Sam Kennedy from 1UP.com has written a hugely detailed article examining the Gamespot Gerstmann ordeal.
He goes into all aspects of Gamespots business and point out some very interesting points that really do make Gamespot look bad. For example.
(On Gamespot employees) At worst, they worked for an organization that caved to advertiser pressure, at best, they worked for an organization that simply didn’t care for honest criticism anymore.
and on the separation between advertising and content?
So here you had Josh Larson — the man behind selling sponsorships of editorial — now placed directly in charge of the editorial itself. You tell me if you see any potential conflict of interest there.
If you are interested in the Gamespot debacle then follow the link and have a read. Be warned though you will need to get some coffee first, it is very long.
Sam Kennedy’s 1UP Blog: GameSpot’s Sad State of Affairs
Last Updated: January 22, 2008
NeoAtlas
January 22, 2008 at 09:55
Does this mean that game devs are going to have final say on what type of ranking their games should have? If their games get bad ratings are they[devs] going to pull their ads? This is load of bull. Most comsumers buy their games based on reviews. If reviews are biased it could game siter a bad reputation.