Hands-on staff reviews on a transparent 10-point scale, but it's an ad- and affiliate-funded outlet, and its independence was famously tested by the 2007 Gerstmann firing, which Gerstmann later said stemmed from advertiser pressure.
What it's really for A video-game outlet; staff reviews monetized by ads and affiliate buy links.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its hands-on game reviews scored on 10, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Game publishers and advertisers fund the site most through advertising, and GameSpot also earns affiliate commissions on game purchases, but those payments buy ads and links, not review scores or ranking placement.
Source →- Operating since
- 1996 (30 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It makes money from advertising and from affiliate commissions when readers buy games through its links; it does not charge the publishers it reviews for scores.
- What they do
- GameSpot publishes first-hand, hands-on reviews of video games (plus film and TV) written by staff critics and scored on a 10-point scale after internal peer review.
- What to watch for
- Scores are individual critics' opinions rather than reproducible test measurements, and the site earns affiliate revenue on the same games it reviews, so by its own disclosure commercial and editorial interests sit close together.
- Composite score
- 3.30 / 5.00 → grade B
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- GameSpot uses a 10-point scale with no half-point increments, encourages writers to write first and decide the score afterward, and has its editorial team peer-review each other's work to ensure the text backs up the score; it also discloses it 'may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships' and from purchases through its links. Source: About GameSpot Reviews (review guidelines) →
- GameSpot was launched May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein, passed through CNET, CBS Interactive and Red Ventures, and has been owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022; it provides news, reviews, previews and guides for video games and entertainment. Source: GameSpot — Wikipedia →
- Editorial director Jeff Gerstmann was fired in November 2007 after a critical Kane & Lynch review; he later confirmed in a 2012 interview that management gave in to publisher/advertiser pressure, citing the marketing department's mishandling of threats to withdraw advertising over low review scores. Source: Jeff Gerstmann — Wikipedia →