GameSpot ‘Mass Resignations’ Coming?

Kotaku is claiming to have spoken to a GameSpot employee and learned that the company may see “mass resignations” from the editorial staff over Jeff Gerstmann’s termination.

The confusion over the reasons for Gerstmann’s termination, compounded with a lack of transparency from management has created a feeling of “irreconcilable despair” that may eventually lead to an exodus of Gamespot editorial staffers. “Our credibility,” said the source, “is in ruins.” Over the course of the previous days, a “large number of Gamespot editors” have expressed their intentions to leave. Tales of emotionally deflated peers, with no will to remain at the site, were numerous.

Unless cooler heads prevail or concerns are addressed, Gamespot could see “mass resignations”, our source revealed.

Rank and file employees of the Gamespot organization are unaware of the real reasons behind Gerstmann’s termination. Our source admitted that Eidos was less than pleased with the review scores for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, but the team has “dealt with plenty of unhappy publishers before.” Our contact stressed that “Money has never played a role in reviews before” and that “[Gamespot] has never altered a score.” No pressure from management or sales has been exercised to remove or alter content, the source reiterated.

However, the source did speculate that disagreements between Gertsmann and VP of games Josh Larson may have been the root cause of the former being terminated. Larson, successor to former editor in chief Greg Kasavin, was described as out of touch with the employees who report to him. The VP is the one allegedly responsible for telling Gamespot editorial staff that it was Gerstmann’s “tone” that was at the heart of his dismissal.

“People used to think of Larson as a sort of non-intrusive cousin of Bill Lumberg from Office Space an empty suit who was more of an annoyance than a liability,” our source told us. “Now, people are referring to him as the moron lieutenant from Aliens who sits around stunned, doing nothing as everyone drops dead around him.”

They also claim that they have confirmation that the user “gamespot” that made various accusations a few days earlier was, in fact, a GameSpot employee.

Wow. It’s amazing how one (albeit major) incident could potentially cause the fall of one of the most popular websites on the internet.