International Business Times deletes embarrassing article.

Here at MMO Fallout we constantly field the question on whether a number of articles that pop up on the internet are the product of embarrassingly inept “journalism” in the tech space or are the result of websites trolling for clickbait views. The answer of course is yes. It’s probably always best to assume some level of professional incompetence mixed with trolling for anger-shares.

Today’s Bad Press article comes to us from the International Business Times, an outlet that doesn’t understand terms like “fact checking” or “sarcasm”. IBT published an article titled;

‘Elden Ring’ Confirmed Canceled? News Reportedly Came From Game Creator Miyazaki

A hell of a headline. Completely false, and the product of utter incompetence, but a hell of a headline. Where did the aspiring journalist at IBT get this idea? Jason Schreier made a joke on Twitter. Schreier’s sarcastic comment came in response to a Twitter poll by Daniel Ahmad asking “is Elden Ring real” showing 81% had voted no. Schreier commented;

Damn just got a call from Miyazaki now they legally have to cancel it

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 28, 2021

So naturally International Business Times took the joke at face value and wrote an article about it.

Fans’ hope was high earlier today following reports that a new update about “Elden Ring” would surface in March. However, that hope was immediately quashed when Bloomberg video game reporter Jason Schreier tweeted that he “got a call from Miyazaki now they legally have to cancel it.” It looks like Schreier is backtracking on his earlier tweet.

While the International Business Times may be lacking that bit of you-know-what in the head department, they certainly seem to have an acute sense of embarrassment. IBT has already nuked the article from their website. Thankfully an elephant never forgets, and Google caches websites for archival purposes.

This is the industry I write in, everyone.