Notch Wins Interim Injunction against Bethesda

[Gikoku]

For those not in the know, this whole nonsensical mess started awhile back by the higher ups at Bethesda. Minecraft developer Notch has a new game entitled "Scrolls" and Bethesda immediately found this to be a threat, for what sole reason? The simple fact that the game's name is "Scrolls" and nothing else, the games are not really alike. Bethesda claims to have been "forced" to take this action to protect the future success of Skyrim (and any other successor TES titles, as if TES has to actually worry about competition).​

Unsurprisingly, Notch pulled a victory over Bethesda and has been given the right to keep the "Scrolls" name, though Bethesda/Zenimax is still able to appeal (as tweeted by Notch). I honestly feel this whole lawsuit was not only a waste of everyone's time, but also a cheap and greedy tactic by Bethesda's higher ups. The average and core gamers recognize and refer to the The Elder Scrolls games by their sequel name, not by the series name (e.g. Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, etc). Hell, some people even mistakenly believed Oblivion was the name of the entire series. ​

The only person liable to make a silly mistake of confusing Scrolls with The Elder Scrolls is someone's poor old grandmother.​

 

[Tsuyu]

Woooo! Go Sweden!

 

[Dark Drakan]

Bethesdas development team seemed embarrassed about this whole thing when questioned about it so i bet its nothing more than lawyers and pen pushers that started these whole legal proceedings. Im glad the 'little guys' won this one and hope its a lesson to all the big companies that they cant simply push others around.

 

[Zarkes]

I can understand Bethesda's position on it though, that'd be like Halo suing a title called ringworld or something.

 

[Zarkes]

The problem wasn't that it is named Scrolls but that they planned to release it on 11.11.11. That might screw up marketing it's like c'mon.

 

[Zarkes]

Tons of things are being released on 11.11.11, I don't see the Droid Razr affecting Skyrim. I don't see The Immortals doing irreparable damage to the TES franchise. The matter is over the name. But anyone who would confuse the two will not be someone who will purchase either game.

Just saying it was obvious what they were doing and Bethesda had every right to take offense.

 

[Tsuyu]

Oh come on. They don't own the word "Scrolls" or the date 11.11.11.

Srsly.

It's not like they made a horrible movie called Transmorphers and released it the same date as Transformers.

 

[Zarkes]

It's not like they made a horrible movie called Transmorphers and released it the same date as Transformers.

That's exactly what they did:/

 

[Cain]

Elder Scrolls: Fantasy RPG released on 11.11.11

Scrolls: Fantasy RTS/RPG (?) released on 11.11.11

Very similar so I can see how bethesda got annoyed by it. But its rather small, and dosen't seem likely to draw much attention away from Skyrim.

 

[Zarkes]

And this is the best publicity Scrolls could have ever gotten. Not many people outside the Minecraft and Penny-Arcade crowds (rather large crowds, admittedly) would have even known about Scrolls without this kind of publicity, and I don't know how many people would have actually played Scrolls but I bet a lot more people will play it now, just to see what it is that caused all this fuss. So the attention Bethesda brought to it does nothing but hurt themselves if you ask me.

You nailed it on the head young sir. They did it just to **** of Bethesda and get some publicity for their game.

 

[Tsuyu]

Except it was Bethesda who started the whole thing.

So... yeah.

 

[Zarkes]

Except it was Bethesda who started the whole thing.

So... yeah.

Yeah but like there gunna let some nothing game studio punk on their Elder Scrolls giant.

 

[Tsuyu]

Yeaaaah. Notch definitely is a "nothing game studio punk". Definitely...

NOT.

Get your head outta yer arse, man.

 

[Zarkes]

Yeaaaah. Notch definitely is a "nothing game studio punk". Definitely...

NOT.

Get your head outta yer arse, man.

Well they acted like one, anyways they won so it doesn't matter.