How to make a video game Easter Egg: legal tips and tricks

Abstract

In the permanent struggle for better user experience, game developers have invented a unique way of communication with players—Easter Eggs, or hidden messages, jokes and secret features inserted into the game to reward curious players. Several years ago, at the dawn of console gaming, Atari, Inc. did not pay enough tribute to its individual developers. Warren Robinett, then a developer at Atari, included an Easter Egg in the game ‘Adventure’. Using a hidden pixel, he left an inscription: ‘CREATED BY WARREN ROBINETT’.1 His historical message was not the first Easter Egg, but was the one triggering the longest egg hunt in history. For nearly 40 years afterward, players have been intrigued investigating games in pursuit of hidden Easter Eggs. Today, Easter Eggs are an integral part of modern culture. Video game and film production companies provide especially fertile ground for all forms of Easter Eggs. For instance, the recent ‘Ready Player One’ is a big encyclopaedia of Easter Eggs. There were Marvin the Martian, Hello Kitty, Robocop and many other famous characters. One might have noticed that during the Race, Parzival drives a renown DMC DeLorean modified for time machine from ‘Back to the Future’.2 Also, the interior accurately reflected that from ‘Back to the Future’ with its unique time circuit board. The other cars on the Race were not random either: a 1960s Batmobile, cars from ‘Mad Max’, the Mach Five from the ‘Speed Racer’ (Mach GoGoGo) and many others. The entire film was a patchwork of pop culture references, pertinently placed by Steven Spielberg. However, the film was even more intriguing for copyright lawyers rather than for pop culture buffs, as it triggered questions concerning the legal nature of the various Easter Eggs. From a legal standpoint, Easter Eggs do not differ from the other cases of third-party IP use … but should they? What is the difference between using Minecraft’s ‘Creepers’ on a T-shirt, in the advertising of a competitor’s game or on canvas?