IGN removes review following plagiarism claim

IGN’s review of indie title Dead Cells has been removed from the site temporarily, pending an investigation into claims it plagiarised a Youtube review of the game.

The accusation was brought to the fore by Boomstick Gaming, a channel with 12,000 subscribers, which posted a video with the title ‘IGN Copied my Dead Cells Review: What do I do?’.

The video shows a side-by-side comparison of Boomstick’s original review, published last week, compared to IGN’s, published August 6. You can see the accusations play out here:

IGN’s review – both in written and video form – came from Nintendo editor Filip Miucin, and shows a striking similarity to Boomstick’s original. While descriptions of genres and basic themes of the game are sure to be mentioned in every standard review of Dead Cells, there are structural and thematic crossovers between each publications review that have raised questions.

Since the accusation was made – in video form – IGN has removed both forms of its Dead Cells review and replaced them with the following text:

"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."

This isn’t the first time Dead Cells has been embroiled in a controversy that has nothing to do with the game itself. At least most people who play it do still love it, whether it’s their opinion or an allegedly derived one.