Gamespot Controversy

Gamasutra has a nice editorial posted in regards to the gamespot scandal currently making waves in the game industry. The basic story is that gamespot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann was fired from his editorial position after posting a less than favorable review of Kane and Lynch, a game that was heavily advertised on the site. I think we are all aware that a good deal of reviewers have their own personal bias, but if gamespot is seen as in the pocket of game companies what does that say for heavyweights ign and 1up?

It's the same way with a lot of gamers, too -- they endlessly argue about scores, about Jeff's 8.8 for Zelda and about Fran from IGN's 7.9 for Mario Kart: Double Dash. And now that the Internet's largely shattered the notion that a professional game-media writer is somehow more qualified to bring judgement upon a new release than V3GETA80051 down at GameFAQs, the obsession with scores has become game media's undoing. Text, videos, podcasts, whatever -- nobody cares about any of it except that decimal number at the end of the review. And game writers' realization of this has made them lazy. (Full Article)