IGN Reviewer Filip Miucin Apologized (Sort Of)
Filip Miucin, the former IGN editor who was fired after an investigation into plagiarism allegations, responded in a now-deleted YouTube video, claiming that there were “a lot of circumstances” surrounding the review and that that his reported plagiarism wasn’t intentional.
“The bottom line is that what happened with the Dead Cells review was not at all intentional,” he said. “So, with that said, I just want to apologize to everybody at IGN for all of the undeserved criticisms and doubt that may have been sparked in their credibility as a respected source for games media.”
Miucin also referred to the Kotaku report that noted how his FIFA 18 video review (prior to his work at IGN) is strangely similar to a Nintendo Life review that was published days earlier.
“You can keep looking, Kotaku, and please let me know if you find anything,” Miucin said in the now deleted video. “Which, by the way, their news editor, Jason Schreier, tried to imply that my FIFA 18 review was also inauthentic by claiming that I copied it from Nintendo Life, and that’s just so not the case.”
“Maybe he was implying that if you have similarly opinionated reviews, then you’re just plagiarizing, or maybe he’s just trying to get as many clicks off my name right now as possible, or maybe he just likes kicking people when they’re down,” he added. “I don’t know—check it out for yourselves, and you be the judge.”
Apparently, IGN employees are not happy about Miucin’s video.
“I haven’t seen an apology this poorly received since Kevin Spacey,” IGN reviews editor Dan Stapleton wrote on Twitter.
“Just to be abundantly clear, plagiarism isn’t a mistake: it’s a choice,” said IGN PC editor Tom Marks.