The damage might have already been done. CNET’s public image has gone through some serious over the edge butt whacking in the last 24 hours and Gamespot is on everyone’s blotch list. An insider claimed that Jeff’s firing was a combination of a lot of factors, which I would agree on, if someone carefully notices two reviews on Gamespot, had also been under the scanner during that same period.
Sony’s very own Uncharted and Microsoft’s Mass Effect, both games scored in the 8-8.5 range on Gamespot, whereas equally big sites like IGN and 1UP gave greater scores than Gamespot (Mass Effect: 1UP – 9.0, IGN-9.4, Uncharted:1UP 8.5, IGN- 9.0). Metacritic which is also owned by CNET has a metascore of 92 for Mass Effect and 88 for Uncharted. It would be ridiculous to turn a blind eye to such factors which could have played a HUGE role in Jeff’s firing.
Kane and Lynch seems too low a deal for such a provocative action to be taken. The game was getting a mellow response from the community even before its launch, though Jeff did not review these 2 games personally, he would be the first in the line of fire, when big advertisers complained and cried.
Look at it this way:
A posh swanky big restaurant that has a brand value in the market, a high profiled regular customer/celebrity who might have financial interests in the hotel, complains that the food that has been served is absolutely horrible. Now even if the food that was being served might not have been prepared by the Head Chef, he is still the first one to get the boot, not the guy who made the dish. A clear-cut example of corporate cannibalism! Designations in any field of work are made with this regard, the one at the top of the ladder falls before their subordinates.
I read this really interesting story on VGM a couple of months ago. IGN had pre-decided the score on Prey because they wanted an exclusive review and Doug Perry had negotiated a deal with Marci Ditter [2K Games PR manager]. The score would range between 8-9, even before the reviewer had played the game but after David Gornoski protested and the deal was finally dropped, although the game scored a 9 on IGN. The article also says that 2K went shopping to 1UP for the same score but they had obviously refused.
Remember a game called Hyp 3…err…Halo 3 and 1UP’s exclusive in-depth features on the site as well as EGM’s coverage. Only a dummy out there will believe the fact that Microsoft did not provide significant monetary compensation for the wondrous service that they had rendered. Kane and Lynch was the tipping point of the iceberg. They needed to fire Jeff because that gave CNET a valid enough reason. He (Jeff) was diminishing the productive capacity of the organization, by lowering revenues.
The other companies might not have done that in a direct way because if such a thing did occur because of them their PR would have taken a severe beating, which would have led to other problems. Jeff’s bound to move on and hopefully should not mend his ways and remain upright but who knows, they (corporates) are as cruel as they come.