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Originally Posted by Cayal  It may not be something as simple as a negative review being complained about by a publisher. There could have been a deal made, money transferred. Cut throat world of business you have to get a leg up. Maybe Gerstmann went against a deal and in turn was sacked for it. |
Now that is just seriously wild speculation with no basis in fact. There is always a church and state seperation between the editorial policies of reviewing and the business of advertising. Does this cause friction, without a doubt, has it ever been breached in the past, probably at some websites/magazines.
However there is very little evidence to say that it was in this case. Gamespot has always been harsh in all its reviews.
There is a symbiotic relationship between publishers and reviewers. Website obviously need ad revenue and publisher want to sell games so want decent scores, but if a websites integrity was compromised then members would leave in droves therefore ad revenue would drop drastically and affect sales of the game. It's not it publishers long term interests to interfere too much. From what I hear these days they are more interested in the average Metacritic type scores and only take issue with ones that are wildly different from the general concensous and could be seen as unfair or have factual errors.
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I don't think such an exodus of employees leaving so soon after he was fired was coincidence.
Was Giant Bomb created before they left but after Gerstmann's dismissal or after they all left?
It's interesting stuff.
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If you want a conspiracy theory then...
Maybe they all concocted a way to get out of their Gamespot contracts, devalue the reputation of the website and set up their own website.
Worked quite nicely.
However, I prefer to follow Occam's Razor "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best". So Jeff was fired for being a constant arse and his friends left to either join him or coincidently found better jobs.