Month: September 2012

Categories
Movies News

300 prequel renamed – “300: Rise of An Empire” domains registered [UPDATED]

300: Rise of an Empire

UPDATE – SEP. 13, 2012:  Box Office Mojo has also backed up speculation that the 300 prequel will now be called “300: Rise of An Empire”.  Several hours after this story was originally published, Box Office Mojo posted the movie title change to its website from “Untitled ‘300’ Sequel” to “300: Rise of An Empire”.

ORIGINAL STORY – SEP. 12, 2012 @ 4:21 AM EST: Is the upcoming prequel to 300 called ‘300: Battle of Artemisia’ getting a new title?

There appears to be a possibility that the film may be renamed.

Sparking speculation are some interesting domain registrations made this week by the brand protection company MarkMonitor, the same firm responsible for registering the Battle of Artemisa names back in January of this year.

The list of new domains registered privately by MarkMonitor on September 10, 2012, include 300-riseofanempire.com (Whois), 300riseofanempire.com (Whois), 300theriseofanempire.com (Whois) and RiseofanEmpire.com (Whois).

Each name was registered anonymously using MarkMonitor’s Whois privacy service DNStination, but you can bet the company behind the names is Warner Bros.  Warner Bros.’ very own warnerbros.com (Whois) is managed through MarkMonitor.

Whois: 300RiseofAnEmpire.com

If the film is retitled, it wouldn’t be the first time.

In June 2011, Deadline reported that the 300 prequel, first known as “Xerxes”, would be retitled to 300: Battle of Artemisia.

Xerxes

One thing is for sure, “Rise of An Empire” is much easier to spell than “Battle of Artemisia”, but if the name is changing, that’s probably not the only driver.

Recent 300 buzz focused on news that Gerard Butler would not be appearing in the Warner Bros. film.  Butler told an MTV reporter, “They’re filming [the ‘300’ sequel] right now. I wish them the best, but it didn’t [work out]. It wasn’t really my thing.”

At the time of this story, none of the new domains resolve to a web page.  A quick check of other top level domains, shows that MarkMonitor only pursued the .coms, leaving other domains available.

The 300 prequel, whatever it is called, is scheduled to be in theaters on August 2, 2013.

TALKING ABOUT THIS STORY: Moviehole

Categories
News Video Games

Riot Games (League of Legends maker) builds mobile team, gets RiotGames.mobi

Riot Games Dublin Office

Riot Games may dominate the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) market in the PC universe with League of Legends, but today, it has yet to enter the mobile MOBA market.

A market that is very small but has big possibilities.

Though League of Legends may not be ready for gaming on the go, Riot Games is ramping up its mobile development teams as shown by job openings posted online.

This week, the company even acquired the domain name RiotGames.mobi (Whois).  Dotmobi is the top-level domain introduced for the mobile web.  Of course, while obtaining the name may be nothing more than a move by the company to protect its intellectual property, there are plenty of signs that Riot is focusing efforts in the mobile arena.

In late August, Riot posted a job for a Mobile Product Manager in Santa Monica.  The listing says the company is building a dynamic, fast-moving Riot Mobile team to help the company develop and create mobile solutions.

Riot Games mobile product manager job listing

The website RiotGames.mobi is currently a parked web page at the time of this story.

It’s unknown whether Riot had to fork out cash to get the name or if it simply had its legal department contact the previous owner.  The domain was acquired through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.  According to Whois history, the name was originally registered anonymously in 2010 and changed ownership to Riot Games this week.

There are developers in the mobile MOBA market.

This October, Gameloft will be releasing the mobile game Heroes of Order & Chaos.

Heroes of Order & Chaos
As Pocket Gamer points out in a recent story, Gameloft will be copying the League of Legends tactic of making six characters free for a week at a time, with the option to buy them outright with real money should they take your fancy.

There hasn’t been much news out of Riot regarding its mobile game plans, but with all the mobile job openings being posted, it may not be too long before more is known.

And in case you’re wondering, Riot Games does own the domain leagueoflegends.mobi.  The company has owned the web address name since 2008.  Today, the web address redirects users to LeagueofLegends.com.

Talking about this story: Kotaku

(Image of Riot Games Dublin offices via RiotGames.com)

Categories
News Technology

Amazon acquired KindleFireHD.com domain right before announcement

Kindle Fire HD

  • Unknown if Amazon shelled out big bucks or threatened legal action

  • Domain first registered on Sept 28, ’11, same day Kindle Fire announced

  • Amazon revealed as owner even though name anonymously registered

  • Has better domain record than Apple, which still doesn’t own iPad.com

In a smart move by Amazon, shortly before announcing the new Kindle Fire HD family of products to the world on September 6, 2012, the company acquired the domain name KindleFireHD.com.  According to Whois records, the name switched hands from its previous owner “Nathaniel Sawbo” to Amazon.

What is known (after some sleuthing) is that Amazon now owns the domain, but what isn’t known is if Amazon had to pay some money to the name’s original owner or whether the company threatened legal action.

On the very same day Amazon unveiled the first generation Kindle Fire in 2011, the company registered well over 500 domain names related to the Kindle Fire and Silk browser products, through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.  While Amazon managed to secure the rights to names like KindleFireScreen.com and KindleFireDisplay.com, it failed to obtain KindleFireHD.com.

Today, KindleFireHD.com is a blank web page and is registered anonymously through Go Daddy’s Domains By Proxy service, but it takes only a few simple steps using Go Daddy’s public account retrieval system to figure out who is behind the domain.

It’s what some might call a “slight flaw” in Go Daddy’s account retrieval system which allows you to figure out the owner of a privately registered domain as long as you know the e-mail address of the registrant.

On my first and only try, I used [email protected], and was able to quickly confirm Amazon as the owner.

First, I went to Go Daddy’s Account Assistance page.

Go Daddy Account Assistance

Next, I clicked on Retrieve my Customer #, then entered kindlefirehd.com for the domain name and [email protected] for the e-mail address.  After entering the security code, I clicked Submit, as shown in the screenshot below.

Go Daddy Retrieve my Customer number

If everything is a successful match, and it was, a message stating, “An email with the requested information has been sent.”

Unlike Apple, one of its biggest competitors with a reputation for announcing products before owning the domains, Amazon has a much better track record.

Amazon owned KindleFire.com when it unveiled the tablet.

The company owns Kindle.com and other product names like KindleDX.com.

To this day, Apple doesn’t even own iPad.com.

Amazon may even have a shot at owning FireHD.com, which has surprisingly expired according to Whois.  If you browse Amazon’s website, you’ll notice the company uses “Fire HD” (minus Kindle) quite a bit, so it may be in the company’s interest.  The domain name will be available to the public on October 3, 2012, if the owner doesn’t renew the name in time.

I’ve reached out to Nathaniel Sawbo, KindleFireHD.com’s original owner for more information on the transaction and will update this post if I hear back.

(Image of Kindle Fire HD via Amazon.com)