Month: January 2012

Take-Two registers Death to Founders, Vox Populi domains for Bioshock Infinite

Post author By J.B.
Post date January 25, 2012
1 Comment on Take-Two registers Death to Founders, Vox Populi domains for Bioshock Infinite

It appears Take-Two Interactive Software is going to ramp up online marketing for its upcoming first-person shooter Bioshock Infinite that is set to be released later this year.

On January 23, 2012, the video game publisher registered the domains DeathtotheFounders.com (Whois), DeathtotheVox.com (Whois) and DeathtotheVoxPopuli.com (Whois).

While the registrant of each name is hidden behind Whois privacy, the domain servers listed (NS.TAKE2GAMES.COM, NS6.ROCKSTARGAMES.COM, NS5.TAKE2GAMES.COM) belong to Take-Two Interactive.

For those not familiar with Bioshock Infinite, the Founders are the ruling party of Columbia, a city built by the US Government in the late 1800s to serve as a floating world’s fair. The Vox Populi (which means “Voice of the People” in Latin) are the group opposing the Founders.

At the time of this story being published, each of the web addresses returns a 403 error page on BioshockInfinite.com.

Discussion: This is Xbox and The Bioshock Wiki

(Image of Bioshock Infinite via official website)

Tags Bioshock Infinite, featured, Irrational Games, Take-Two, Take-Two domains, Take-Two Interactive, Take-Two Interactive Software, Vox, Vox Populi, WHOIS privacy

News Trademarks Video Games

Electronic Arts files trademark applications for ‘Trouble Makers’ game

Post author By J.B.
Post date January 23, 2012
1 Comment on Electronic Arts files trademark applications for ‘Trouble Makers’ game

Electronic Arts filed two trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on January 18, 2012, for the term “Trouble Makers”.

Serial number 85519088 covers: “Entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game; Provision of information relating to electronic computer games provided via the Internet.”

Serial number 85519072 covers: “Computer game software; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; Video game software.”

At the time of this story going online, EA has not made an official announcement. However, if EA has any serious interest at all in developing a “Trouble Makers” game and launching it online, it may have to open its wallet wide to get the matching web address.

Troublemakers.com has been listed for sale on the web for years. The current asking price is $50,000 USD or best offer.

Care to guess what EA has in store for “Trouble Makers”?

Could it be the next installment of Need for Speed rumored to be out later this year?

Discussion: Game Informer and This is Xbox

Tags EA, EA trademarks, Electronic Arts, Electronic Arts trademark, Electronic Arts trademarks, Need for Speed, Need for Speed: Trouble Makers, Trouble Makers, Trouble Makers game

News

Facebook registers ‘newsroom’ domains, is a social news website on the way?

Post author By J.B.
Post date January 23, 2012
5 Comments on Facebook registers ‘newsroom’ domains, is a social news website on the way?

Facebook has had a busy week with domain names.

On January 18, the company registered a slew of domains with “FB Origin” in the name. It followed up those purchases with “timeline movie maker” domains.

Facebook hasn’t officially been confirmed as the buyer of the timeline domains since the registrant is hidden behind Whois privacy, but the names were registered through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor and the web addresses re-direct users to the Facebook Timeline page.

Now the social networking giant has bought up “Facebook Newsroom” names like facebook-newsroom.com.

Altogether, the company registered three domains: facebook-newsroom.com (Whois), facebook-newsroom.net (Whois), and facebook-newsroom.org (Whois).

It’s unknown what Facebook will do with its latest domains, but if it has anything to do with the word newsroom, maybe the plan is to launch a social news website where users submit content, similar to Reddit.

In case you’re wondering, facebooknewsroom.com (missing the hyphen) was registered by a resident of Kansas in 2011.

[Update 1 on January 23, 2012 at 3:53pm EST: Turns out these domain registrations aren’t all that exciting. I just received an e-mail from The OutCast Agency (one of Facebook’s PR teams) who say, “The domains you reference are part of an upgrade to Facebook’s press room, not part of a new product.”]

Discussion: Mediagazer, Fast Company, Journalism.org, 10,000 Words, All Facebook, NBC Bay Area, Marketing Land, Index, @ckanal, Simply Zesty, mediabistro.com, @PRNewswire, @cschweitz, brandchannel.com, and The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum

Tags facebook, Facebook apps, Facebook domain, Facebook domain name, Facebook domain names, Facebook domains, Facebook news room, Facebook newsroom, Facebook Origin, Facebook Timeline, FB Origin, FBOrigin, featured, Newsroom, Reddit, social news, social news website, Timeline apps

News Video Games

Microsoft acquires ClicktoHump.com and other Halo related domain names

Post author By J.B.
Post date January 21, 2012
3 Comments on Microsoft acquires ClicktoHump.com and other Halo related domain names

Microsoft has made some interesting domain name acquisitions this month that might create excitement for Halo fans.

And I’m not talking about names like Halo 13 or Halo Kinect 3D, I’m talking about names like ClicktoHump.com and GetBattleReady.com.

According to Whois records, Microsoft is now the owner of several Halo related domains, that were first registered years ago.

Although the domains may be nothing more than part of the company’s intellectual property strategy to protect its Halo brand, they are certainly interesting.

Here’s a look at the company’s latest Halo related domain acquisitions.

[Update 1 on January 23, 2012: I’ve discovered many more domains acquired by Microsoft via Melbourne IT DBS and added them to the list above like itshumpday.com and ridebrokeback.com.]

Discussion: The Next Web, GeekWire, Business Insider, Neowin.net, MSNBC, halo.bungie.org, @PatrickKlepek and This Is Xbox

(Image of Halo player repeatedly crouching while standing over a dead enemy via Halo Wikia)

Tags Click to Hump, featured, Get Battle Ready, Halo career, Halo domains, Halo story, Halo Xbox, Halo zero, John 117, microsoft, Microsoft domains, Microsoft Halo

News Video Games

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

Post author By J.B.
Post date January 21, 2012
1 Comment on Zynga sports games like football may be coming soon as more hints are dropped

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

Tags bountyville, Coasterville, crimeville, EA Sports, featured, Football with Friends, Footballville, hotelville, Mark Turmell, NFL Blitz, Ranchville, Tennis with Friends, zynga, Zynga domains, Zynga Football, Zynga NFL, Zynga Sports