Skyrim Has a Minecraft Easter Egg, Despite Legal Dispute
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!
I think it's more definable as an "easter egg" over a crappy pickaxe because it's value is 303 gold. I don't recall normal pickaxes having a value remotely close to that. Is there any significance to the specific number 303 though?
Perhaps its an 'In' joke, Notch being sued for the amount of 303 million perhaps?
I find it sad to say, but this is the reason why PC gamers only get console ports now!
It clearly states that it does not include digital downloads. That being said, with those sales included it won't be even close to Xbox numbers. However, PC gamers buy more games digitally than consoles.
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!
Actually there were games using scrolls before TES Arena even started being made so maybe the people that made those games should be sueing Bethesda instead :|
console makers love to show off console version's sales figures while console sales sag and pc version sales re-emerge on top.
Oh well....at least my EA boycott is still on track.
Which is a bit of a shame because it's often cheaper. I picked up Skyrim on Amazon for £27 instead of downloading it from Steam for the pre-release sale price of £34. Not only that, but it arrived on the day of release and took only a few minutes to install instead of a few hours to download. Bargain!
I agree that you can sometimes get a physical copy cheaper, but having it shipped always comes with risks. I've had delivery people forget to deliver to my house, deliver at 8pm at night, and even lose my item. I wouldn't mind dropping an extra $7 to get to play a game at launch and not have to possibly wait 32 hours for the delivery truck.