Gerstmann-gate Update

I thought I'd ranted about this earlier, but I guess I found myself too apoplectic to type. Back in November Gamespot fired their editorial director, Jeff Gerstmann, under suspicious timing. Gerstmann had just written a negative review of Eidos' third person shooter "Kayne & Lynch: Dead Men," which Eidos was heavily advertising on Gamespot's site. Rumors quickly circulated that Eidos pulled their advertising and blackballed Gamespot in retribution for the negative review, prompting Gamespot to terminate Gerstmann in a panic so severe their own integrity sprinted away.

With Gerstmann himself saying little and Gamespot issuing bland denials and hoping the affair would go away, there's been little in the way of credible information, excepting what I read today, that is. Sam Kennedy, an editor at Gamespot competitor 1UP.com, has written a persuasive blog post detailing the managerial changes at Gamespot that lead two integrity-challenged marketing execs into the big chairs of Gamespot's editorial division. In addition, Kennedy mentioned a couple of supporting facts I hadn't heard, specifically that Gamespot reviewer Frank Provo and Gamespot Reviews Editor Alex Navarro both recently quit, the former stating in a farewell post, "I won't lie to people and tell them a game is good when it isn't. I won't downplay negatives that readers have a right to know about."