I’m sure anyone who would read this site has been following this story somewhat. These are the facts as I know them. On Thursday afternoon, word started to spread that Gamespot had fired their Editorial Director, Jeff Gerstmann. Gerstmann has become infamous in some circles as the editor that had the “audacity” to give Twilight Princess an 8.8 last fall, and he is often the target of overzealous fanboys who are infuriated by his lowering of a Metacritic average. However, in my opinion, Gerstmann was the bedrock for Gamespot’s credibility. The willingness of an editor to be honest amidst the possibility of enormous backlash speaks to my smart-assed, cynical self, and Nintendo franchises are often the great sacred cows of gaming. Also, I didn’t like the small bit of Twilight Princess I played, so maybe I can sympathize.
While there are several less popular theories, 1UP has confirmed through their own sources that Gerstmann was fired because of his negative review of Kane and Lynch, which coincided with an enormous ad push on the part of Eidos for the title. Other sites have more detailed rundowns, but the gist of the situation from a few different sources seems to be this: Stephen Colvin, the former president and CEO of Dennis Publishing of Maxim and Stuff, took over as C|Net’s executive vice president in late October. Combined with Sony’s anger over a lower than expected review for Ratchet and Clank, the negative editorial reaction to a cash cow that may have been somewhere in the six figure range from Eidos appears to have been the breaking point.