Category: News

Sequel to be called Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare according to domains

Post author By J.B.
Post date October 17, 2012

It looks like the folks at PopCap Games have settled on a title to Plants vs. Zombies 2, due out in the Spring of 2013.

The company has registered a slew of domain names like GardenWarfare.net, PlantsvsZombiesGardenWarfare.com, and PvZGardenWarfare.com.

In August, PopCap Games officially announced Plants vs. Zombies 2 in a press release, but revealed no details about the game’s name.

While the title seems more than fitting, oddly enough, a Twitter user suggested the name to @PopCap back in June. However, it’s unknown whether the company took the advice or already had plans for the title.

Here’s a look at the full list of registrations:

All of the domains were registered through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor on October 16.

At the time of this story, nothing official has been put out by PopCap, or its owner Electronic Arts.

Currently, none of the domains resolve to a web page.

Talking about this story: IGN, NowGamer and Shack News

Tags Electronic Arts, featured, Garden Warfare, MarkMonitor, Plants vs. Zombies, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, PopCap, PopCap Games

News Technology

KindleMother.com? Amazon secretly registers family member domain names

Post author By J.B.
Post date October 14, 2012

KindleChild.com, KindleFather.com, KindleMother.com, KindlePreteen.com – those are just a handful of the names that Amazon privately registered this week through the registrar Go Daddy.

All of the names were registered to Domains By Proxy, Go Daddy’s private registration service, but with a little sleuthing it was quite easy to reveal the company owner behind the domains as Amazon.

Dozens of domain names centered on “family” were registered, but the company is remaining hush-hush on its plans for them.

The names could point to new content for the Kindle devices, as they were all registered a day after Amazon’s General Counsel took control of KindlePublications.com (Whois).

Revealing Amazon as the owner was simple. By typing the domain and e-mail address “[email protected]” into Go Daddy’s online account retrieval system, you can quickly confirm Amazon as the owner, since Go Daddy shows a message stating, “An email with the requested information has been sent”, when you fill in all the fields correctly.

It’s the same technique I used to see that Amazon bought KindleFireHD.com.

In many cases, Amazon registered the Spanish and English versions of the same name, such as KindleMadre.com and KindleMother.com.

Below is a bigger list of the names privately registered by Amazon. It includes many, but not all of the names, which appear to have been registered on October 12, 2012, according to Whois records.

At the time of this story, all of the names direct users to a Go Daddy parked page.

(Image of Kindle Fire via Amazon.com)

Tags amazon, Domains by Proxy, Go Daddy, Kindle, Kindle Child, Kindle Families, Kindle Father, Kindle Fire, Kindle Infant, Kindle Mother

News Video Games

Blizzard Entertainment registers WarcraftBattles.com domain name

Post author By J.B.
Post date October 12, 2012
4 Comments on Blizzard Entertainment registers WarcraftBattles.com domain name

While it may be nothing more than a defensive registration to protect its Warcraft brand, Blizzard Entertainment this week registered the domain WarcraftBattles.com.

The name had at one time been registered to a Massachusetts man back in 2007, but it expired in 2009 and became available again, according to Whois historical records.

Blizzard registered WarcraftBattles.com (Whois) on October 10, 2012, two weeks after the company’s release of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria on September 25, 2012 and only days after hackers hit World of Warcraft resulting in a massive amount of virtual deaths.

It is not known whether the company has plans for Warcraft: Battles yet.

At the time of this story, the domain does not resolve to a web page.

Talking about this story: Kotaku Australia

Tags Blizzard Entertainment, featured, Warcraft Battles, WarcraftBattles.com

News Video Games

BlackOps.com no longer shows company website, displays youth baseball page

Post author By J.B.
Post date October 7, 2012
2 Comments on BlackOps.com no longer shows company website, displays youth baseball page

It appears video game developer Black Ops Entertainment has taken down their company website at www.BlackOps.com in favor of putting up a web page that displays a broken photo album from a church’s baseball team in San Francisco, California.

The change occurred within the last week and comes as the release date nears for Black Ops 2, the sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops, which became the best-selling game in U.S. history.

St. Anne Athletics — Screenshot of BlackOps.com on Oct. 7, 2012

You can look at past internet statistics to see that traffic to the popular web address (not owned by Activision) will be increasing as fans type the domain name into their browser, expecting to find more information about the video game.

In the months building up to the game’s initial launch in 2010, traffic went from nearly zero to thousands.

The reasons for the website change now all of the sudden are unknown, though theories are plentiful.

Black Ops Entertainment hasn’t developed a console game in years, the last one apparently being AND 1 Streetball in 2006, which was released on the Playstation 2 and Xbox. In recent years, it appears the company has been focused on developing apps for the iPad like iTraderPro, which has nothing to do with video games.

Is it possible the company has no more plans to develop video games and is planning to rebrand itself?

The domain name itself is a hot commodity.

Could Activision be negotiating a deal to acquire the name? The timing certainly seems right.

Or, could it be nothing more than a webmaster error? Other links on the site work such as www.blackops.com/press.html, just not the home page.

As reported here last January, Activision secretly acquired BlackOps2.com for an undisclosed amount.

I’ve reached out to Black Ops Entertainment for comment and will update this story if I hear back.

Tags activision, Black Ops 2, Black Ops Entertainment, BlackOps.com, John Botti

News Video Games

Activision hints at new Call of Duty gaming glasses via domain names

Post author By J.B.
Post date October 6, 2012

It looks like Activision may be marketing some new glasses with its upcoming launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which is slated to be released on November 18, 2012 in the USA.

The speculation comes way of several domain names that were privately registered back in July 2012 according to Whois historical records: CallofDuty3Dglasses.com, CallofDutyeyewear.com, CallofDutygamingglasses.com, CallofDutyGlasses.com and CallofDutysunglasses.com.

This week, all of the privacy details were removed on the names, officially revealing Activision as the owner.

In 2010, when the Black Ops video game was first published, an $80 a pair of Call of Duty: Black Ops-themed gaming glasses were also released.

As of right now, none of the domain names resolve to a web page, and from what I can tell, Activision hasn’t made any official announcement. So, for now, the roll out of new Call of Duty glasses will have to remain speculation.

(Image of Quadrotor Overwatch via CallofDuty.com)

Tags activision, call of duty, Call of Duty 3d glasses, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, Call of Duty eyewear, Call of Duty gaming glasses, Call of Duty glasses, Call of Duty sunglasses