Pokemon Mod For Minecraft

Castrum - This looks pretty awesome:

FortressCraft, Minecraft Clone On Xbox Indies, Makes $1 Million

Castrum - This is why Xbox Indies are a joke:

Last year, Minecraft made about a zillion kroner in the time it takes to nuke a Hot Pocket. This year, FortressCraft, the Minecraft knockoff homage on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel, has now bagged a cool million inside of the first six months it was available on the service.

Developers like Robir and Ishisoft bust their asses to make original, interesting games, and then lazy opportunistic douchebags like Fortresscraft's make ten times as much money as they have in a couple of months. I also like how the game's devs vehemently state FC is nothing like MC, as if changing some enemy spawns and updating graphics somehow counts as any real difference.

http://kotaku.com/5829804/fortresscraft-breaks-the-1-million-barrier-on-xbox-live-indie-games

The Game Of The Year, Previewed

Castrum - Kotaku's done another preview of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which I'm virtually assured will be my GOTY. Everything I hear and see about this game makes it all the more epic, which makes me wonder if I'll somehow manage to beat my previous record of 200+ hours in two weeks that I attained with Oblivion:

http://kotaku.com/5828687/an-hour-with-skyrim-its-amazing

Minecraft Not For Sale To EA

Castrum - As mediocre as I believe Minecraft is (though I loved Terraria, which is only vaguely like Minecraft), it's great to see an indie developer not just make it big and then hand the keys off to one of the three or four publishers who own virtually every AAA game released these days:

Well, EA came to see us. I think they had plans, but the picked up the vibe. Nothing has been said since – it's all very high politics.

According to Develop, Riccitiello made a special trip to Stockholm just to visit the house of Minecraft. I contacted EA for confirmation, and was told that while EA doesn't comment on their mergers and acquisitions activity, "John's trips to Sweden are more likely related to marveling at the progress DICE has made on Battlefield 3."

Notch also confirmed the DICE visit with me. "He was visiting DICE primarily, but spent a long lunch with us," he said. "Nobody ever mentioned anything about any M&A during that lunch, but there has been definite hints earlier from other people at EA."

http://kotaku.com/5828127/minecraft-developer-gives-off-a-not+for+sale+to+ea-vibe

Bethesda Threatens Mojang Over Use Of Word "Scrolls"

MjolnirX - According to Notch, the creator of Minecraft, Bethesda is considering suing Mojang over the use of the word "Scrolls" in their expansion. The reasoning is that it's too similar to their use of the word in "The Elder Scrolls".

This isn't really unexpected. When Mojang's lawyers told them to register the name "Minecraft", they also told them to register "Scrolls" as well to avoid any trouble that might cause in the future. After applying for it, they were contacted by Bethesda's lawyers as to their intention of their use of the word "Scrolls" in their product. Notch told Bethesda's lawyers that their intention was to use it as a precursor to the name of expanions i.e Scrolls - The Banana Edition. To Notch's knowledge, he doesn't know if Bethesda had agreed to Mojang's terms.

Today, Mojang recieved a 15-page cease-and-desist letter from Bethesda's lawyers saying that if he does not stop using the word "Scrolls" in his work, they are threatening to sue Mojang should the need arise. Notch doesn't seem too concerned, noting that "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."

Myself, I'm hoping that this is just something of a misunderstanding. "Scrolls" is such a general term. The patent system is a joke in its current state. The two games aren't similar in any ways, and don't share any of the same appeal to people. It's not like using the word "Scrolls" will somehow hurt Bethesda's business. I know product awareness and saturation is one thing, but this is just a ridiculous situation. Also, I don't think Bethesda wants to be known as the people who sued everyone's beloved Minecraft.