As we previously clarified, the rumoured “11th March 2011” release date for the Nintendo 3DS that VGTribune had supposedly reported as fact has been proven to be fake.
Chris Scullion, Games Editor for Official Nintendo Magazine UK where the information had reportedly been taken from, has published a statement in response to the rumour, stating that he “can categorically say that the article never said March 11 2011.”
Alongside this, VGTribune have also announced that they have suspended the Editor responsible for the article whilst they investigate where the false information had been found.
Scullion’s full response is as follows:
I’m Chris and I’m the Games Editor for the Official Nintendo Magazine.
Though we can’t fully address this until later (we’re on deadline for issue 63 just now), for now I can categorically say that the article never said March 11 2011 in our magazine. This isn’t just the case with the final version of the page that was sent to the printers, but every version of the document we saved throughout the entire production process of the issue.
If anyone else can provide us with a physical copy of the magazine that says “March 11 2011″ then we’ll happily look into this, but I and the rest of the team would be very surprised because, like I say, the feature (at every stage of the magazine-making process) has always said simply “March 2011″.
I’m not going to start speculating on how this scan appears to show “March 11 2011″ because that’s not for me to do and would be hugely unprofessional of me. However, I hope I’ve made it clear that as far as we’re concerned, we have never given the release date as anything more definite than “March 2011″ and (like the rest of the gaming media) are unable to do so until Nintendo announces the official date.
Any speculation that the magazine was recalled and reprinted with a new date (or that the reason some subscribers got their issues late was because we were busy changing this) is completely untrue, because as far as we’re aware there was nothing there to change.
Hope that clears things up a little!
Chris Scullion
Games Editor
Official Nintendo Magazine
