Well, things haven't developed much over the weekend. It seems no-one outside of the room that Jeff Gerstmann was allegedly sacked in knows what really happened. However, now that the excrement has hit the furiously spinning blades, no-one fancies taking responsibility either. CNET initially released a statement celebrating Gamespot's "unbiased reviews" but refusing to comment on the status of employees, sacked or otherwise. Later there was an addition in which a CNET spokesperson told Joystiq, "we do not terminate employees based on external pressure from advertisers." Nice use of the word 'terminate' there.
Meanwhile, an Eidos 'insider' was whipsering to gossip site VallyWag that the company was "freaking out" over the affair. Top management there, "sincerely believes they didn't prompt CNET to fire Gerstmann," claims the article. Well, that's the sort of thing you'd probably remember. Although, I can imagine them buzzing through to a PA: "Janice, last week, did I order CNET to sack a popular member of the Gamespot staff because their opinion of a game invoked our corporate wrath?... No? Okay, just checking".
Joystiq also talked to Gertsmann himself, who said he was shocked by what had happened, that he stood by his work, but that he wouldn't provide more details, "for legal reasons". Is that the galloping hooves of litigation I hear?
Finally, as one of our readers pointed out, VirtualFools has a list of blog comments from other Gamespot contributors, which are equally as obtuse and unrevealing as everything else in this sorry tale.
In the background, there are counter-theories forming. The fact that the review was updated to include missing details of the multiplayer elements of the game, plus the discovery that Gerstmann had only unlocked six achievements via his own gamertag has led some to suggest that he may have been removed for not playing the game enough. Another inside source made similar accusations. Gertsmann, of course, denies it all, claiming to have played the game to the end (which, given my knowledge of game reviewers, is the most shocking statement so far).
What on earth will happen next?
Update: I should have pointed out - as reader txsamurai does in the comments section - that games writers often carry out reviews on machines at work rather than at home. This possibly explains the lack of achievement points on Gerstmann's Xbox account. Coincidentally, this also explains why my Gamerscore is so embarrassingly low.
