship of Spike TV’s Saturdasian Invasion Film Marathon on August 18 beginning at 2pm ET.
• Aggressive online campaign to top-tier enthusiast and mainstream consumer sites including MySpace, IGN, Team Xbox, IMDB, GameSpot, GamesRadar, and Rotten Tomatoes.
• Demo on Xbox LIVE! Marketplace, PlayStation Store and PC
• National pre-sell programs at select retailers, where gamers can pre-order Stranglehold and receive Stranglehold branded items such as a shot glass, Xbox faceplate skin, and a special edition John Woo comic book.
• Dedicated web presence at http://www.strangleholdgame.com, http://strangleholdcentral.ign.com/, and http://www.myspace.com/strangleholdgame
• Special, limited edition PlayStation 3 collector’s edition featuring the game and a full-length version of John Woo’s critically acclaimed action film “Hard Boiled” together on the same high-capacity PlayStation 3 Blu-Ray disc. While supplies last.
• Special, limited edition Xbox 360 collector’s edition featuring a behind-the-scenes documentary, extended in-game cinematics with commentary, a sound design featurette, and a look at the visual style of Stranglehold. While supplies last.
• Various video vignettes and trailers on enthusiast Web sites highlighting various game modes
• Press events where enthusiast and mainstream, print and online, media can play pre-release versions of Stranglehold
• Stranglehold’s True to John Woo Short Film Contest which received over 300 entries
• Various sweepstakes with different partners including; PLAY! Magazine, GamesRadar.com and IGN.com
• Cross promotion with Genius Products in conjunction with their Dragon Dynasty DVD collection, including the recent release of “Hard Boiled”
• Sponsorships of major U.S. Asian film festivals in Los Angeles and New York