http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png http://kotaku.com/tag/cnet http://kotaku.com/tag/cnet Don Coyner, who has been leading the design experience group for Xbox since the console's launch, has been replaced at Microsoft, Cnet reports. Coyner, who has been working with the Xbox since the console's inception, was replaced by Emma Williams, according to Cnet sources. Williams was in charge of the redesign of the Live interface that just hit. More »
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CBS is bringing the ax down on CNET, the media company it purchased in May of this year for $1.8 billion. That means merging newsrooms and lay-offs at entertainment sites like TV.com, MP3.com and Gamespot. More »
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CBS Corporation just announced an agreement to buy CNET for $1.8 billion dollars. Through the deal, all of CNET's network sites, including GameSpot, TV.com mp3.com, CNET news.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic all become property of CBS. More »
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When long-time GameSpot reviewer and editorial director Jeff Gerstmann was let go from the site last November—with sources pointing to his review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men as the catalyst for his termination—fingers were also pointed at executive Josh Larson, VP of games at parent company CNET. Larson, who replaced former Editor in Chief Greg Kasavin, was implicated by anonymous GameSpot employees to have had the "church-and-state separation between the sales teams and the editorial team" "cracked" under his tenure. Whether the VP, Jeff's supervisor at the time, was the key decision maker in letting Gerstmann go we can't confirm, but we can confirm that Larson will be leaving the company next week. More »
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In the wake of GameSpot's fairly publicized shake-up in their reviews department, the Cnet owned company is on the prowl for a number of new reviewers. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=363532&view=rss&microfeed=true Another GameSpot Reviewer Leaves The CNet Mothership The GameSpot review pool has just become a bit shallower, as Jason Ocampo has announced that he too will be leaving the site for an unspecified "opportunity." Ocampo broke the news in the latest edition of The Hotspot podcast, adding his name to the list of recently and dearly departed GameSpot review staff. Godspeed, Jason and thanks for the quick tip, Daniel. More »
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Ryan Davis, an associate editor, experienced reviewer and nearly 8-year GameSpot veteran, has become the latest to quit in the wake of former editorial director Jeff Gerstmann's termination. GameDaily.biz reports today that it has confirmed with new GameSpot editor in chief Ricardo Torres that Davis will follow Frank Provo and Alex Navarro as the latest casualty to the site's editorial staff. News of the most recent resignation comes two months to the day that we warned of a mass walkout at the CNet Networks owned site. More »
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CNet Networks announced today that GameSpot veteran Ricardo Torres has been named the new Editor In Chief of the online publication, replacing former site lead Greg Kasavin in the role. The site had been without an official EIC since Kasavin's departure in January of last year to work at Electronic Arts. Torres, who shared editorial director duties with former GameSpotter Jeff Gerstmann, has been with the site since 2001 and has been focused on previews and worldwide event coverage. More »
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CNET just published a story by Don Reisinger claiming that the Super Nintendo was the greatest console of all time. He argues that the console was the ultimate successor, "a follow-up that was worthy of the 'Super' moniker and gave developers the license they needed to create the legendary titles that we still play today." Personally, I'd agree with his casually argued logic—there's a reason I'm anxious to port Super Mario World to every device on the planet but bored by the thought of playing PSOne games on the PSP. Of course, this is all just one man's opinion and many of you won't agree. So go ahead and vote below before elaborating in the comments. More »
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The New York Times is reporting that a consortium of "prominent investment funds" have managed to grab up 21 percent of CNet and are now working to kick out the company's directors and take over the majority of the company's board. More »
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After the termination of established GameSpot reviewer and editorial director Jeff Gerstmann, we heard from employees of the site who spoke of the threat of "mass resignations." Today it would seem we have at least one confirmed casualty from the CNet/Gerstmann fallout, longtime freelance reviewer Frank Provo. The reviewer, with over seven years worth of contributions to GameSpot and some 751 reviews, confirmed on his work blog today that he was no longer writing for the site. "I believe CNet management let Jeff go for all the wrong reasons," wrote the reviewer "I believe CNet intends to soften the site's tone and push for higher scores to make advertisers happy." More »
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Still having trouble making sense of this whole Eidos-CNet-Gamespot clusterfuck? Newsweek's N'Gai Croal does a nice job of summing up what it all means. N'Gai writes: More »
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The entire GameSpot craziness that we've seen for the last week or so is bad news for the site. But the repercussions could be just as bad for GameSpot's equally trafficking though possibly more famous/influential tech-reviewing parent site, CNET. More »
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Speaking with a Gamespot employee yesterday who asked not to be named for this story, we've learned that, despite the neutral nature of the Gamespot news item on the matter, the editorial staff is said to be "devastated, gutted and demoralized" over the removal of former editorial director Jeff Gerstmann. While the termination of Gerstmann, a respected fixture at Gamespot, was pitched to his remaining colleagues by management as a "mutual decision", it was anything but, we're told. More »
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Following last Thursday's revelation that 11-year Gamespot veteran Jeff Gerstmann had been let go from parent company CNet, amid rumors that the "tone" in his review for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was responsible, the outlet finally issues a statement. While the staff at Gamespot declined to comment on the grounds for the termination, citing company policy, it writes that "contrary to widespread and unproven reports, his exit was not a result of pressure from an advertiser." More »
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We contacted CNet Networks last night to try to get confirmation about the rumored dismissal of Jeff Gerstmann, former editorial director and veteran reviewer at Gamespot. While Leslie Van Every, Director of Public Relations, did confirm that Gerstmann was no longer with the organization, she declined to comment on "the status of employees current [or] former", citing CNet Networks' policy. The official statement from Gamespot is after the break. More »
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While Ash is our resident jubblies expert in his Kotaku After Dark segments, we felt it our duty to report that CNET Networks (whom some of you may know better as the parent company of GameSpot) is taking on magazine veteran Stephen Colvin as Executive Vice President of their Entertainment & Lifestyle division. Colvin was formerly at Dennis Publishing where he was behind projects like Maxim, Blender and Stuff. We can only hope that the completely obvious is going to happen, and that the charming, but not so bikinilicious staff at GameSpot will be replaced with coked-out models wearing dental floss modified to resemble soccer jerseys. Hit the jump for a piece of the in-house memo on the topic. More »
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Cnet's News.com is hosting a gallery of what they consider to be some of the greatest arcade games of the eighties. Pretty much everything you imagine would be on there is present including all the old standards like Frogger, Super Mario Bros., Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Pole Position and Space Invaders. There are twelve picks in all including short blurbs about each game 9mostly culled from klov.com). Not really a whole lot of new information here, but it's a nice little gallery and they even have a section where you can vote for your favorites. More »
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For a tech news site, this seems a little late in coming, but Cnet.com is currently hosting a gallery of celebrity Mii images culled from around the web. Some of these I had seen before, but others were new to me and the majority of them are dead on. Some celebrities of note include Chuck Norris, Laurel & Hardy, Jack Black, Peter Jackson and Woody Allen. Also featured is Dave Curry's prize winning Zach Braff Mii (pictured) which took the grand prize in Kottke.org's Celebrity Mii contest. Curry was awarded with a little statue of his winning Mii which is also featured in the gallery. More »
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CNet has an interesting story up about the difficulty in striking a fair balance between banning too many people and not banning enough in a massively multiplayer online game. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=246623&view=rss&microfeed=true Microsoft is sending some corporate Xbox 360 evangelists on the road, ready to do a side-by-side comparison throwdown with Sony's PS3. The company sent two 360 shills to CNET to show just how well a $400 Xbox 360 and a $200 HD-DVD player stacks up to Sony's $600 PlayStation 3. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=221044&view=rss&microfeed=true Cnet's Rich Brown tracked Falcon Northwest CEO Kelt Reeves down during his Hawaiian vacation to ask him a few questions about the recent buy-out of Voodoo PC and not so recent buy-out of Alienware. More »
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I tend to dislike words that end with a squealing double e phoneme: I will take pains, for example, to avoid words like 'penny' or 'scrunchee', instead referring to them as 'one cent pieces' and 'that elastic sphincter trailer park tramps put in their hair', respectively. So it's surprising to me now that I can say 'Nintendo Wii' without finding myself giving an inadvertent, full body squirm. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=187005&view=rss&microfeed=true CNET's John Borland has written a fascinating piece that examines the cause behind the spectacular failure of Sony's Connect digital music project. The story doesn't really touch on the Playstation Portable directly, but it's not much of a stretch to say that the failure of Connect has had a significant impact on Sony's support of the PSP as a multimedia device. More »
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Daniel Terdiman does a excellent job of covering the unusual world of "age play" in Second Life for Cnet. Age Play is when adults pretend to be children pretending to have sex. While the act is very much a small, tiny, miniscule fraction of what goes on in the game, it's still worth covering. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=167213&view=rss&microfeed=true We were shocked to learn that despite the skeleton, nay, the flaming skeleton that adorns the case of Dell's XPS 600 Renegade, it wasn't the paint job that caused the custom gaming rig to sell out in less than a week. More »
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