IO: Gerstmann-gate got 'out of hand'

Some two years after the infamous dismissal of GameSpot editorial director Jeff Gerstmann, rumoured to be a result of external pressure from Eidos over their disappointment in his review of IO Interactive's Kane & Lynch, VideoGamer.com caught up with IO's Carsten Lund and Hakan Abrak to find out if time has healed painful memories.

[TOO PAWNED]

"Let's face it, we had some problems with the mechanics, right? I mean, that's the honest truth. We spent a lot of time trying to fix it this time around." - you weren't honest back then. Funny how developers become "honest" once game has been out for some time

[WildArmed]

lol they acknowledge it now, so the people will actually buy the sequel.. so basically they are saying 'it's going to be ALOT BETTER now since we got all the issues ironed out'

But i think I may skip this one, just like the first.

[Blaze929]

so he got fired for nothing huh....that's what happens when you mix business (CNET & Eidos) with opinions (Jeff).

[Rampaged Death]

He got fired for telling the truth. And that was because Kayne and Lynch sucked.

[ThanatosDMC]

It really does suck and Jeff's review was very accurate at how he described the gameplay. It was trash. I'm not purchasing the sequel but im curious about the movie. Is the movie still coming out?

[FamilyGuy]

And i don't see anyone getting fired over the poor reviews Tony Hawks's Ride has been receiving.

[RememberThe357]

FTW!

*Off to watch a Quick Look*

[mrv321]

I'm off to set my phasers to gun.

[gameangel]

...Wish people would stop using the word 'gate' as a suffix to mean scandal.

Such a cliche.

[NYC_Gamer]

Lols...can anyone find that video review?

[Karsghul]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[NYC_Gamer]

Thanx

[JonnyBigBoss]

Gerstmann being fired turned out to be a good thing. Giantbomb is one of my favorite sites now.

[bjornbear]

on Kane and Lynch 2 xD

[qwertyuiopasdfghjkl]

Another developer criticizing the community for jumping on the hate band wagon.

Dude, if the majority thinks your game sucks, your game sucks. I'm getting tired of developers blaming the hate on people that supposedly made their decision before-hand.

Gerstmann was doing an honest video review, but because Gamespots site was pretty much RUNNING on Kane and Lynch ads, he was being pressured to post a better review.

IO saying they were just bystanders watching a trainwreck is completely false. They know how the review system works, a few paid for ads under the table outweigh real development time. They could have spent more making it better, and risk not selling. Or spend less on an ad-space and market the game at the same time.

WTF is with developers lately? So arrogant and sneaky, doing anything to get some saucers sold.

[Elven6]

Did you even bother reading the article?

[CAPT IRISH]

this is n4g, who reads the articles?

[qwertyuiopasdfghjkl]

Elven6 wtf of course I did? The big question is DID YOU!

"It's been really weird for us, because for us we've been bystanders on the sideline looking at all this controversy happening," said Abrak.

"You maybe even could say some of the criticism was given by people that haven't played the game but jumped on the carousel with the whole thing."

Next time don't slam someone for not reading the article.

[evrfighter]

looks like elven didn't read the article lol

[Elven6]

You should have kept reading,

"You maybe even could say some of the criticism was given by people that haven't played the game but jumped on the carousel with the whole thing. You can't do anything about that, so we just tried to listen to constructive critique. Let's face it, we had some problems with the mechanics, right? I mean, that's the honest truth. We spent a lot of time trying to fix it this time around."

What he is basically saying is some people after hearing of the controversy automatically bad mouthed the game. They looked past that and looked towards the honest criticizers and claim to have fixed what they complained about. They even admit the game had issues that they hoped to have pegged the second time around.

[madjedi]

@7.2 i read the article and i agree with silent, people weren't hating the game, just to jump on the bandwagon, i played the demo, the hit detection was almost as bad soldier of fortune painkiller, the game just plain bad, i know alot of people that agree.

[SARGEHALO666]

I used to go to that website every single day back in 2006 and 2007. I mean EVERY SINGLE DAY. But the day that Gerstmann got fired, that was the day I stopped going to that site.

GiantBomb FTW also!

[Enigma_2099]

... Tiger Woods admitting that he has problems with infidelity...

[Jackel2072]

Regardless of what happen. i think Jeff Gerstmann getting fired was for the best. Giantbomb is an awesome website!

[SephireX]

I like IO Interactive because of the Hitman series. They're a great team for coming up with original ideas for games. However, they're not the best at actually refining gameplay and that's where Hitman suffered over the years. I've never played Kane and Lynch but I'm not surprised it got the reviews it did. It is disgraceful that a guy was fired for giving an honest opinion, especially when his review wasn't skewed from the average. Let's hope IO have learned their lesson and Kane and Lynch 2 turns out to be a decent game. Though I wouldn't bank on it.

[Dsnyder]

Gamespot was out of control back then. Before Kane and lynch they Rachet ToD a 7.5 out of 10 for "having too much variety". Something had to be done so they got rid of thier fanboy editor. I remember back in 2007 everyone but 360 fanboys hated Gamespot but now they are a great and reliable website that I can trust for an option on new games.

[slave2Dcontroller]

GIANTBOMB FTW BIYATCH!

[mcgrawgamer]

with all due respect it probably was out of their hands as devs, but the problem was Eidos' PR department which put pressuer on gamestop to axe Gerstmann. In the end though it opened up video game journalism for what it is. News that is primarily based on Ad revenue and the free swag companies send the VG journalist not for how good a game actually is.