3 Video Game Easter Eggs That Took Players Years to Finally Discover

A good Easter egg is one of the best things players can find in their favorite video game. It represents the developers talking directly to the players through inside jokes and clever references. And with so many players looking for new Easter eggs when a popular game comes out, they usually don’t stay hidden for long. That said, some Easter eggs have gone under the radar for years, with a few even requiring the developers to drop hints or outright spoil the hidden reference before fans could uncover the secret. When that happens, those Easter eggs go down in history as some of the most memorable in gaming.

Here are three Easter eggs that fans needed years to uncover.

3) Splinter Cell: Double Agent‘s Seal Rescue

As mentioned, players sometimes need a nudge in the right direction to find the most obscure Easter eggs. That was the case in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent, which launched in 2006. By 2010, no one had found the secret mission “Splinter Seals,” so a Ubisoft Montreal level designer finally took to the internet to show it off.

You have to be playing in co-op mode and will have to complete several strange tasks that most players would never think to do in the stealth game. After going through all of the steps, you’ll eventually rescue five alien baby seals. Then, the princess seal comes down to talk to you before heading back to her world.

It’s utterly bizarre and not at all surprising that players couldn’t find it without help. It feels more like the joke endings in Silent Hill than something you’d expect from a Splinter Cell game. That said, the developers were clearly having fun with this one.

2) Halo 3‘s Birthday Message

This one isn’t actually hard to find; you just need to know where to look. When Halo 3 was released in 2007, developer Adrian Perez probably assumed it wouldn’t take players long to figure out the Easter egg he’d left for his wife. You activate it from the title screen, after all. Seven years later, no one had found it, so Perez mentioned his surprise online.

That led to a scramble from the playerbase. Eventually, it was discovered that if you set your Xbox’s inner clock to December 25th and depressed both thumbsticks while Halo 3 is loading, a new screen will pop up featuring the Halo ring. As it continues, it’ll reveal a hidden message, wishing Perez’s wife, Lauren, a happy birthday.

It’s not the biggest Easter egg you’ll ever see, but it’s wild that it took so long for players to uncover. On top of that, Perez showed a ton of restraint not to share the message much earlier. With tributes like this, you’ll often see the developer share the secret much sooner, especially if they want their loved one to know.

1) Batman: Arkham‘s Many Secrets

The Batman: Arkham series is filled with Easter eggs for fans willing to search through every nook and cranny of Rocksteady’s world. A few of these secrets took years to find. First, there was the hidden room in Arkham Asylum that contained a map pointing toward the sequel, turning the city into one giant prison. This hidden room wasn’t found for nearly a year.

Arkham City did fans one better. Its secret took about three years to uncover. If you set your system’s clock to the day Rocksteady was formed and speak to Calendar Man in his cell, the villain will have unique dialogue for you. This time, Calendar Man drops a few hints about what fans could expect from Arkham Knight.

Unfortunately, Arkham Knight didn’t complete the trifecta in the traditional sense. That’s because Rocksteady made it clear it wouldn’t be returning to Batman for its next console game. That said, there were several references to the wider DC universe, hinting that Rocksteady would next be working on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Unfortunately, that game was a dud and caused layoffs at the studio, so it remains to be seen what Rocksteady will do next.

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