Critic / Co-founder · GameSpot / Giant Bomb · 1996–present · American
Jeff Gerstmann's 2007 dismissal from GameSpot following an alleged advertiser-pressure controversy became the defining moment in games journalism ethics discourse, leading him to co-found Giant Bomb.
Jeff Gerstmann joined GameSpot in 1996 and became one of the site's most prominent reviewers through the late 1990s and 2000s, known for blunt, consumer-first criticism that rarely aligned with publisher expectations. In November 2007, he was dismissed shortly after posting a negative video review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, a game whose publisher Eidos had paid heavily for advertising across GameSpot's pages. CNET, GameSpot's parent company, denied a connection but Gerstmann later confirmed the review was the cause. The "Gerstmann-gate" affair crystallised concerns about advertiser influence on games journalism and accelerated reader migration toward independent criticism. Gerstmann co-founded Giant Bomb in 2008 with other departed GameSpot editors, building an outlet explicitly structured to separate editorial from advertising, and the site's subscriber-funded model influenced the direction of games media throughout the 2010s.