Despite the legal battle over the use of "Scrolls," the Skyrim developers pay homage to Mojang's Minecraft with an Easter egg.
Now here's an interesting discovery: a Minecraft easter egg in Bethesda's just-launched The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. According to reports, the item is called the "Notched Pickaxe" and resembles the tool of choice in Markus "Notch" Personn's indie sandbox, Minecraft. The tool can be found in Skyrim's "Throat of the World."
The discovery is interesting in that Bethesda and Mojang (along with Notch) are in a legal battle over the use of "Scrolls." As previously reported, Mojang received a letter from Bethesda's attorneys saying that the Minecraft developer's use of "Scrolls" infringed upon its The Elder Scrolls trademark. Bethesda said that the use of "Scrolls" outside its own Elder Scrolls franchise would cause confusion, and that the company would sue Mojang if the upcoming game's name wasn't changed.
Eventually Mojang won an interim injunction that allows the developer to continue to use the "Scrolls" name, but that doesn't mean the legal battle is over. Yet now a Minecraft-themed object has appeared in a Bethesda game... an Elder Scrolls one at that. And while the easter egg initially seems like a slap in the face, there are reports that the Skyrim team is actually a big fan of Minecraft, and frequently played the game during breaks. The tool simply pays homage to one of their favorite titles.
In other Skyrim news, VGChartz reports that physical sales of the fifth Elder Scrolls installment exceeded 3.4 million units in just two days -- that doesn't even include digital copies. 59-percent of the units were sold for the Xbox 360 and 27-percent on the PlayStation 3. 14-percent of the physical sales were snapped up by PC gamers. In comparison, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion only saw 490,000 units sold on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the same 2-day timeframe.
For those who love hunting down Easter eggs in games, there's another one to find in the just-released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. It's a teddy bear holding two golden Desert Eagle semi-automatic pistols. The guy in the video seems rather excited over the finding... is it worth the hunt?
Just cause their game uses that name in it's title doesn't mean they own that word... I say let it stand. A good lawyer could get this kicked out of court with a counter suit for expenses. The small company wouldn't pay a penny. Only a moron would even think the word 'Scrolls' referred only to 'The Elder Scrolls'. Comeon Bathesda... Take some of that lawyer money and hire better texture designers... Good Grief!
Just cause their game uses that name in it's title doesn't mean they own that word... I say let it stand. A good lawyer could get this kicked out of court with a counter suit for expenses. The small company wouldn't pay a penny. Only a moron would even think the word 'Scrolls' referred only to 'The Elder Scrolls'. Comeon Bathesda... Take some of that lawyer money and hire better texture designers... Good Grief!