Giant GameSpot? GameSpot Bomb?
In a very strange bit of news, Giant Bomb has announced that they'll be working under GameSpot. If you're not sure why this is weird, then I'll provide a little synopsis. Or, I'll just quote this chunk of text from Neoseeker:
"The largest reason this news comes as a surprise is Gerstmann's dramatic history with Gamespot. Gerstmann was fired from the site in late 2007. It was rumored that Eidos Interactive pressured GameSpot to remove him after he gave Kane & Lynch: Dead Men a "Fair" rating, a game which Eidos had heavily advertised on the site. It was this termination that led to a number of GameSpot staff leaving to start Giant Bomb." - March 15, 2012
A more beautiful summation than I could have come up with, truly.
Gerstmann was a journalist at GameSpot, as you can see, and after he was fired he formed Giant Bomb. The site has enjoyed popularity over the past four to five years, and many loyal fans of his work were outraged by his extermination. Giant Bomb has been known for its comedy and ridiculosity (a word that isn't a word, but really should be a word. I may submit it to the dictionary Lords at the end of the year).
The announcement has been met by cries of outrage from readers of Giant Bomb, and some commenters have even speculated that the whole situation has been a five year long publicity stunt.
Nabbed from the Neoseeker article.
A five year stunt seems excessive to me; I mean, that would take a whole lot of forethought. Of course, Radiohead did it, so I suppose anything is possible.
Gerstmann states that the decision made sense for the website and the financial backing will allow the team to go even farther with their crazy, fun antics. I can see validity in this. However! He was fired under completely BS pretenses, and I find it difficult to believe that anyone would want to go back to a company who would do that sort of thing.
But! It has been five years, so maybe he's over it and only cares about better things for his own reviewing empire.
Could it all have been a stunt though?
Sorry. I'm going back and forth. This is what it's like in my mind all the time. Exhausting.
What do you think? Publicity stunt? Or a mature guy letting go of the past and doing what's best for his company?
I still can't come to a decision. I'll decide someday. Maybe.
-MJ
3 comments:
I read somewhere on GiantBomb that the people responsible for Gerstmann being fired are no longer there. I'm sure that's a HUGE factor in his, and the team's, decision to essentially go back under the Gamespot umbrella. They put forth the belief that they'll continue to be their own site. Completely. Just with Gamespot money backing them. I guess, truly, only time will tell.
My thing is, they are under CBS interactive, not GameSpot. Also Like was said previously, the people who made that decision are no longer there. GiantBomb posted a video today, it was live streamed yesterday, with Jeff sitting down and talking with John Davison from Gamespot about the whole being fired thing. Everyone seems to be on pretty good terms. As Jeff said in their announcement video, if they didn't think this was going to be great, they wouldn't have done it.
I did see that they say the people responsible for his firing are no longer there (that's the link that says 'gamasutra's article says that GameSpot isn't like that anymore'). Hopefully things go well for them!
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