Sometime in the mid-2000s, the domain name Project425.com was privately registered through the registrar Melbourne IT. The organization behind the registration was unknown until November 2008, when the Whois record showed Riot Games President Marc Merrill as the name’s owner.
Merrill continued to renew the domain name each year, but this past week it underwent some changes, most notably it transferred to the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor and instead of being renewed on an annual basis, the name was renewed through March 2015.
And as you can see from the Whois record, Riot Games is the outright owner.
So, what exactly is “Project 425”?
Right now, I don’t know anything about the project, because the secret of “Project 425” is hidden behind a password-protected website. Currently, when you go to the web address http://project425.com, you’re asked for a username and password.
A senior League of Legends community member pointed out late last year, that Riot Games owns several random domains including names like onslaughtgame.net (Whois) and InstituteofWar.org (Whois).
However, unlike Project425.com which actually is some type of website, the other domain names either don’t resolve to a web page or are parked at a registrar like Go Daddy and display ads.
It’s no secret that Riot Games is working on other projects, but what’s in store will likely remain unknown up until its launch.
Talking about this story: GameZone and iDigitalTimes.com
(Image via RiotGames.com)