The Elder Scrolls VS. Mojang Scrolls Battle Goes to Court

In spite of lighthearted suggestions byMinecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson that their differences be settled as gamers, the battle between developer Mojang andThe Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda is headed to the courtroom.
Last month lawyers for Bethesda Softworks sent a lengthy letter to developer Mojang, claiming that the Minecraft studio's upcoming card-based strategy game, Scrolls, was too close for comfort to Bethesda's flagship franchise, The Elder Scrolls. WithThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim right around the corner, Bethesda requested that Notch and company rename Scrolls to avoid any potential confusion.
We didn't take the request too seriously. Judging by Notch's suggestion the case be settled with a Quake match, neither did he.
Earlier this morning, however, Notch tweeted that the case was going to court. So yes, things are serious now. So serious that Notch briefly tweeted a Washington Post from 1992 involving Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media CEO Robert Altman being indicted on felony charges in New York, before removing the angry tweet and apologizing.I wish Notch and crew the best of luck. I believe there's room in the world for two Scrollsgames. As Minecraft's daddy himself has pointed out, this is a world where Bethesda's Rage can coexist with the classic beat-em up Streets of Rage, so anything is possible.

Source:- Kotaku

Clever Xbox Live User Sues Microsoft for $500 Billion (or 625,000,000,000 MS Points)

Some cletus down in Arkansas opines that Microsoft has to pay him $500 billion because it didn't answer, in writing, a mailing designed to not get a written response to his demands for $500 billion.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is your source for all the fun, courtesy of a federal civil complaint filed Monday by one David Stebbins. His grounds for suing is a technicality about the nature of the Xbox Live terms of service. He argues that he is allowed to unilaterally amend the TOS unless Microsoft rejects his terms in writing.
The new terms? Something about he gets paid $500 billion if they don't like the old terms.
Stebbins actually admits to the P-I that his notice to Microsoft was designed to not attract their attention and to go unanswered. "When I mail these documents to Microsoft, they won't go to any legal division; I arranged for the mailings to be picked up by the employee that just collects regular mail! It's quite possible that these employees won't understand the legal significance of these documents, and know that they're required to respond."
Clever! Best part? He refused to create an actual paper filing, as one would expect of a legitimate complaint. Instead he created a YouTube video (since removed) of screenshots of the contract amendments because to create them in paper "would put an undue strain on my printer."
You'd think that if $500 billion were actually on the table, someone would pony up for a $40 inkjet or a trip to Kinko's.
I'm not going to waste words poking holes in his legal reasoning or waste time finding the statutes that limit either the scope of his claims or proscribe this kind of conduct. It's enough to know he's tried this bullshit in other venues, too. And, also, that he claims to have Asperger's syndrome, which is the go-to punchline for many a 4chan troll. I'm sure his agoraphobia will keep him from showing up in court, too.

Source: Kotaku

Trash-talking Battlefield Publisher Predicts Call of Duty Will Collapse ‘In 2-3 Years’

EA, the publisher of this fall's Battlefield 3, responded today to a call from their competition for cooler rhetoric with some heated trash talk.
"Welcome to the big leagues Eric," EA spokesperson Jeff Brown said in a comment issued to Kotaku but adressed to Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision and the man who said in Germany this week that EA's expressed hopes that his company's Call of Duty will "rot from the core" are harmful for the industry.
"I know you're new in the job," Brown continued, "but someone should have told you this is an competitive industry. You've got every reason to be nervous. Last year Activision had a 90 share in the shooter category. This year, Battlefield 3 is going to take you down to 60 or 70. At that rate, you'll be out of the category in 2-3 years. If you don't believe me, go to the store and try to buy a copy of Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk."
As CEOs or spokespeople often do, Brown was boiling down the heated competition between EA and Activision's shooter games to numbers. The share he refers to is the amount of games sold in a genre go to a single series. The Call of Duty/Modern Warfare dominance in the military shooter genre has frustrated EA, whose Medal of Honor series used to dominate and whose recent Battlefield: Bad Company games, while well-reviewed, couldn't budge the king from his throne. EA's been wanting to take Activision down for a while, with Bad Company, with a revived Medal of Honor but also with the assumption that their best shout would be October'sBattlefield 3. That game is aimed to battle with Activision's November-scheduled Modern Warfare 3.
Brown's crack about Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk is a reference to those once-dominant music and

 sports series falling so badly that neither has a new game out this year.
Activision has had limited reasons to sweat EA lately. Its Call of Duty and Modern Warfaregames have been smashing sales records for several consecutive numbers, easily cracking 10 million copies sold swiftly, ruling online play for months after their release. Activision is on the verge of launching a free and premium Call of Duty community and stat-tracking service and is staging a Call of Duty fan convention next month. Those are either the signs of the bubble Brown believes Battlefield is about to burst or they are the evidence that the juggernaut Call of Duty continues to be in shape to shrug off all comers.

Source: Kotaku

Is Iron Wolf the Next Call of Duty?

A pair of hackers that gained access to the Xbox account of a Treyarch employee believes they've stumbled across the next entry in the Call of Duty series, code named Iron Wolf. Are they on to something?
The Iron Wolf speculation comes after hackers gained access to the Xbox Live account of an internal PartnerNet gamertag which appears to belong to an employee atCall of Duty developer Treyarch. Flipping through braindx0's friends list, they noticed a number of friends playing a game labeled as Iron Wolf. Their assumption, fueled by the fact that one of the maps being played in Iron Wolf shared a name with a map from Black Ops, is that these people were playing Call of Duty 9, code named Iron Wolf.
The assumption strikes me as highly unlikely. The idea of a group of developers playing an upcoming game on a public network before the previous version has hit the market is ridiculous, especially when the franchise in question is Call of Duty.
What could they be playing? That requires more speculation. With a map name shared with Call of Duty: Black Ops, they could just be testing tweaks for that game. With the Iron Wolf code name sharing initials with Infinity Ward, they could be playing an early build of Modern Warfare 3, perhaps for comparison to the Wii version of Modern Warfare 3, developed by Treyarch.
And of course, I have to accept the possibility that sure, it could be Call of Duty 9. I'm 90 percent certain it isn't, but I have to allow. The Activision spokesperson I contacted about the story could only give me "Activision does not comment on rumors or speculation," so until they prove otherwise, there's always a chance.

Source:http://kotaku.com/5830319/is-iron-wolf-the-next-call-of-duty?tag=call-of-duty

Rumor: Team Bondi Being Acquired By George Miller’s KMM Studio

George Miller, the man responsible for directing, writing, and producing 1979 post-apocalyptic classic Mad Max, is the co-founder of a production house that is rumored to be interested in absorbing the remainder of L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi. Employees of George Miller’s KMM Studio are reporting seeing Team Bondi members, including infamous studio founder Brendan McNamara.
“Brendan McNamara was seen walking through the buildings of Dr. D yesterday, where Happy Feet 2 is being made,” claimed Kotaku’s trusted source.
The plot thickens when you learn that Sydney-based Dr.D is already staffed by some former Team Bondi folks who fled the reported crappy working conditions. Seeing their former boss presumably getting a tour of his potential new office was upsetting, says the source.
Apparently George Miller is a fan of Team Bondi’s work, and the fact that the company didn’t sacrifice their vision to meet deadlines.
“The word is going round that Team Bondi is being folded into KMM studios, Team Bondi is pretty much doomed after the scandal and can’t find any new supporters, so by doing this they can hide their name,” says the source.
KMM is currently working on a video game version of Happy Feet 2 to tie in with the animated film’s release. Allegedly KMM shifted focus away from a Mad Max title to the penguin-packed game.
If this proves to be true, the Team Bondi refuges at Dr.D could be in for a bitter reacquaintance should George Miller choose to take on the rest of the sullied Australian developer.

Source: GameInformer