Former IGN Editor Filip Miucin has made a return to YouTube following his firing from the company, in which he plagiarized another YouTube’s review of Motion Twin’s Soulslike Dead Cells.
Miucin’s return was announced in a tweet, highlighting his new video “A Very Honest & Original Dead Cells Review.” Reception of Filip Miucin making a return to YouTube has been understandably mixed.
At the time of writing, the YouTube video in question has 835 Likes and over 1,000 Dislikes. The video doesn’t just review the game, mind — it also touches on his own IGN plagiarism controversy with an offhand remark about the incident.
“What’s going on, everyone?” the video review’s narration began. “Today, we’re gonna be taking a look at Dead Cells. When it comes to modern roguelike games, Dead Cells is on whole other level. In fact, it’s so good, that the first time I tried reviewing it, it left me so speechless that I literally went looking for someone else’s opinion to describe it.”
The video review frontloads the incident that immediately comes to mind upon his return to the industry, but he’s not as cavalier about the plagiarism that brought his career to a grinding halt and resulted in IGN removing all of his content from the site. Indeed, Filip Miucin does take a moment to address what he did.
“I mean, this game played such a pivotal role in the self-destruction of my career as a games journalist — by my own doings, of course — but, I’m still coming back to it almost two years later because it’s just that damn good.”
Former colleagues from IGN and IGN sister site Mashable were not as forgiving, however.
He plagiarized my work … from Mashable .. IGN’s sister site lmao
— Jess Joho (she/her) (@jessjoho) July 19, 2020
The choice of Dead Cells as a game to review is particularly notable, as that was the game whose review resulted in him being fired from IGN in late 2018. Further investigations by various people on the Internet — including ex-Kotaku and current Bloomberg investigative reporter Jason Schreier — uncovered more incidents of plagiarism.
Since then, he’s been largely silent on Twitter, occasionally tweeting every few weeks but otherwise remaining quiet for the better part of a year. He’s since begun to push back against the furor posted by some of his colleagues in the industry, one of which includes IGN Executive Editor of Previews Ryan McCaffrey.
Being told to “fuck off” by an executive of one of the most well known entertainment companies, not to mention a former direct superior, can only happen in the gaming community. No, @DMC_Ryan, you can’t delete your indecency just like I can’t delete my plagiarism. pic.twitter.com/KB5Kl6Wbl7
— Filip Miucin (@FilipMiucin) July 20, 2020
Can Filip Miucin make a return to the industry? Plagiarism is one of the most serious ethical breaches in journalism and it’s difficult to recover your reputation after just one incident, nevermind the multiple accusations of plagiarism that he faced in 2018. Miucin may be able to redeem himself in the coming months, but it’s going to be a long road.
