CNET has issued an official statement regarding the recent firing of long time GameSpot employee Jeff Gerstmann. Jeff Gerstmann was apparently fired from GameSpot because he gave Kane & Lynch: Dead Men a low review score of 6 out of 10, which caused the games’ publisher Eidos Interactive to pull hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of advertising from GameSpot.

The statement reads: “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.”

Ok, so that tells us exactly NOTHING except that CNET no longer has to worry about standing behind Gerstmann’s review scores. Hopefully - we’re not holding our breath though - Eidos will release a statement that would shine a little more light on the whole incident.

Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, Product Manager for Xbox and Xbox Live, has spilled some beans regarding the 360’s upcoming December 4 Dashboard update.

Next to the already detailed Family Timer that allows parents to limit their kids’ play time, the man commented on downloadable Originals, Arcade Hits and some new social features.

We already knew that Originals will cost 1200 Microsoft Points each and that games like Halo, Fable, Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge will be among the first titles to become available. Now Greenberg has confirmed that new Originals will be made available pretty frequently, seeing as they have over 300 original Xbox games to choose from.

“We’re going to be adding titles at a pretty regular flow. We expect [new titles to release] on pretty much a weekly basis. We have a large catalog of backwards compatible titles to choose from,” he said.

Continue reading this story..

Microsoft revealed numbers on Thursday showing that Xbox 360 sold 310,000 units during the Black Friday week. Compared to Wii’s 350,000, that’s pretty damn good. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg even said the 360’s new Arcade package is selling better than expected and that that top retailers had reported Xbox 360 hardware outages during Black Friday week.

Microsoft claimed that, based on retail estimates, the 360 outsold the PS3 2 to 1 during Black Friday week. But Sony doesn’t buy what what Microsoft is selling. Sony representative Kimberly Otzman has said that Microsoft’s estimates are “way off.”

“It’s (Sony Computer Entertainment America) policy not to disclose our unit sales numbers until NPD numbers are officially released which will be December 13th. However, I can assure you that Microsoft’s estimates of our PS3 unit sales numbers are way off and they did not outsell PS3 2:1 during Black Friday week,” the Sony spokesperson told Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Looks like we have an old fashioned ’she said, he said’ type of cases on our hands. Let’s wait for the official NPD numbers to who’s telling the white little lie this time.

AcroGames has announced that it has licensed Unreal Engine 3 an upcoming project. The developers at AcroGames have helped create best-selling titles in Korea such as NCsoft’s “Lineage II” and Softmax’s “Magna Carta” series.

The company didn’t release any details as to what kind of a game they’re developing but CEO and game director HyunTae Jeong did say they are very satisfied with the engine and they’re finding that Unreal Engine 3 is extremely flexible and quite capable of meeting their development needs.

Jay Wilbur, vice president of Epic commenting on the deal: “AcroGames is a promising team comprised of top talent and we look forward to working with them. We are committed to supporting the Asian game market with best of breed development tools, and our agreement with AcroGames marks a significant achievement in this effort.”

Kotaku received an anonymous tip yesterday about long time GameSpot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann being fired because of a low score he gave to Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. The more interesting and disturbing part is that GameSpot was apparently under pressure from Eidos Interactive, the publisher of the game.

GameSpot has been littered with Kane & Lynch ads recently and Eidos threatened to pull the plug, meaning a loss of revenue for CNET-owned GameSpot. Despite the Kotaku tipster specifying that it wasn’t necessarily the low score of 6 out of 10 but the ‘tone’ of the review that got the man fired, the day when advertisers will be able to get reviewers fired and set the tone of reviews by waving a stack of cash at your face is a sad day indeed.

Surprisingly, there are no Kane & Lynch ads on GameSpot at the time of writing, instead the site is displaying ads for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed. Did Eidos pull the advertising anyway or is GameSpot trying to save face ? (Update below)

Shacknews has also confidently confirmed from their end that Gerstmann has indeed been fired from his position (update below). And former GameSpot editor and current MP3.com - also CNET-owned - employee Tim Tracy has posted what seems to be a farewell notice on his GameSpot blog. It’s unknown if it’s related to the Gerstmann axing.

My gut tells me this isn’t the last we’ve heard of this, so we’ll keep you updated when new information surfaces. But with this fiasco going on, makes you wonder how the industry will receive Kane & Lynch 2, which is already in production. Because when (and if) it releases, references to this incident will no doubt be made. Continue reading this story..

SEGA sent over an email today, confirming the release dates for a number of their upcoming games. Among others, relase dates for such highly anticipated games like The Club (Feb 8th ‘08), Condemned 2 (Feb ‘08) and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nov 23rd ‘07) were confirmed. Check the full list below.

• The Club [PS3, Xbox 360, PC] 8th February 2008
• Condemned 2 [PS3, Xbox 360] February 2008
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games [Wii] 23rd November 2007
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games [DS] Early 2008
• Universe at War [PC] 25th January 2008
• Football Manager Handheld 2008 [PSP] 30th November 2007
• The Golden Compass [PS3, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, PC, PSP] 30th November 2007
• Sonic Rivals [PSP] 7th December 2007
• Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus [PS2, PC] 11th January 2008
• Ghost Squad [Wii] 25th January 2008
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams [Wii] 25th January 2008
• Bleach: Shattered Blade [Wii] February 2008
• Bleach: Blade of Fate [DS] February 2008

Randy Pitchford, the president of Gearbox Software - the company behind the successful Brothers in Arms series - said EA’s Medal of Honor is a franchise in trouble. CVG cought up with the man at a press event in London where he said “somebody really needs to get hold of that franchise.”

Pitchford: “It’s a great franchise, and a lot of people love it, but I think somebody really needs to get hold of that franchise who cares about the subject matter and understands what the real promise and the fantasy is.

“I think they’re confused right now. They’re partially speaking not as a dedicated World War II game, but just as a game. I think if you’re just going to make a shooter, there’s other subject matter you can pick that give them more flexibility to do the kinds of things that they’ve been wishing to do.

“Like upgrading weapons and things like that? That doesn’t belong in an authentic war game.”

The latest in Gearbox’s own WWII series, the long-awaited Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, was recently pushed back and is currently expected to be released in the first few months of 2008.

Last week was the best Nintendo has ever had, the company announced today. During the first week of the Holiday season (November 18th - November 24th), Nintendo of America sold more Nintendo products than at any other time in its history. The company managed to sell more than 653 000 Nintendo DS’s, 350 000 Wii’s plus millions of games and accessories throughout the United States.

George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications: “As shoppers look for ways to maximize their limited holiday spending money, they turn to gifts that can be used by the entire family. Wii and Nintendo DS offer something for every member of the family. They’re the most fun video game experiences at the most affordable price.”

From press release: “Nintendo DS set a new all-time sales record for Thanksgiving week, eclipsing the previous mark of 600,000 Game Boy Advance systems sold during the same period in the United States in 2005. Nintendo DS remains on track to be the top-selling video game system of 2007.

Nintendo’s 350,000 Wii systems represent the highest one-week U.S. sales total outside of its launch week one year ago. Wii has been dubbed the must-have gift of the 2007 holiday season and has been placed at the top of numerous gift lists. Nintendo has repeatedly increased its shipments and its fiscal-year sales forecast for Wii in an attempt to meet soaring demand. Wii reached 5 million sold in the United States faster than any video game system in history, after only 12 months of availability there.”

The Blu-ray Disc Association European Promotions Committee announced today that the total Blu-ray Disc movie sales across Europe have topped one million units. According to sales data provided by Media Control Gfk International, of the HD movie discs bought by consumers year-to-date in Europe, 73% were in the Blu-ray Disc format and 27% were HD DVD.

Frank Simonis, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc European Promotions Committee: “This is an important milestone for Blu-ray Disc in Europe and proves once again that whenever consumers have the choice they decide overwhelmingly in favour of BD. Early indicators show that the Christmas holiday season will be exceptionally good for Blu-ray Disc across all categories from packaged media to standalone players and BD capable games consoles.”

The launch of the PS3 in Europe back in March this year was seen as a turning point for the Blu-ray format across Europe, with weekly movie sales of titles averaging between two- and five-times the amount of HD DVD sales.

The best selling Blu-ray titles year-to-date are 300 – the number one selling title in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Benelux and Sweden and Casino Royale - the number one selling title in UK and Ireland.

Assassin’s Creed has managed to hold on to the number one stop in the UK’s sales charts. We thought Mass Effect would go for the win this week but seems two days worth of sales wasn’t enough after all (Mass Effect was released on Friday the 23rd). But surely next week Altair the assassin must step down and make room for Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard. Here’s the Top10 for the week ending November 24. Continue reading this story..

Now that we know that Crysis is only the first game in a planned trilogy, have you had time to wonder where the game might go from here, visually ? It’s already the best looking game out there bar none.

Well, it appears we’ve seen nothing yet - Crytek wants to hold on to the eye-candy crown and promises to make the next game even more visually stunning and offer numerous graphical innovations, according to Steven Bender, Lead Animator & Animation Manager at Crytek. Special attention will be put on courses of motion, face textures and animations. They want to achieve a more realistic feel and want to bring the experience to the film level.

The jump from FarCry to Crysis took about 3 years. Definitely makes you wonder what Crysis 2 will end up looking like.

The new, slimmer and lighter PSP has sold over one million units during the two months it’s been available in Japan, Sony said today. Launched in Japan on September 20th, the new system is 33 percent lighter, 19 percent slimmer, features an added video out port and comes in a number of colors including Piano Black and Ceramic White.

It’s not enough to catch the unrivaled king of handhelds however - during the week of November 12th, the Nintendo DS sold 76,069 usits while Sony managed to sell 65,609 PSPs in the same period.

Epic Games’ VP Mark Rein said last week that the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament III has been sent off to manufacturing and that they’re aiming for a mid-December release in North America.

Epic and Midway have now announced the exact release date - December 11th - but also revealed that only limited quantities will available at that date. And in North America only, like Rein revealed last week. Everyone else, much like Xbox 360 gamers, will have to wait until early next year to get their hands on the long-awaited shooter.

The old ambition to create multiplatform projects has become a reality for GSC Game World, the developer of the survival-horror-FPS-RPG S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl announced today. The company has now been officially certified by Microsoft as an Xbox 360 developer and obtained all the necessary development tools.

Sergiy Grygorovych, the CEO of GSC Game World: “We are happy to say the big efforts of our company aimed to obtain the official Xbox 360 developer status now ended with success. Obtaining such a status for an independent developer based in ex-USSR means a lot - it took us over 2 years to get. We are very thankful to Microsoft for the assistance and high esteem of our team’s professionalism.”

The man went on to say that while they’ve achieved practically everything on the PC front and are prepared to garner the top spots in sales charts and gamers’ recognition in the world of console games, they will still continue paying maximum attention to the platform.

Never mind the fact that developer 2K has outright stated that BioShock won’t be arriving on PS3, their next project won’t make it to Sony’s new system either if a job posting on Gamasutra is to be believed.

2K Boston is looking for new talent to join their 50 man team for a new project that’s in development for Xbox 360 and Windows platforms, artistic talent to be exact:

“Do you believe video games are art? WE DO! 2K Boston, the studio behind the art-deco inspired underworld dystopia known as Rapture, is looking for talented Artists to help bring our next vision to life.”

BioShock already has and will most likely win a lot more Game of the Year awards. And rightfully so, the game is absolutelt brilliant. Makes you wonder what it is exactly that they’re working on now.