UPDATED: Filip Miucin, IGN, and Plagiarism

Updated post at 7:30 pm EST: IGN has released their official statement regarding the plagiarism accusations against their Nintendo Editor Filip Miucin for the review of Dead Cells. In short, Filip Miucin was let go from the company and IGN plans on re-reviewing Dead Cells.

I believe IGN made the right move here. For the journalism field, trust between writers and readers is a long, rocky bridge - one that is built over time, not overnight. One small, but pivotal mistake can burn that bridge. Filip sent his bridge to burn in hell, but IGN can still put out the fire and keep building.

Thanks to the work at Kotaku, this was not Filip's first instance of plagiarism.

Original post around 4 or 5 pm EST:

It was 2:30 a.m.

My eyes were slightly burning from my recent epic and victorious battle against the tough-as-nails Behemoth monster in Monster Hunter World. I turned off my PS4 and climbed into my soft, warm bed ready to shut my brain off for the next seven hours.

But first, let's check Twitter.

I scrolled through my timeline and happened to come across this tweet from one of my gaming colleagues:

"What?" I exclaimed.

IGN, one of entertainment's main news source hub, has been involved with scandals before. But potential plagiarism is a whole different ball game. After all, IGN's professional core IS journalism. After going through some tweets, I came across this video from YouTuber Boomstick Gaming himself, giving concrete evidence and shocking examples of word-for-word phrases and ideas:

Yikes, no bueno. After this video went mainstream, IGN has since removed the review to discuss and investigate the accusations of plagiarism against Filip Miucin, Nintendo Editor for IGN and the official IGN reviewer for rogue-lite video game Dead Cells. From the evidence Boomstick Gaming provides, it is crystal clear how much word play and ideas are stolen in Filip's review. Just in case it wasn't obvious, plagiarism is a serious matter and should not be brushed off. It's immoral, despicable, and the absolute opposite of what a video game reviewer should do.

IGN's response follows: "As a group of writers and creators who value our own work and that of others in our field, the editorial staff of IGN takes plagiarism very seriously. In light of concerns that have been raised about our Dead Cells review, we’ve removed it for the time being and are investigating."

Due to Filip's actions, there'll be unwarranted doubt about all of IGN's reviews. However, one person's missteps should not be taken out on the entire corporation. Many people and working parts go into content, and the last thing an Editor would expect from his or her team is to blatantly copy another's work.

But is that why Filip used a smaller channel's words and ideas for his review? Because he thought he wouldn't get caught using a smaller channel's review for the same game? Filip boy, you surprisingly really don't know the internet. Even when you think no will notice, everyone will notice.

Filip has not issued a response at this time.

YouTuber Boomstick Gaming has been nothing but sincere about the entire situation and only wants the sensible thing all creators want: credit for his work.

"No hate man but I wish I was cited, collaborated with, and or compensated in some way for the healthy views your site saw on your Dead Cells review," Boomstick Gaming tweeted to Filip.