E,G, K&L, and IM (Update)
From Valleywag (thanks Kotaku), a link to comments from someone who claims they work for Gamespot, and their comments are specific enough to seem credible. Here are a few excerpts:We're very clear in our review policies that all reviews are vetted by the entire team before they go live - everything that goes up is the product of an entire team's output...If there was a problem with his reviews, then it would've been a problem with the entire team. Firing him without telling anyone implies that anyone else on this team can be fired at the drop of a hat as well, because none of us are writing any differently or meaner or less professionally than we were two years ago before the management changed.
...Over the last year there has been an increasing amount of pressure to allow the advertising teams to have more of a say in the editorial process; we've started having to give our sales team heads-ups when a game is getting a low score, for instance, so that they can let the advertisers know that before a review goes up. Other publishers have started giving us notes involving when our reviews can go up; if a game's getting a 9 or above, it can go up early; if not, it'll have to wait until after the game is on the shelves.
If this is true, and again, it seems extremely specific for someone to just be making it up, then Gerstmann's firing was complete bullshit. If the entire team vets all reviews, then there's no such thing as a "one writer" problem. In fact, that kind of policy is put in place exactly to prevent someone from becoming a loose cannon.
At this point, it looks like Penny Arcade was dead-on with their strip, and Gamespot is a laughingstock. Well, a laughingstock in a sleazy kind of way.
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