Bethesda Softworks in legal dispute with Minecraft creator over Scrolls

By Adam Rosenberg August 5, 2011

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Minecraft creator Markus Persson started out this morning on a positive note, proudly announcing on Twitter that the popular world-building PC game has now sold more than three million copies. Things took a sharp turn later, however, when another tweet issued forth, reading: “Just got a letter from [Bethesda Softworks’] lawyers. They claim ‘Scrolls’ infringes on their trademark and everyone will confuse it with Skyrim.” Persson quickly added in a follow-up tweet that he has nothing but love for Bethesda and this is “hopefully just lawyers being lawyers.”

Which is the right response to a rather silly situation. Scrolls is the virtual card game that Minecraft dev Mojang is currently working on. Elder Scrolls is Bethesda’s first-person RPG series, and a quite popular one at that, but “scrolls” separated from “elder” just becomes a word, and one that Mojang can almost certainly use for its game title. You don’t have to be a lawyer to figure this one out, though they’re what will ultimately confuse things if this situation goes far enough.

A subsequent tweet promised a blog update when Persson got home “with all the info I have,” and he stuck to his word. It’s probably best to just read what he has to say on it, but the long and short of it is: following discussions with Bethesda over the Scrolls titles that never quite finished, Mojang received a letter from a Swedish law firm threatening to sue in Swedish courts if the title isn’t changed. There’s also apparently a request for up-front coverage of certain legal fees on Mojanh’s part.

Sounds like Persson’s estimation was pretty accurate: lawyers being lawyers.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…

Gaming

Best PS5 SSD deals: Add more storage to your PS5 from $120

A 2TB WD Black

When the PlayStation 5 was originally released, it had the option to expand its internal memory, which was quite small at the time at a little under 900GBs. Of course, the issue is that there weren't any SSDs that worked on the new standard the PS5 was using, so even if you wanted to upgrade, you couldn't. Luckily, since then, there have been a lot of great SSDs for the PS5 that have been released, and upgrading its storage is pretty easy and can be done by pretty much anybody, provided they have a screwdriver. So, whether you picked up a PS5 from one of the PS5 deals or already have a PS5 and want to upgrade, be sure to check out the SSDs that will work great for your PS5 below.
Our favorite PS5 SSD deal

It wasn't that long ago that you'd have to pay well over $100 to get an SSD for your PS5, and often, it'd be slower than the pricier alternatives. These days, you can buy a Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD with heatsink for just $120 from Best Buy, thereby saving $45 off the regular price of $165. The SSD offers speedy performance while also having its own nickel-coated high-end controller to help deliver effective thermal control. It means it won't overheat and performance won't be compromised. Being a PCIe Gen 4 SSD, you get twice the data transfer speed of PCIe Gen 3 which is useful. Offering maximum read speeds of 7,000 megabytes per second, it's a good upgrade to go alongside your existing hard drive with 1TB offering plenty of extra space at a shrewd price.

Gaming

The Sims 5: release date speculation, trailers, gameplay, and more

sims 4 for rent expansion pack shared living the 6

It's time to brush up on your Simlish if it's rusty because the long-awaited The Sims 5, aka Project Rene, is officially on the way. This has been the longest gap between main entries since the series began, and while we did get tons of expansions for The Sims 4 to hold us over, plus the change to it becoming free to play, we're more than ready for a new entry. Each time a new game in the franchise comes out, die-hard fans always need to have a bit of skepticism about what features will be there -- both new and returning.

We can't answer all your questions yet, but here's everything we know about The Sims 5.
Release date speculation

Gaming

VR headset deals: Meta Quest 2 and VIVE XR

htc vive vs pro headphones

While VR may not be as big as was predicted back in the early 2000s when the original Oculus Go was released, there is still a considerable market these days, and some great VR games like Half-Life: Alyx that you can have fun with. Of course, VR headsets remain expensive, and while options like the Meta Quest don't necessarily require a high-end gaming PC, they can still be a bit pricey for those who just want to put a foot in the hobby. Luckily, there are some good deals you can take advantage of, even on some of the best VR headsets, so be sure to check out all your options below.
Meta Quest 2 -- $199, was $200

Even though the Meta Quest 3 came out quite recently, the Meta Quest 2 is still a pretty powerful contender, especially since it has a wider library and app support than the Quest 3 currently has. Even more so, the Quest 2 is a lot cheaper than the Quest 3, and with the latest permanent discount down to just $200, that's a whole $300 or so difference from the Quest 3. Of course, the Quest 3 does have more advanced AR and slightly better performance with software and Wi-Fi, but that may not be worth the extra cost for some. Either way, be sure to check out the breakdown between Quest 2 and Quest 3 to get a better sense of what you should pick up.