GGL Wire

First, Eidos allegedly got GameSpot’s Editorial Director fired over a negative review. Now Microsoft is allegedly demanding that GamePartisan fire one of their writers, because he’s been having trouble with Microsoft’s customer service.

In brief, UK games writer Ben Paddon moved to the U.S., but Microsoft would not allow him to move his Xbox UK Live account, containing downloads that cost good money. Paddon’s attempts to address the problem got him lied to and hung up upon. Paddon shared his woes on the fora at Penny Arcade, and now Microsoft has asked GamePartisan to let him go in retaliation. Allegedly.

The full details are here and here.

I didn’t plan to write anything about the Jeff Gerstmann imbroglio. Games journalists writing about games journalists seems incestuous to me. But there is an important issue here — can games journalists be trusted to give information and opinions that gamers can trust?

Here is a timeline of the Reviewgate scandal:

November 13: Gamespot Editorial Director Jeff Gerstmann publishes a negative review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, giving the game 6 out of 10. An accompanying video review is also posted.

November 29: Gerstmann is fired. According to a rumor repeated on a number of gaming sites, Gerstmann is let go because Eidos is unhappy about his negative review of Kane & Lynch (the company paid a great deal of money to advertise the game on Gamespot). The text of the review is edited, although the 6/10 rating stands. The video is taken down. Continued…