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Mojang can't use 'Scrolls' in any sequels to 'Scrolls,' lawsuit dictates
Notch seems to be happy with the outcome of Mojang's legal tussle with Bethesda, which allows Mojang to use Scrolls as the title of a coming game that looks and plays nothing like anything in the Elder Scrolls series. Bethesda retains the trademark for "Scrolls," but Mojang can use it for its title, a result that had Notch beaming -- but as with all legal battles, it's not that simple.After the celebratory "Yaaaay! <3" Notch tweeted, "The actual document I signed was like a billion pages, so at least we know a bunch of lawyers got rich. Good, wouldn't want them to starve." Within those billion-odd pages comes an interesting deal that prohibits Mojang from using "Scrolls" in the title of any sequels to Scrolls:"ZeniMax has licensed the 'Scrolls' mark to Mojang to be used solely in conjunction with its existing Scrolls digital card game and any add-on material it makes to that game," a Bethesda statement reads. "The terms of the settlement bar Mojang from using the Scrolls mark for any sequel to the current card game, or any other video game."Either Notch doesn't plan on making more than one iteration of Scrolls, or the subsequent titles will be called "Reams," "Parchments" or "Ancient Paper that One Rolls Up and can Unravel to Read From, Such as a Decree."
Notch reels in Psychonauts 2 talk
Ever since Double Fine snagged publishing rights for Psychonauts back in 2011, we've all hoped the studio would work on a sequel. Actually, no past tense about it -- we still hope Double Fine cranks out a sequel. And when Markus Persson (Notch) of Minecraft fame expressed interest in funding a sequel, we thought it was a dream come true.Then Double Fine went ahead and set records on Kickstarter as the developer sought funding for a new adventure game. Suddenly, Psychonauts 2 was on the backburner. But Notch hasn't forgotten about it, much as we haven't, and published a missive today with some more information. Spoiler alert: it's a much more difficult undertaking than we initially thought."The budget for doing a Psychonauts 2 is three times higher than my initial impression," Notch wrote on his blog. "I have NO idea if this is actually going to happen." He went on to say that he is still interested in doing it (and still believes it would be a profitable venture), but posits that Double Fine could simply go through Kickstarter again to fund the sequel, considering how crazy successful the company's first campaign currently is. Today it was revealed the Double Fine adventure game would launch on PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android devices."All I know is that IF the numbers work out and IF they still want to do it and IF they don't decide to self fund a sequel by doing more crowd funding (which is honestly what I would've done if I were them), I would be most interested in doing this type of investment." We hope it all works out, but be patient, fellow interested parties: if it happens, it's not going to be for a good long while.
Double Fine returning to its adventure game roots with Kickstarter project [update: Funded!]
Double Fine has announced that it will finally return to its adventure game roots. Utilizing the crowd-sourcing power of Kickstarter, Double Fine will hope to fund the project. As rewards for funding, the developer will offer bonuses such as "advance access to the game, original art from its development, and a bowling night out with the team."The project is already listed on Kickstarter, asking a hefty $400,000 for its completion. Double Fine also plans to "create a unique, serialized documentary available only to Backers," developed by the team at 2 Player Productions.According to the Kickstarter page, the game will be in development with a small team over a six-to-eight month period. The game is described as "a classic point-and-click adventure utilizing modern touch technology."In related news: though Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Peterson had offered to help fund a sequel to the cult-hit game Psychonauts, Double Fine isn't ready to announce the title. "These things take time to figure out -- if they can be figured out -- so please don't expect any Psychonauts 2 announcements any time soon," video game icon Tim Schafer wrote on Twitter.Schafer promises he and Notch are having a "lovely chat" about the possibility, and jokingly says the indie millionaire is a tough negotiator -- at his insistence that the game be dubbed "PsychoNotch."Update: Moments ago, Double Fine achieved its goal of $400,000. At the time of publishing this update, the project has 8,880 backers and is currently sitting at $404,168. The funding process took less than ten hours.
Schafer needs a millionaire to fund Psychonauts 2, Notch raises hand
Double Fine's Tim Schafer would love to make Psychonauts 2, he told Digital Spy -- he's pitched it to publishers a few times, but no one has ponied up for the project, and Schafer still needs a few million dollars to back it up. Enter: Notch.After learning of Schafer's problem, Markus "Notch" Persson, creator of Minecraft and resident indie millionaire, tweeted at Schafer, "Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen," followed by ";D Also, I'm serious." This afternoon, the official word from Double Fine is, "Tim and Markus are talking. Who knows what might happen?"Notch has followed up candidly, tweeting that he and Schafer are talking via email, hinting that they may talk more at GDC, and finishing with a warning: "Anyway, please don't get your hopes too high yet. Everything is extremely vague!"There it is, ladies and gentlemen. The potential multi-million-dollar business deal to create Psychonauts 2, started on Twitter and including a winky, open-mouthed-smiling emoticon. Ah, technology.
Sequel to Notch's 48-hour game gets a new name: MiniTale [update]
Way back in December last year, Minecraft developer Notch participated in a 48-hour game-programming competition, and he live-streamed the whole thing. He made a Harvest Moon-inspired zombie game, tentatively titled Minicraft. He has renamed that game MiniTale, with more info to come here and here. Update: It's the sequel to Minicraft that Notch has renamed MiniTale. We apologize for the small confusion.
Notch steps down as lead developer on Minecraft to focus on 'new project'
You know Notch. He's the behatted Swedish developer that eats, breathes, and sleeps Minecraft, right? Well ... he was. Now Mr. Markus "Notch" Persson is relinquishing lead development duties on the massively successful indie game so he can invest his time as head honcho at his growing development house Mojang. So who's going to take over that high-profile (don't mess up!) spot while Notch starts "work on some new project"? Meet cat-lover Jens Bergensten (pictured), who's no stranger to Minecraft. "We've been working together on Minecraft for a year now, and I'm amazed at how much in synch we two are when it comes to how to design the game," Notch wrote on his Tumblr. "And when we don't agree, we discuss it and something much better comes out at a result. He's truly a great person to work with, and I feel very confident handing over the leadership of Minecraft to him." In fact, Notch is so confident he's going to take a break for "rest." With the first MineCon convention over, a 1.0 version of Minecraft released, and some four million plus paying users (!) we think he's earned it. But not you, Bergensten. Back to work!
Minecraft turns 1.0, digital building blocks in beta no more
Minecraft mania has been in full swing for a while now, though lately, the hullabaloo surrounding the game was about its arrival (in somewhat neutered form) on both Android and iOS. However, fans of the full Minecraft experience can jump for joy because Mojang's title has officially left its beta days behind and has turned the big 1.0. The announcement was made by none other than Mr. Minecraft himself, Markus "Notch" Persson, at the first ever MineCon event, and the update is available now. Well, what are you waiting for? Your digital utopia won't build itself.
Enter At Your Own Rift: The big takeaways from GDC
After dining on enough beef brisket to feed an army of hungry cowboys, I returned from Austin's GDC Online to chip away at the Ashes of History world event quests. RIFT had a nice showing at the GDC Online Awards ceremony, walking away with awards for Best Online Technology and Best New Online Game. In addition, Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman gave a talk about RIFT's pre-launch preparations and post-launch plans. GDC was dominated by a handful of common topics, like free-to-play, metrics, monetization, and technology. In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, we'll take a look at a few of these to see how they apply to RIFT, and then we'll look at the big takeaways from GDC overall.
Minecraft for consoles exclusive to Xbox 360, building spring 2012 launch
Markus "Notch" Persson has confirmed via Twitter that the console version of Minecraft, announced during E3 for Xbox 360, will be exclusive to Microsoft's system (meaning no PSN or WiiWare versions). The game will arrive on Xbox Live in the spring of 2012. Those heading to MineCon in Las Vegas next month will be able to try out the Xbox 360 version. The PC version is also being completed, having already sold millions in its beta state. Those heading to MineCon will receive alpha codes for Mojang's Scrolls and Cobalt.
Bethesda tells Mojang to lay down its virtual guns, lawyer up for a trademark battle
Time was, men could settle their disputes with glinting swords at the ready and their honor on the line. Nowadays, only the cosplaying and Comic Con attending folk alike are likely to burnish (elvish) blades, although they're rather inapt to sully them with enemy blood. Well, unsurprisingly, Mojang head Markus "Notch" Persson's modern day offer of a Quake 3 Arena simulated duel -- his proposed method of extralegal recourse -- was shot down by Bethesda, the company suing the Minecraft creator for use of the word "Scrolls" in its unreleased card game. As these are apparently sue-happy times, both parties are headed to court to battle it out, with Mojang facing the terrible repercussion of a forced product name change. From the looks of the defendant's Twitter feed, however, it doesn't appear the impending litigation's breaking this Swede's stride.
Scrolls teaser trailer leaps from the page into your eyeballs
Straight outta PAX comes this teaser for Markus "Notch" Perrson's newest Mojang joint, Scrolls. It's chock full of hand-drawn art, magical stuff and concludes with some sort of golem punching robot thing. Now that's something we can get behind! (You're safe from its punches there).
Notch explains why Minecraft has yet to get Steam'd
Minecraft has been widely available for quite some time in various forms (alpha, beta), but when it fully launches this November, it won't be available on Steam. "Being on Steam limits a lot of what we're allowed to do with the game," Mojang president and founder Markus "Notch" Persson explains in a post on his Tumblr blog. "We (probably?) wouldn't be able to, say, sell capes or have a map marketplace on minecraft.net that works with Steam customers in a way that keeps Valve happy," he adds. Notch worries that inclusion on Steam would divide the PC/Mac market of Minecraft users, rather than offer more to existing players. It's not as though there's any animosity though, with Notch kicking off the post by lavishing a paragraph of praise upon "the best digital distribution platform I've ever seen." He also notes that Mojang "are talking to Valve about this" to try and make things work for everyone, but, understandably, "We just don't want to limit what we can do with Minecraft." [Image credit: Steam forums]
Minecraft creator challenges Bethesda to deathmatch for the word 'scrolls'
While Samsung, Apple, HTC and others battle it out in court with lawyers and expansive patent portfolios, one man seems to know how real geeks settle disputes -- with a deathmatch. Markus "Notch" Persson, the man behind Minecraft and head of Mojang, has decided the best way to put the trademark squabble with Bethesda to rest is two rounds of three-on-three Quake 3 Arena action. The Elder Scrolls developer is sticking with the same tactics that have made smartphone companies our new least-favorite corporate citizens, but Notch thinks ownership of the word "scrolls" can best be determined with BFGs and railguns. With any luck this will catch on and, when Steve Jobs and Larry Page lead their forces into battle in Team Fortress, we're gonna have to put on our money on the Mountain View crew.
Minecraft studio threatened with suit by Bethesda over 'Scrolls' title
Not exactly unexpectedly, about four hours ago Markus "Notch" Persson -- creator of Minecraft and head of Mojang Specifications -- received a letter from a Swedish law firm representing Bethesda Softworks. It claimed that his company's trademark of the word "Scrolls" for use with a currently-in-development game was infringing on Bethesda's own trademark, "The Elder Scrolls," and requested "a pile of money up front" before things could proceed. But Notch could've guessed it was coming. Writing on his Tumblr page, Notch explains that "about half a year ago," his company's legal team suggested registering "Minecraft" as a trademark. In the process, Mojang also filed to register "Scrolls," killing two birds with one stone. Notch writes that "A while later, out of the blue, we got contacted by Bethesda's lawyers. They wanted to know more about the 'Scrolls' trademark we were applying for, and claimed it conflicted with their existing trademark 'The Elder Scrolls.'" At the time, Mojang responded by offering what Notch calls a compromise: "We'd agree to never put any words in front of 'Scrolls,' and instead call sequels and other things something along the lines of 'Scrolls - The Banana Expansion.'" In his piece, he says that he's not sure if Mojang ever heard back. Fast-forward to this afternoon, and a "15-page letter" from a Swedish law firm, on behalf of Bethesda, arrives for Notch (pictured above). He says it's threatening a lawsuit if Mojang refuses "to stop using the name 'Scrolls,'" and that Bethesda will sue should that be necessary. Regardless of the current situation, Notch notes at the top of his piece, "I love Bethesda. I assume this nonsense is partly just their lawyers being lawyers, and a result of trademark law being the way it is." Here's hoping that compromise works out, and Notch is somehow legally bound to name the first Scrolls DLC "The Banana Expansion." Update: This piece was originally headlined "Minecraft studio being sued by Bethesda over 'Scrolls' title," and has since been amended to more accurately reflect the situation.
Minecraft hits 3 million, Notch buys us all
In January, Minecraft passed its first major sales milestone: 1 million downloads. Three months later, in April, it clocked another cool million. And today, just five days into August, the game has surpassed its 3 millionth paid user -- every four months, eh? Smells like a trend! Those 3,000,961 folks (as of this writing) make up over a full quarter of all accounts at 26.24 percent. At around $22 per purchase, that's quite a bit of dough -- and with no publisher to pay. We imagine Mojang Specifications head Markus "Notch" Persson will be investing a good chunk of that dough in the upcoming MineCon, which kicks off the official launch of Minecraft on November 18. [Thanks, Matias.]
Minecraft's 'MineCon' convention set for November 18 - 19 in Vegas
Rather than setting its convention in the icy grip of its home country's chilly November, Sweden-based Minecraft studio Mojang Specifications is holding what it dubs "MineCon" in Las Vegas. "For me, MineCon is about celebrating the full release of Minecraft," Mojang head Markus "Notch" Persson told PC Gamer this week. Apparently the delayed title will see its full launch in grand style, with Notch "getting up on stage and pushing the button to upload the final build." When he first spitballed the idea back in May, voters overwhelmingly responded, "No, definitely not" when asked whether they'd attend such an event. That said, the minority's 42,000 votes were assuredly enough to convince him of demand for such an event. Speaking of, Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino will host MineCon on November 18 and 19, and the ticket registration site is set to go live next week -- apparently Notch will announce as much on his Twitter account, so keep an eye out. That is, if you can tear yourself away from building that to-scale replica of Hogwarts. Update: This year marks the second MineCon.
Notch doles out more details on Minecraft for 360, Kinect functionality
Markus "Notch" Persson is in a bizarre position, especially given his usual openness about his studio's first creation, Minecraft. "There's going to [be] actual marketing for the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft, so I've agreed to be slightly less transparent than usual when it comes to that version," he tells IGN in a recent interview. But don't despair! Notch still offers a handful of new details, saying that the Xbox 360 version (announced during E3 2011) will have "completely different" crafting, and that the Kinect functionality will include a mode where "you wave your arms around to mine and use items" -- "it's just too silly not to include," he adds. Hilariously, rather than respond to a question about console exclusivity and the possibility of Minecraft coming to PS3/Wii U, Notch simply draws the ridiculous (and admittedly adorable) sheep you see above. He also reveals that the upcoming Xperia Play version of Minecraft will cost $7 when it drops sometime "this fall," and that it was programmed "in a way that will make it easy to port to all sorts of mobile phones."
Minecraft Adventure mode coming in update 1.8, game launch delayed by a week
Mojang Studio's next update to Minecraft, 1.7, promises the addition of pistons (seriously!), thus allowing for the creation of mechanical objects. Rather than include it as planned in the 1.8 update alongside Adventure mode, creative lead Markus "Notch" Persson and partner Jens Bergentsen instead chose to drop it in with a handful of bug fixes in 1.7. No solid release date is given for 1.7 (or 1.8 for that matter), but the former will be released "soon" while the latter "might be a long wait." Persson also notes that, after update 1.8 is released in the coming months (Adventure mode and all), the team at Mojang will "start crunching for the full release," though it seems that the official launch may not make its intended November 11 date. "The release date is almost certainly changed to sometime the week after 11/11/11, and we're working hard on setting that up," Persson explains. And following that, after years of laboring on Minecraft, Persson and Co. get some much needed vacation time. After that? "I'll start working on the first post-release update," he adds with a grinning emoticon.
Minecraft for Kinect is an XBLA title, ported by 4J Studios
More details have begun to trickle out on Swedish developer Mojang Studios' first Xbox 360 title, a Kinect-enabled port of indie hit Minecraft. Beyond the fact that it'll be some form of indirect port and that an unnamed developer other than Mojang was at the helm, few other details were known, but as Minecraft creative lead Markus "Notch" Persson revealed on his Twitter feed last night, Scottish devs 4J Studios are apparently in charge of this holiday's world-builder. If you, like us, are unfamiliar with 4J, a cursory Wikipedia'ing reveals work on a wealth of ports, not to mention a handful of not-so-well-known original games. Hopefully any worry you have in the studio's confidence is abated by the fact that Notch will remain a game designer on the project, presumably retaining creative oversight.
Minecraft surpasses 2.5 million in sales, still in beta
Minecraft creator Markus Persson recently announced on Twitter that his game has built up 2.5 million sales. Not bad for a game that won't officially launch for another five months. According to our napkin math, pre-release versions of Minecraft have earned over $33 million for developer Mojang. Minecraft's potential cash flow doesn't end at PC, as a limited version of the title is also planned for Xperia Play, under the moniker Minecraft Pocket Edition, while a console version of the title is also being worked on exclusively for Xbox 360, featuring Kinect and cross-platform functionality with the PC for this winter. While that "won't be a straight port," and will not be developed by Mojang, it still stands to pocket the developer some more money.
