Cityville, the popular social game developed by Zynga, is very close to reaching 100 million monthly active users.
According to the latest stats from application trends and metrics tracker Appdata, Cityville has reached 98,798,539 monthly active users and is set to be the first game in history to hit 100 million users, within the next week.
Cityville, like many of Zynga’s social games, has experienced a quick rise to the top.
The domain name Cityville.com, which Zynga owns and re-directs to its Facebook application page, was purchased for a mere $38,225 at Moniker less than a year ago.
The bigger technology sites and mainstream blogs often take credit for breaking news stories, even though some of those news stories are on occasion reported by bloggers first.
It seems that AOL’s blog over at Games.com is giving credit to Elliot’s Blog and the blog here at Fusible for breaking, then confirming the rumor that Zynga has plans for Rewardville.
Alexander Armero, the Games.com blogger that wrote the story titled, “RewardVille: Zynga plans a mysterious rewards program”, had this to say:
Hot on the heels of CityVille, Zynga may already be planning another release: RewardVille. Today, Fusible confirmed rumors that Zynga has big plans for this mysterious reward program.
The speculation about RewardVille solidified into fact when it was discovered that Zynga had actually filed a trademark for RewardVille back in mid December. Not only that, but they paid $4,500 for the website: rewardville.com. Would you pay that much for a website you didn’t plan on using? I think we can definitely expect to hear a lot more about RewardVille in the future.
Alexander speculates that Rewardville could be used for a new Zynga Lotto, or maybe a new game entirely. Whatever the case, at the time of this story, Rewardville.com now resolves to a GoDaddy.com parked page.
AOL Games.com
If you’re a fan of Zynga, you should check out the blog over at Games.com. The writers at Games.com do some of the best coverage on Zynga’s social gaming properties, including Cityville.
Rumor over on Elliot’s Blog is that Zynga, the popular social game development company, purchased the domain name Rewardville.com, possibly for a rewards program that was announced back in late November in a Zynga Press Release.
Being a big fan of Zynga, I did a little digging on the name Rewardville.
While the domain name, which recently sold through Sedo for $4,500, is privately registered and redirects to rewards.zynga.com as Elliot Silver noted in his story, here’s what I did find out that no other technology site or blog has reported.
Zynga filed for Trademark in Europe for word: Rewardville
In mid-December, Zynga Inc. filed for a European trademark that went unnoticed.
The trademark application can be found here, by typing the term “rewardville” in the trademark name search field.
Though Zynga’s ultimate plans for Rewardville are not known at this time, chances are it’ll end up being an online resource and directory of rewards programs offered between Zynga and its partners.
When Microsoft launched its now-popular Kinect, the controller-free add-on for the Xbox in early November, it didn’t own the domain name Kinect.com. Kinect.com has been registered since the nineties and the domain name re-directed to CAHG.com, a company that helped others grow their leadership brands.
Earlier this week, back on Dec. 30th, Andrew Allemann of Domain Name Wire and other bloggers and writers described how Microsoft had filed a UDRP to get the following domain names: MicrosoftKinect.com, KinectWorld.com, KinectPro.com, and KinectReviews.us. At the time of the story, Microsoft still didn’t own Kinect.com.
While it appears many reported the news about the UDRP cases, no one has reported that the domain name switched owners on New Year’s Eve.
As of December 31st, 2010, the domain name is now registered to Microsoft Corporation.
Domain Administrator
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond WA 98052
Created on…………..: 1998-11-17.
Expires on…………..: 2014-11-16.
Record last updated on..: 2010-12-31.
The change in owners comes only days after Microsoft filed the first UDRP cases.
While the price of the name remains undisclosed, one can only imagine what Microsoft had to shell out. A recent article in Gamasutra pointed out that Microsoft aims to sell 12.1 million units of the Kinect device by the end of 2011 after the company already sold 2.5 million units worldwide through November.
Over a year ago, Microsoft acquired the domain name Office.com in a transaction that was highly publicized by a number of technology sites after it was revealed that Microsoft used a company called Marksmen, a Microsoft contractor to purchase the name for an undisclosed amount.
It’s a safe bet that Activision’s next installment for Call of Duty will take place in outerspace in a Halo-like environment.
As I wrote about on my military gaming blog, Chris Morris, a writer with Gamasutra, first broke the news on Nov. 9 that Activision could be headed towards a future landscape (with space marines) for its next game title. But that wasn’t a big surprise for many Call of Duty fans. The Gamasutra story confirmed what many already thought about the possibility of a futuristic Call of Duty last May, after domains registered by Activision were uncovered by superannuation. The registrations included names such as callofdutyfuturewarfare.com, callofdutyfuturewarfare2.com, callofdutyfuturewarfare3.com, and a number of variations including codfuturewarefare.com, codfuturewarfare2.com, and codfuturewarfare3.com. The company also registered secretwarfare2.com and secretwarfare3.com, as well as spacewarfare2.com and spacewarfare3.com.
And Spacewars.com isn’t the only War domain that saw a price increase.
In late November, FutureWarfare.com was listed for $3,788. Now the buy-it-now price has risen to $6,000. SpaceWarfare.com, another BuyDomains name and candidate for the next Call of Duty game installment, also leaped in price to $8,000.
Warfare Domains
Warfare domain names are generic in nature, so BuyDomains is doing what many of us might do by increasing the list price.
But amid all the hype of Call of Duty Black Ops, no one has acquired the names, not even Activision.
As demand for Call of Duty Black Ops remains strong, prices for warfare domains look to inch higher and higher, as speculation for the next Call of Duty title picks up in the news and blogs. And BuyDomains owns one of the best lots.
Even I got caught up in warfare domains, hand registering airbornewarfare.com in November.
Odd Warfare names, you may have heard of
Some of the oddest warfare names are “Flower Warfare” and “Cardboard Warfare”.
And if you’ve heard of Freddie Wong, chances are you’ve heard of these phrases. Freddie recently released his “Future First Person Shooter” video, which has already hit 7 million views on YouTube in a week’s time. Here’s a look at “Flower Warfare” in case you have never seen a freddiew film.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
