GameOver40.com

Gamespot.com used to be one of favorite sites to get gaming information, but over the last few days, they’ve seemed to self-destruct. 10 years ago, no one would have noticed the inner workings of a trade publication having internal problems, but with the advent of the Internet, a company shake up can greatly affect a company. Given the uproar on gaming forums all over the Internet, I think Gamespot has lost a lot of credibility in the last few days, regardless of the truth.

The first something seemed amiss was on Tuesday evening when I listened to Gamespot’s HotSpot Podcast which is always on my weekly rotation of podcasts. What seemed odd was the missing voice of Jeff Gerstmann who is a regular voice on the show, and with no one mentioning his absense, it seemed like something was up. A few days later, the Internet was buzzing with rumors of Jeff being fired and walked out of the office over his review of Kane and Lynch, a mediocre first person shooter that got a 6.0 from Gerstmann (NOTE: I have not played the game). His video review was removed from the site (see the youtube version here). Since then, hell has broken.

It’s hard to determine rumor from fact but there are a few things about which I feel strongly.

1. I’m really sad to see Gerstmann go. I’ve always enjoyed his reviews and his regular appearance on the Gamespot podcast.
2. It’s a complete PR disaster for Gamespot.com during the busy season for gamers and game buyers. Cooler heads would have waited until after Christmas to fire a person of Gerstmann’s tenure and stature, but given the rumors, it seems pretty clear that the break up did not go smoothly and there was no graceful transition out
3. While the Internet has a short attention span, it also hard to change a meme once it’s been cast and I think gamespot will sadly become one of those sites people associate with negative images. It’s hard to shake a negative image once it’s been cast.
4. If someone higher up the food chain doesn’t get fired over this, there really is something wrong with CNET, Gamespot.com’s parent company. While the truth may lie somewhere in the middle and perhaps Gerstmann was warned over and over again over some internal policy, there is no doubt that it was mishandled and cost Gamespot far more money then any kind of severance package that would have smoothed things over. I’d say by late January of next year, we’ll see some new manager to replace the guy who handled this as declining page views start being recorded.

It will be interesting to see how it all works out over the coming months. If I were a competing site, I’d be hiring Gerstmann in a heartbeat.

Tags: Business //