Month: June 2012

Categories
News Video Games

Nearly 15 years after first release, Blizzard has acquired StarCraft.com [UPDATED]

StarCraft

For years, the website StarCraft.com has flip-flopped between being home to a Starcraft Marine boat site and an online RV Buyer’s Guide.  It has never hosted information for Blizzard’s real-time strategy game StarCraft.

The official StarCraft website can be found on Blizzard.com, but that could be about to change.

According to Whois, the domain name StarCraft.com no longer belongs to its previous owners.  The name is now registered to DNStination, Inc., a privacy service of the global internet brand-protection company MarkMonitor, of which Blizzard Entertainment is a client.

Names like WarCraft.fr and Blizzard.fr are just two examples of many names owned by Blizzard Entertainment and registered through MarkMonitor.

At this point, it’s unknown if Blizzard paid money for the name or whether the company threatened legal action.  Given there is no record of a complaint being filed over StarCraft.com, Blizzard likely paid a pretty price for securing rights to the domain name.

For now, it’s only speculation that Blizzard acquired the name, but don’t be surprised to see the name being used by Blizzard very soon.

The sequel StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released in 2010.  An expansion pack StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is expected to be released in 2012, although no official date has been announced.

I’ve reached out to StarCraft.com’s previous owners via e-mail to inquire about the transaction and will update this post if I hear back.

[UPDATE 2 June 27, 2012:. It’s official: Blizzard is the owner of StarCraft.com and StarCraft.net.  The Whois records here and here now show Blizzard Entertainment as the registrant.]

[UPDATE 1 June 25, 2012:. StarCraft.net was also acquired from the same owner, according to Whois.]

Talking about this story: VG247, Lazygamer, MeriStation and Videogamer.com

(Image of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty via Blizzard.com)

Categories
News Video Games

Electronic Arts registers ‘The Cap Lab’

Electronic Arts Redwood Shores

I have no idea what Electronic Arts is dreaming up, but this week the video-gaming company registered the domain name: TheCapLab.com.

On June 18, 2012, EA purchased the domain (Whois) through the internet brand protection company CSC Global.

No other traces of names being registered in other extensions can be found, and, at the time of this story, EA has not filed any trademarks for “The Cap Lab”.

It’s unknown what EA has planned.  The company has not made any official announcement and the domain name does not resolve to a web page.

According to Whois history, TheCapLab.com was first registered by a resident of Florida in 2007, but the name appears to have expired way back in 2009 and was never renewed.

Readers:  Care to guess what “The Cap Lab” will be?

Talking about this story: Gameranx

Categories
Movies News Video Games

Ubisoft may be planning ‘Watch Dogs’ video game movie according to domains

Watch Dogs movie

Could there already be a “Watch Dogs” movie in the works?

If domain name registrations are any indication of things to come, it looks like Ubisoft may be in talks for a film of its brand new IP called Watch Dogs.

On June 14, 2012, Ubisoft Entertainment registered a handful of domains like WatchDogsmovie.com (Whois) and WatchDogsthemovie.com (Whois).

In total, the gaming company registered four names so far that I could find including Watch-Dogsmovie.com (Whois) and Watch-Dogsthemovie.com (Whois).

Unveiled during Ubisoft’s press conference at E3 2012, Watch Dogs the video game is set to be released in 2013 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.

This is nothing more than speculation at this point, but given the subject matter and the positive reception the game is already receiving, it’s not too far fetched.

Talking about this story: Blue’s News, Capsule Computers, Dagbladet.no, Eurogamer.net, Film School Rejects, Game Informer, Game Rant, GameDynamo, GameFocus, Gameranx, GameZone, IGN, Joystiq, Kotaku, Level 7, MCV, MeriStation, Multiplayer.it, Playstation Lifestyle, PSXExtreme, Push Square, Shack News, Side Mission, TheGamersHub, VG247 and Yahoo! OMG Philippines

Categories
News Video Games

As talk of Final Fantasy VII remake heats up, Square gets FinalFantasyviiPC.com

Final Fantasy VII

There’s been a lot of talk recently about remaking Final Fantasy VII, which was first released back in 1997.  Though the game set several sales records and received widespread acclaim, character designer Tetsuya Nomura recently said new titles take precedence over remakes.

That still hasn’t stopped Square Enix this week from registering the domain name FinalFantasyviiPC.com.

The domain was registered on June 15, 2012, according to Whois records.  Although the name had been registered before to Tippo Pasha a resident of Norway, it appears to have expired back in 2010.

Considering Square hasn’t confirmed a remake is in the works, the purchase of the name may be nothing more than the company protecting its intellectual property.

At the time of this story, the domain name doesn’t resolve to a web page.

[UPDATE June 21, 2012:. A leaked product description suggests a new edition of Final Fantasy VII could be on its way to Steam.]

Talking about this story: VR-Zone, elotrolado.net, The Tech Report, LLC, Gematsu, Final Fantasy Ring and NeoGAF

Categories
Disputes National Arbitration Forum News Video Games

Riot wins battle over League of Legends scam site, domain ordered transferred

Riot Games

Riot Games has won a case (Case Number: D2012-0744) against a scam website claiming to offer online support for the real-time strategy game League of Legends (LoL).  For those not aware, Riot Games provides official player support at the web address support.leagueoflegends.com, not support-leagueoflegends.com (notice the hyphen in the web address).

In a decision handed down on May 31, 2012, by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the domain name has been ordered transferred from the respondent Maik Baumgartner to Riot Games, Inc.  Baumgartner first registered the name in early March according to Whois records.

This appears to be the first domain dispute brought by Riot Games and its no surprise the company won.

If you visit the scam site at support-leagueoflegends.com (screenshot below), it’ll try to get you to download a file.

League of Legends scam site

Riot Games announced over the weekend that League of Legends was hacked.  While this case appears to be unrelated, as its free-to-play game continues to grow in popularity, it will likely find itself victim to attacks online, as well as scam websites and cybersquatting of its well-known “League of Legends” trademark.

At the time of this posting, the domain has yet to be transferred, but it should only be a matter of days before the name is secured by Riot.

UPDATE:  Details of the ruling have been published online.

Riot Games demonstrated that all of the elements enumerated in paragraph 4(a) of the Policy have been satisfied:

(i) the disputed domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights;

(ii) the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the disputed domain name; and

(iii) the disputed domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

On the point of bad faith, the panelist had this to say:

In the present case, the Complainant has made a convincing case that the Respondent registered the disputed domain name with the deliberate intention of targeting the Complainant’s trademark for the purpose of acquiring various data from the Complainant’s customers by effectively impersonating the Complainant. In particular, the Complainant has demonstrated that the appearance of the Respondent’s website is highly likely to be confused with the support website of the Complainant. The Complainant has also demonstrated that the Respondent has intentionally selected a confusingly similar domain name to the Complainant’s trademark, being likewise a close typographical variant of the uniform resource locator of the Complainant’s support website, which in the Panel’s opinion is likely to heighten the possibility of consumer confusion. In addition, the Complainant has presented uncontested evidence that after registration of the disputed domain name the Respondent subsequently changed the function of the associated website in order to persuade Internet users who visit the said website unknowingly to download “malware”.

UPDATE 1:  The website has been suspended according to a message on the home page.

Talking about this story: VG247 and Lazygamer

(Image of Riot Games office lobby via Riot.com)