Sceptic here. Why is this 'news' not coming from Japan?
A few days ago they had the 'Photonext 2015' trade show in Tokyo, and all Ricoh offered to the world was a mock-up of some bellows for the 645Z. Now we have a major annoucement - with no company logos or apparent support visible so far from Ricoh anywhere on the web or social media - from a lone photographer in Los Angeles? It just doesn't make much sense.
Plus, if you look at
Alex's Facebook page, he announced this event on 28 May, then for the last few days has been chatting away like normal as if there is no big deal ahead at all.