CBS Interactive acquires Giant Bomb

The website formed by a team of ex-GameSpot journalists has been acquired by GameSpot parent CBS Interactive.

CBS says Giant Bomb staff – including Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, Vincent Caravella, Alex Navarro, Patrick Klepek, and Drew Scanlon – will remain ‘largely intact’, and will continue to run the Giant Bomb site.

Veteran video game reviewer Jeff Gerstmann set up Giant Bomb in 2008 after being fired from the GameSpot editorial team one year earlier. He was reportedly dismissed for writing a negative review for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men which advertiser Eidos disagreed with.

Several of Gerstmann’s co-workers left GameSpot and joined him at Giant Bomb.

Gerstmann has today revealed what he says was the true reason for his dismissal.

The reason [for my dismissal] was [GameSpot management] couldn’t ‘trust me’ in the role. From my perspective we did what an editorial team does. We reviewed games, we were honest. There wasn’t anything shady happening inside of GameSpot editorial. The management team buckled when faced with having a lot of ad dollars walk out the door.”

Gerstmann said the acquisition will make Giant Bomb ‘bigger and crazier’.

This [acquisition] is going to be the thing that allows us to make Giant Bomb bigger and crazier than it’s ever been before, and I hope you all stick around with us.

Right now we’re heading over to GameSpot offices for the first time since 2007.”

A statement from GameSpot read: Gerstmann will continue in his role as editor-in-chief of Giant Bomb and will help shape the editorial direction of CBS Interactive’s gaming portfolio, including GameSpot and GameFAQs.”

As well as acquiring Giant Bomb from Whiskey Media, CBS Interactive has also acquired the company’s comic review site Comic Vine.