14 DAY TRIAL // First, after the rumors regarding Jeff Gerstmann's removal from the editor position he had at Gamespot for 11 years, CNet has issued a short official comment: "GameSpot takes its editorial integrity extremely seriously. For over a decade, Gamespot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis."
Ever since, they kept repeating that it's the company's policy not to comment about the status of CNet employees, current or former. That seemed to be changed a little, when Sarah Cain, CNet spokesperson, declared for the Joystiq reporters that "we do not terminate employees based on external pressure from advertisers". However, she did not give any response when asked if Eidos tried to pressure the company.
Also, when Sarah Cain was asked about the strange disappearance of Gerstmann's review from the Gamespot site, she said that it was removed and was updated "to include differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions and a clarification on the game's multiplayer mode". There is a note at the bottom of the review page that explains this.
"At the bottom of the post of the review we made a note that we have updated the review, and we made those decisions based on our own editorial standards," Cain said, referring to the text review.. "It was our decision to take down the (video) review." A bit strange, isn't it? Having in mind that video editing is also possible today, as well as text editing...
Eidos have kept their mouths shut until now, and it's probably just a matter of time until they will have an official statement regarding this entire situation. We can already guess how the statement will sound like and, just like it happened to the CNet's official comments, most of the people won't believe them. Maybe Jeff will talk soon, too.