Year, day, month in that order written all together? I have seen both day-month-year (12-09-2026) and year-month-day (2026-09-12), but _that_'s a new one.
I was wondering what compelled Bethesda to update the game a few weeks ago, the first time in two years. On PC, any update to the game breaks mods that rely on DLL modification, so you'd expect them to be wary of doing it for no reason. Maybe improving support for this was the impetus.
Do you think someone at IKEA had the idea and they hired someone to do it, or did someone have the idea and made it, and then talked IKEA into making it official?
The idea has been conceived and executed by creative agency Mother, in partnership with Kinggath Creations - a team of creatives, fans and mod developers who make fun and original content that blends seamlessly into the game world.
It is likely they had the idea they (the people that actually made the mod) could talk a brand into this and IKEA was one of the many brands pitched. But someone at IKEA has to have seen this and say okay this makes sense for it work obviously. Eitherway i would say it doesn't really matter as long as they do fun stuff like this
I watched a bit of someone's play through and was impressed by how much content there actually was for a one-off bit like this. I would have assumed they would have just made enough content to make for a funny ad but there's quite a lot of scripted storyline and voice acting.
I suspect you can get quite a lot of value out of a few Skyrim modders for a relatively modest fee, given the enormous passion tax. After all, most modders already do it for free.
Just a reminder that they are a corporation and to not fall for their PR. They are actively destroying the environment while paying as little tax as possible. The cheapness of their furniture does have externalities one needs to consider.
At this point their products have so little material that it may be better for the environment to buy an IKEA one vs decent furniture (from the standpoint of caring for the environment)
At some point people need to take some responsibilities too. I have a bunch of ikea furniture. I have never thrown much away. Maybe 1 piece. I manage to disassemble and reassemble the rest when I need to. Sometimes I need to take a closer look at make sure I can disassemble and reassemble it.
People view cheap as disposable. That’s not entirely corporations fault.
I really don't understand this point, similar to the other poster below - making lightweight furniture and not clear cutting virgin forests are not mutually exclusive.
I think there's a big difference between products that are inherently harmful to the environment and products that are only harmful because the producer chooses to behave harmfully. European regulators should just stop Ikea from clear cutting virgin forests.
Hm. That's a situational rule. In this case it makes it funnier. A person could write a whole encyclopedia of lore tracing Kallax back to its mythical roots.
Chex Quest was really good, wasn't it!? I was so impressed. Today I learned, it is known for having been the first video game ever to be included as a cereal box prize.
Even I've heard of Chex Quest and the brand has never been available in my country.
Interesting lesson there. No one hates marketing tie-ins when you make something genuinely fun, i.e. that people want to play. Opposed to forcing a distraction.
One of the known bugs in skyrim that will likely never be patched is that you realistically can't fill a room with cheese wheels, cabbage, bottles of wine or any other static objects (in a cell that persists items, like in an owned house). It's already hard enough to put an object on a table or shelf and expect to not find it on the floor if you leave and come back.
Add enough objects to keep track of and it'll crash the game immediately on loading the cell. Some of the examples of cluttered objects in the video are already pushing the limits of what will crash the game engine.
You've reminded me of a story from the Witcher 3 devs where during an earlier build items would randomly disappear. Horses, weapons, tankards, even NPCs... you name it, on certain conditions they would vanish before the player's eyes.
Turns out they weren't just disappearing, they were "teleporting" by effectively respawning at a single point in the dead centre of the map.
When they investigated the location there was an innocuous looking dwelling that was packed to the rafters with all the vanished assets. Spending too long in the place would crash the game, presumably because the collection detection on that number of cheeses, sheep, and grunting Nilfgaardian soldiers was just too much.
They should call it "Bagaget" which translates to "The Luggage" and put lots of small feet under it. Those who read Discworld will know what I'm talking about.
Funny, but I hope it doesn't catch on. This genre of games is rather free from ads and the last thing we need is corporations shoving their marketing agenda into classics.
IKEA bullied the developer of the indie game The Store is Closed into gutting the whole game. [0]
It’s a shame how people can even acknowledge, let alone applaud IKEA’s “funny” gaming-related ad after their successful meddling with SCP folklore, not to speak of the chilling effect their actions may have had on indie gaming.
Yeah sorry man, that's clearly IKEA so it's obvious they had to act on it. Can't sell IKEA-branded games without their permission. Even on their Steam trailer, the first second is clearly IKEA. Just changing the name is not enough. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1593010/The_Store_is_Clos...
Sometimes it's not that deep. Sometimes the cute little indie dev just made a mistake.
The game is also not out yet, even though rewards were promised in June 2024.
IKEA is the only furniture store with a four-letter name in that same typeface in yellow on a blue building even though it is called 'STYR' here. It is the only furniture store using that uniform, also blue-yellow, for its personnel. The game maker clearly used IKEA as an inspiration but forgot that 'inspiration' is not the same as 'duplication'. They could have made the building red, used a serif typeface and a 7-character name, dressed their 'personnel' in red-green uniforms, etc. and IKEA would not have bothered them. Now, they did, and right they were.
The factory builder game Captain of Industry has a building you can add on to a settlement which sells household goods and furniture to the population. It's a blue building with yellow trim and a big sign on the front that says IDEA. I wonder if this is just small potatoes enough of a parody that IKEA wouldn't care about it.
No reasonable person would have been confused into thinking it was an official IKEA game; IANAL, but it seems unlikely to me that IKEA would have ultimately prevailed in court.
It's a direct ripoff of https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3008, a popular sci-fi horror story set in an IKEA. At the time the game was also using IKEA's brand colors.
The game description on Steam even explicitly mentions "SCP Foundation", which the creator also doesn't have the rights to use unless the whole game is Creative Commons-licensed.
You can only defend your trademark with respect to product categories that you actually market. Unless IKEA were in the business of selling parody video games, their trademark doesn't apply.
Wait... is that why IKEA just put out a parody video game?
The game is not itself a store or advertising a real store. It is an entirely different product category. Parody is still legal and allowed as fair use, the likeness is the point. This is hardly the most egregious example that I have seen.
Ultimately, these matters would likely be decided in court. IANAL either but it seems like the game maker would have a strong case. That doesn't mean IKEA couldn't make it impossible to fight with their unlimited legal resources, I can understand not wanting to spend a chunk of your life on that. Textbook legal bullying.
You can also defend it against tarnishment. They can argue that IKEA appearing in a violent video game has negative associations with their trademarks.
Unethical IP lawyers spew that nonsense all the time. Failing to enforce your trademark against a tiny alleged infringer has no effect on your trademark rights at all.
This is false, however this is not seem like a case where trademark is being infringed. If someone else opens a store called Ikea they obviously have to shut it down.
IKEA has a trade dress and the game matches their color scheme and font exactly. The building is clearly an IKEA with the exact same branding, just different four letter name.
Some of the early backrooms lore and levels were based on noclipping in furniture stores or even IKEA directly since it was all fan made stuff not caring about the legal ramifications.
I tried to find a link but it’s impossible now that backrooms is a popular IP
And having been in an empty IKEA, it definitely had that liminal feel
Kind of reminds me of a college classmate back in the 80s made a Hypercard game which he had called Escape from Harvey Mudd but which the college asked (maybe demanded?) that it be renamed as it started to get distribution so the more commonly seen version was called Escape from Grid Tech. I would guess that there might have been some reputational concerns as that classmate was one of the people who dropped out of Mudd during my time there (the late 80s cohorts had a lot of people, myself included, who had wavered between humanities and sciences and after exposure to life in the sciences decided to opt for the humanities instead—most of us ended up doing programming for a living having no marketable skills post-college. The one person from my freshman year suite who actually finished his degree at Mudd went on to become a music professor).
Did not expect to see Mudd mentioned in the comment section on HN for an IKEA Skyrim mod... Not really surprised the admin was like that given the name, but I hope things worked out well for y'all.
This is a tough one. The main culprit here is that trademwark law forces the trademark owner into an active defense posture to avoid losing the trademwark. This is very different from patents or copyright. So, in a way, IKEA was forced to write that nasty letter to the developer. Still, it's obvious fromo the published game footage that the developer was trying to walk a line between referencing IKEA and calling them out directly.
I kind of wish that lawyers could settle these things more amicably than by opening with outright threats. The game is clearly taking SCP 3008 as its inspiration and that is a a quite satirical horror story take on IKEA stores. A part of me wishes that companies would be a bit more relaxed about obviously comedic or satirical uses of their identity. What would IKEA lose by approaching the developers in a more supportive manner initially? Say, by offering some more constructive suggestions to steer them away from the particular elements they take offense at.
It sounds like they mostly did something like that:
> The lawyers then tell the developer, “You can of course easily make a video game set in a furniture store that does not look like, or suggest, an IKEA store.” The presumed game development experts go on to explain, “You can easily make changes to your game to avoid these problems, especially since you do not plan to release the game until 2024.”
They did that, but I think the 10 day deadline is quite heavy-handed. Also, would it be too difficult to offer a review and critique of a revised design (draft) to make sure that the matter can be resolved without further escalation?
They could have bought the game rights, hired the devs, or otherwise come to some licensing agreement. It’d have been a boatload of free publicity for very little outlay. I guess they may not have wanted customers to associate their store with scary things, though.
Ah, but this clearly falls under parody. No reasonable person would assume this depicts a genuine ikea store. That said, ikea could’ve just granted permission to use their trademark in a horror parody game. That would’ve been a fun ikea promotion rather than stoke animosity
Was it important part of the game that the store looks just like IKEA?
If yes, that probably makes it more likely that it was a trademark infringement and that IKEA was justified.
If no, it shouldn't be a big deal to change the colors, just to avoid potential confusion.
Is it possible that that influenced IKEA's decision to make the Skyrim mod in OP? That way, they have a stronger trademark case, because it's more likely for a consumer to confuse the fake IKEA game with the real one.
What percent of people do you think know that? I sure didn't. I'm guessing to two decimal points, exactly 0.00% of people know that. It's a shame how people can make sweeping statements about something when it's beyond obvious no one knows what they're talking about.
I haven’t played The Store is Closed, but to everyone saying IKEA had some obligation to shut down a parody…videogames parody real brands all the time, including their colors? Why was this different?
Some examples offhand:
- Fallout’s Nuka Cola is an obvious parody of Coca Cola (also same colors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuka-Cola) and Cram is an obvious parody of Spam (same colors)
- GTA is full of these: Sprunk (an obvious parody of Sprite, again same colors), Fruit (obviously Apple—same colors, same branding style, same use of iPrefix and “think” marketing), definitely others
- Saints Row “Freckle Bitches” was a fairly obvious reference to Whendy’s (“I’m all grown up”)
All of these games were bigger, not Indy games at all, and none of the parodied brands saw any obligation to sue AFAIK. Would IKEA have gone after Rockstar, given that they’re much bigger and very popular? I’m suspicious that this was a case of “small target” rather than “big problem”.
126 comments
[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 4.0 ms ] threadaverage skyrim patch notes:
- added no features
- fixed no bugs
- moved around some buttons in the paid mods menu
https://creative.salon/articles/work/ikea-mother-kallax-stor...
OP here looks innocent enough at least.
BILLY gang forever!
(just kidding, I actually have both, and way more IVAR shelves than BILLYs at that(BILLIES? What would be the proper plural here?))
(skogsmil = forest miles)
I wonder who the authors are.
> Become encumbered in-game to start your quest to storage bliss! It just works.
> Maybe.
People view cheap as disposable. That’s not entirely corporations fault.
Do you have any more such scoops?
Ikea vs. The Sims? Lame, obvious
Ikea vs. Skyrim? 10/10 no notes
I loved playing it when I was 8 or so.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chex_Quest
Interesting lesson there. No one hates marketing tie-ins when you make something genuinely fun, i.e. that people want to play. Opposed to forcing a distraction.
It would be hilarious if they made more of them. Chex: Eternal, Chex: Age of Breakfast
Play it! https://dos.zone/chex-quest-1996/
Add enough objects to keep track of and it'll crash the game immediately on loading the cell. Some of the examples of cluttered objects in the video are already pushing the limits of what will crash the game engine.
It’s a shame how people can even acknowledge, let alone applaud IKEA’s “funny” gaming-related ad after their successful meddling with SCP folklore, not to speak of the chilling effect their actions may have had on indie gaming.
[0]: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/the-store-is-closed-indie-s...
Sometimes it's not that deep. Sometimes the cute little indie dev just made a mistake.
The game is also not out yet, even though rewards were promised in June 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_dress
https://old.reddit.com/r/captain_of_industry/comments/1vtbz8...
Wait... is that why IKEA just put out a parody video game?
If the name of an unrelated game was IKEA as some clever acronym or such and it was unrelated to stores, that would be a different trademark convo.
Ultimately, these matters would likely be decided in court. IANAL either but it seems like the game maker would have a strong case. That doesn't mean IKEA couldn't make it impossible to fight with their unlimited legal resources, I can understand not wanting to spend a chunk of your life on that. Textbook legal bullying.
If you don't defend your mark, you lose it.
IKEA has a trade dress and the game matches their color scheme and font exactly. The building is clearly an IKEA with the exact same branding, just different four letter name.
did Backrooms also infringe on IKEA or maybe every furniture store has the same concept
I tried to find a link but it’s impossible now that backrooms is a popular IP
And having been in an empty IKEA, it definitely had that liminal feel
Yeah that’s crazy I wonder why
I kind of wish that lawyers could settle these things more amicably than by opening with outright threats. The game is clearly taking SCP 3008 as its inspiration and that is a a quite satirical horror story take on IKEA stores. A part of me wishes that companies would be a bit more relaxed about obviously comedic or satirical uses of their identity. What would IKEA lose by approaching the developers in a more supportive manner initially? Say, by offering some more constructive suggestions to steer them away from the particular elements they take offense at.
> The lawyers then tell the developer, “You can of course easily make a video game set in a furniture store that does not look like, or suggest, an IKEA store.” The presumed game development experts go on to explain, “You can easily make changes to your game to avoid these problems, especially since you do not plan to release the game until 2024.”
(from https://kotaku.com/ikea-furniture-horror-game-store-is-close..., linked in the article)
They also listed exactly what they think infringes their trademark.
Was it important part of the game that the store looks just like IKEA?
If yes, that probably makes it more likely that it was a trademark infringement and that IKEA was justified. If no, it shouldn't be a big deal to change the colors, just to avoid potential confusion.
Is it important that the beads looked like Pepsi/Sprite? Kind of, people want recognizable brands
Some examples offhand:
- Fallout’s Nuka Cola is an obvious parody of Coca Cola (also same colors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuka-Cola) and Cram is an obvious parody of Spam (same colors)
- GTA is full of these: Sprunk (an obvious parody of Sprite, again same colors), Fruit (obviously Apple—same colors, same branding style, same use of iPrefix and “think” marketing), definitely others
- Saints Row “Freckle Bitches” was a fairly obvious reference to Whendy’s (“I’m all grown up”)
All of these games were bigger, not Indy games at all, and none of the parodied brands saw any obligation to sue AFAIK. Would IKEA have gone after Rockstar, given that they’re much bigger and very popular? I’m suspicious that this was a case of “small target” rather than “big problem”.
https://youtube.com/@ikeaheights?si=ZP7jYR1cUw16yhvo
Why and how it remains available, only Google knows!