Tag: zynga

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News Video Games

Zynga sports games like football may be coming soon as more hints are dropped

Zynga football

Zynga football

If you’ve been itching to play sports games developed by social gaming giant Zynga, they may actually be closer to launch than you think. 

In the past 12 months, the company has made moves indicating social sports games may be under development, like the hiring of EA Sports Creative Director Mark Turmell, who was also the lead designer of NFL Blitz (picture above) while he was at Midway. 

Zynga’s latest move: acquiring the domain name ZyngaSports.com.

I did a little domain sleuthing today and found that the domain ZyngaSports.com (Whois) was transferred this week to the intellectual property law firm, Keats McFarland & Wilson, who of course acts as Zynga’s attorneys in IP matters such as that of the Blingville dispute.

So which sports game will be first out of the gate? 

It’s anyone’s guess, but if I had to pick it would be Zynga Football. 

And yes, Zynga owns ZyngaFootball.com, ZyngaFootball.net, and even ZyngaFootball.org.

It acquired those web addresses in April 2010 with the help of internet brand protection company MarkMonitor, along with over 500 domains based on existing and possibly future games. 

The names which were transferred over a two day span in April, are too many to list here in this post, but included domains like animalvillegame.com, bountyville.com, casinoblitzgame.com, coasterville.net, crimevillegame.com, friendempires.com, hotelvillegame.com, ranchville.info, zyngadopewars.com, zyngadragonwars.com, zyngaglamourlife.com, and of course, zyngafootball.com.

While the imminent launch of Zynga Sports is purely speculation, it looks like a very good possibility.

Though not an exhaustive list, you can see hundreds of the domains Zynga acquired in April 2010 here.

Discussion: Kotaku, Games.com, Gawker, All Facebook and Gamezebo

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News Video Games

Zynga goes on domain buying spree for new Scramble with Friends app

Scramble with Friends

On Thursday, Zynga announced the launch of the mobile social game Scramble With Friends, saying, “Scramble with Friends is a fast-paced, fun-packed game that combines the brain bending experience of Zynga’s original Scramble.” 

On the same day the social gaming company announced the game on its blog, it also registered several domain names through the brand protection company MarkMonitor, like scramblewithfriends2.com and playscramblewithfriends.com.

Zynga doesn’t own scramble.com, and it’s hard to say whether the company officially owns ScramblewithFriends.com.  The web address, which was first registered back in January 2011 according to WHOIS records, points to a Go Daddy parked page.  The owner is currently hidden using Go Daddy’s privacy service Domains by Proxy. 

Here’s the full list of domains that were registered on January 5 through MarkMonitor.

playscramblewithfriends.com
scramblewithfriends2.com
scramblewithfriends3.com
scramblewithfriendsandroid.com
scramblewithfriendsapp.com
scramblewithfriendsfacebook.com
scramblewithfriendsgame.com
scramblewithfriendshd.com
scramblewithfriendsipad.com
scramblewithfriendsiphone.com
scramblewithfriendslive.com
scramblewithfriendsmobile.com
scramblewithfriendsplus.com
wwwscramblewithfriends.com

Scramble with Friends is available for download on the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch and will be coming soon for Android.

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News Trademarks Video Games

Zynga goes on record about new iOS game by filing Forestville trademark

Forestville on Facebook

I first broke the news last week about Zynga developing a new “Ville” game after several Forestville domains were privately registered through MarkMonitor, an internet brand protection company Zynga regularly uses.

While I had nothing more to work on than new domain registrations, an anonymous reader sent me a tip that a Facebook page was online, further solidifying my belief that a game was in the works and near launch day.

Shortly after my story ran, accompanied by screen shots and a web address, the page was taken offline. 

Zynga, even with all the proof, made no announcement despite Games.com, AllFacebook, and other sites covering my story, so there was still some lingering doubt about the game.

Though Zynga does not officially comment on speculation or rumor, this week it has officially gone on record indirectly, by filing a trademark application (Serial Number: 85487695) for “Forestville” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Here’s a look at the trademark filing.

Forestville trademark

Expect to see a press release from the social gaming giant on “Forestville” soon.

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News Video Games

Small preview of unannounced iOS game by Zynga called Forestville

Forestville by Zynga

Over the weekend, I wrote about Zynga registering several new domain names for a possible up-and-coming game called Forestville, which the company has not yet announced. 

Today, an anonymous reader has tipped me to the fact there is a Facebook page that has been online almost a week, which offers more clues about the game.

The page appears to be legit.

A description of the game published on Facebook reads: “Help Daisy the fox and her furry friends build a fabulous forest habitat! Establish farms and fishing spots for food, decorate with natural wonders, and expand your forest to unlock new species. Play ForestVille from Zynga and create the forest of your dreams!”

While there is no game yet available to download and play, there is a photo album that includes pictures of Daisy the fox.

The web address for the page is: http://www.facebook.com/ForestVille.Zynga

A message on the Wall reads: “Watch your own forest habitat come to life in ForestVille by Zynga! It’s coming soon to your iOS mobile device!”

[Updated on Dec. 6 at 12:40pm EST:  It appears the URL no longer resolves to a web page, even if you are signed in to Facebook.  I did take a  screenshot of the page before it was taken down.]   

Discussion: Games.com, AllFacebook, Gamezebo, Piki Geek and Inside Social Games

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News Video Games

Zynga has plans to launch Forestville, tipped off by domain name registrations

Zynga Forestville

Zynga Forestville

Zynga recently launched Castleville, but now the social gaming giant appears to have plans to launch a new game called Forestville.

This week Zynga registered several domains with the word Forestville in the name like ForestvillewithFriends.com and ForestvilleZynga.com.

All of the names were registered through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor that Zynga regularly uses to acquire domain names. 

And as I usually point out, though each domain registration is hidden behind MarkMonitor’s WHOIS privacy service ‘DNStinations’, MarkMonitor is in the business of helping Fortune 100 companies protect their brands online.  Zynga’s own Zynga.com is registered with MarkMonitor, as are hundreds of its other domains. 

So, there’s no doubt whatsoever that Zynga is behind these names.

Interestingly enough, Zynga doesn’t own the prime internet real estate: Forestville.com.  The domain is currently home to the Forestville Central School District website out of New York.  But that hasn’t stopped Zynga from registering typos of Forestville.com like wwwforestville.com (minus a ‘.’) or forestvile.com (minus an ‘l’).

Zynga did manage to get several country domains like Forestville.de, Forestville.jp and Forestville.co.uk.  A message on the home page of Forestville.de reads, “This domain is registered and protected by MarkMonitor”.

Below is a list of many of the names registered earlier this week.

forestvile.com
forestville.de
forestville.jp
forestville.co.uk
forestville2.com
forestvilleandroid.com
forestvilleapp.com
forestvillefacebook.com
forestvillegame.com
forestvillegamecards.com
forestvilleipad.com
forestvilleiphone.com
forestvillelive.com
forestvillemobile.com
forestvilleplus.com
forestvillewithfriends.com
forestvillezynga.com
playforestville.com
wwwforestville.com

At the time of this story going online today at 5am EST, Zynga has not made any announcement about the game.  So Forestville becoming a full-fledged game is just speculation until more news emerges from Zynga.

I’ve reached out to the Forestville.com webmaster to see whether they had been contacted about the domain and will update this story if I hear back.

Here’s a look at the WHOIS record for ForestvilleZynga.com.

WHOIS record for ForestvilleZynga.com

[Update 3 on Dec. 14, 2011: Zynga finally announced the game on it’s blog.]

[Update 2 on Dec. 9, 2011:  Zynga filed a trademark application (Serial Number: 85487695) for “Forestville” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.]

[Update 1 on Dec. 5, 2011 at 4:10pm EST:  It’s official.  There is a Facebook page for Forestville.  The game is headed to iOS, but hasn’t launched as of yet.]

Discussion: Joystiq, AllFacebook, VG247, Games.com, Shacknews, GameStar and Gamer Zona