Way back when I worked at Gamestop, I noticed that a lot of the new games coming out came with this extra junk that came bundled with the game as an incentive for reserving it. It would range from free in-game items or weapons to a Call of Duty dog tag.

Sometimes it seems like a wasted effort. If you reserved a copy of Harvest Moon for Gamecube, for example, you got a free stuffed cow. That’s cute but the only people who are going to reserve that game are people who wanted to buy that game in the first place. It’s doubtful some newcomer is going to walk into the store and think, “Well, I had absolutely no interest in this game but a free cow? How can I pass it up?!..”

Do game ratings even matter if kids can get their paws on M-rated games either way? That’s what Cnet writer Don Reisinger contemplates in a recent editorial, and he concludes that the answer is a big fat “No.” Citing a recent survey that found that 17 percent of Grand Theft Auto IV buyers were under more »

CNET’s Don Reisinger is sick of the me-too mentality in our industry. In a post titled “Why I’m boycotting first-person shooters,” Reisinger lays out his annoyance with the “suits” running development studios and the Hollywood mentality dominating the once-creative and quirky world of videogames. is plan of action: boycott FPS titles, since he sees them as the most offensive…

And the corporate consolidation of media continues – Kotaku is reporting on CBS’ acquisition of CNET networks cache of sites, including gamespot. Apparently, CNET’s board of directors unanimously agreed to the merger, and the transition is slated to occur by the third quarter of this year. From the post: “Upon closing, CNET Networks’ sites will more »

On Thursday (January 31, 2008), Gamespot anointed Ricardo Torres as its newest Editor-in-Chief, a position that hasn’t been filled since previous EIC Greg Kasavin left to work at Electronic Arts in January 2007. Upon taking the job, Torres told GameDaily, in an interview, that he wants to win back the readers who were disgusted with the site after December 2007′s infamous ousting of its Editorial Director, Jeff Gerstmann. Rumors perpetuated that Gerstmann was allegedly fired for giving a negative review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men and drawing the ire of advertiser Eidos and CNet’s management, although CNet contends it was due to unrelated “internal reasons.”

Unfortunately for Torres, his plea doesn’t pack the…

Accusations that one gaming publication or another has been paid off by a developer or publisher have existed for as long as the gaming media itself.  Recently, though, it looks to be a truthful statement at CNET-owned Gamespot. Editorial Director Jeff Gerstmann, who has been with the site for roughly a decade, was recently fired more »