Categories
News Video Games

SkylandersUniverse.com: Official site for Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure on the web

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure

[Updated: Skylanders Universe BETA opened in mid-October at http://universe.skylanders.com/ but Activision has failed to re-direct the domain SkylandersUniverse.com to the site at the time of this update.]

** 

The upcoming Activision game Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure set for release on October 16, 2011 in the United States, allows players to connect action figures to the platform of their choice.  The video game and toys will work with consoles including the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, and the Wii. 

But for those people without a game system, Skylanders will also be playable on the web. 

Activision already has an official website that provides details about the game on Skylandersgame.com, but the actual site for playing the web version of the game come October, will likely be SkylandersUniverse.com, according to recent domain registrations.

Activision has been busy registering domain names this past week for Modern Warfare 6 and Black Ops 6, a yet-to-be-announced Call of Duty Elite Founders Program, and now for Skylander’s Spyro’s Adventure.

The domains, all registered on August 16 through its registrar MarkMonitor include: spyrosuniverse.com, skylandersuniverse.com and skylandersspyrosuniverse.com.

References to Skylander’s Universe have been popping up on the web, on UK product order pages for the Nintendo 3DS version of the game.

Skylanders Universe

Here’s a look at the Whois record.

Registrant:
        Mary Tuck
        Activision Publishing, Inc
        3100 Ocean Park Blvd.
         Santa Monica CA 90405
        US
   
    Domain Name: skylandersuniverse.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
        Registrar Homepage: http ://www.markmonitor.com

    Created on…………..: 2011-08-16.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-08-16.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-08-17.

Categories
News

Amazon buys ‘cloud video’ domains to support its instant video service

Amazon Instant Video

On Thurday, Amazon announced that its Instant Video service  was now offering customers more than 100,000 movies and TV shows.

A day before the announcement, the company’s legal department was quietly registering related domain names from instantcloudvideo.com to streaminginstantvideo.com, with its registrar MarkMonitor.

The company picked up a dozen domains centered around its Instant Video service. 

http://whois.domaintools.com/amazoncloudvideo.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/cloudinstantvideo.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/cloudprimeinstantvideo.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/instantcloudvideo.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/instantstreamingvideo.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/instantvideocloud.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/instantvideointhecloud.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/primeinstantvideocloud.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/primestreamingvideo.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/primevideocloud.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/streaminginstantvideo.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/streamingprimeinstantvideo.com

Discussion: TechCrunch, VentureBeat and UberGizmo

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

Busy month for Apple in domains, files dispute over AppleiPods.com and more

ipod

Apple has had a busy month in domain names, between winning a dispute over iPods.com and revealing itself as the owner of ApplePico.com, the company has continued its activities filing 12 more disputes over different domains including AppleiPods.com with the World Intellectual Property Organization, and even registering for the first time AppleClassiciPod.com.

In August the company filed the following disputes with WIPO.

Case Number D2011-1327: wwitunes.com, wwwitunes.com

Case Number D2011-1387: appleproductsonline.com

Case Number D2011-1388: applebigdiscount.com, applesdiscount.com, applessales.com, applestorewell.com 

Case Number D2011-1390: appleipods.com, iphhone.com, iphine.com, ipodhack.com, macbookpros.com

In addition to filing the domain disputes, the company registered AppleClassiciPod.com, a domain name that surprisingly had never been taken.

Here’s a look at the Whois record details for AppleClassiciPod.com.

Registrant:
        Apple Inc.
        Apple Inc.
        1 Infinite Loop
         Cupertino CA 95014
        US

Domain Name: appleclassicipod.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
        Registrar Homepage: ‘http: //www.markmonitor.com

    Created on…………..: 2011-08-17.
    Expires on…………..: 2012-08-17.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-08-18.

Categories
News Video Games

Rumor: Call of Duty Elite to offer Founders Program

Call of Duty Elite

Earlier this week, Activision went on a domain buying binge of Black Ops and Modern Warfare domain names.

The shopping spree hasn’t ended.

On August 17, 2011, Activision acquired a slew of domains focusing on a Call of Duty Elite Founders Program ranging from EliteFounders.com to CallofDutyEliteFounders.com.

The company hasn’t announced anything official yet for the “Founders Program”, as far as I can tell.  The “Call of Duty Elite” service launched in Beta last month and if the Founders Program is much like other programs provided by gaming companies it could involve benefits like discounted fees for the subscription-based service, a head start on games and other products, among other things.

Activision registered the domain names through brand protection company MarkMonitor, where it’s own callofduty.com is registered, however each of the names remains hidden behind Whois privacy.

Here’s a look at each of the domains registered earlier this week.

http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyelitefounder.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyelitefounders.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/elitefounder.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/elitefounders.com

Categories
News Video Games

Activision may go up to Modern Warfare 6, Black Ops 6 with its newest domains

Call of Duty Black Ops 6

Activision has apparently gone on a domain name shopping spree through the registrar MarkMonitor, acquiring over a dozen Call of Duty-related domain names that hint we might see the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops series go up to at least six titles.

Domain names like BlackOps6.com and CallofDutyMW6.com were registered.

Here’s a look at the full list of domain registrations that took place on August 15, 2011.

http://whois.domaintools.com/blackops4.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/blackops5.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/blackops6.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyblackops3.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyblackops4.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyblackops5.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyblackops6.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutymw5.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutymw6.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/codblackops3.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/codblackops4.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/codblackops5.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/codblackops6.com 

The actual registrant of the name is DNS tination Inc, a Whois privacy service offered by MarkMonitor.  But these domain names are almost certainly owned by Activision, as MarkMonitor is a well-known brand protection company used by top companies like Apple.

It’s entirely possible that these recent registrations are nothing more than part of the company’s intellectual property strategy, but if it’s learned anything from the fiasco over ModernWarfare3.com, it may be planning ahead.

Discussion: Kotaku and VGChartz