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Ubisoft registers several ‘Assassin’s Creed Initiate’ domain names

Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed Initiate

With all the Assassin’s Creed buzz focused on the upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed III, Ubisoft has registered a slew of domains for another project in the franchise called “Assassin’s Creed: Initiate”.

On August 21, 2012, Ubisoft went out and registered names like AssassinsCreedInitiate.com (Whois), AssassinsInitiate.com (Whois) and ACinitiate.com (Whois) – a dozen in total.

The full list of domain registrations includes:

ac-initiate.com
ac-initiates.com
acinitiate.com
acinitiates.com
assassins-initiate.com
assassins-initiates.com
assassinscreed-initiate.com
assassinscreed-initiates.com
assassinscreedinitiate.com
assassinscreedinitiates.com
assassinsinitiate.com
assassinsinitiates.com

At this point, it’s unknown what the exact plans are for “Assassin’s Creed Initiate” or “Assassin’s Creed Initiates”, whatever the official title may be.

Could it be for a new videogame? A tie-in to the launch of Assassin’s Creed III? Or some other media or event?

Ubisoft has made no official announcement, so we’ll have to wait and see a little bit longer.

On a domain-related note, Ubisoft also registered GhostReconfuturesoldierravenstrike.com (Whois) for the next DLC pack for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, which was announced just yesterday.

Talking about this story:  Computerandvideogames.com, Cinema Blend, Curse.com, Escapist Magazine, Gamed, Game Informer, Game Rant, iDigitalTimes.com, IGN, MeriStation, playm.de, Playstation Universe, VG247 and Tecmundo

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News Video Games

Lucasfilm (parent of LucasArts) registers Ewok Village domain for unknown project

Ewok Village

It’s not everyday that Lucasfilm registers a new domain name.

The last time the company picked up anything of note was back in early May when the company registered eight domains related to Star Wars: 1313, which turned out to be a video game that is creating quite a buzz.  So, it may be worth paying attention to a domain name the company registered on August 20, 2012, through the brand protection agency Corporation Service Company – ewok-village.com.

Ewok Village is the home of the furry Ewoks on the forest moon Endor.

While the domain may be nothing more than the company protecting its intellectual property or unannounced plans for a new action playset for the 2012 holiday season, it’s possible LucasArts could have an Ewok Village video game in the works.

For now, it’s all just speculation.

If you’re wondering why Lucasfilm didn’t register EwokVillage.com (no hyphen), that’s because the name was first registered back in 2005 by someone else.  Today, it’s a puppies website that has a picture of Ewoks on the homepage.

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

Talking about this story: Games.com News (blog)

(Image of Ewok Village via Wookieepedia)

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Disputes News Video Games WIPO

Riot wins LeagueofLegends.co dispute, web address redirected users to porn site

Riot Games Dublin

Riot Games Dublin

In June, Riot Games won a case against a scam website claiming to offer online support for its smash hit PC game League of Legends.  Now, the company has won another dispute that it had filed in early August against the owner of LeagueofLegends.co (missing the ‘m’) which redirected users to a porn site.

Although the case (Case Number: DCO2012-0024) remains active on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website where it was originally filed, the Whois records for LeagueofLegends.co reflect Riot as the owner of the name.  In addition to the change of ownership, the URL resolves to a blank web page, instead of a porn site filled with photos of nude women.

Considering LeagueofLegends.com ranks among the top 1,500 websites in the world, according to Alexa, it’s likely a lot of users entering a typo by forgetting the ‘m’ in .com, found themselves on a porn site, after typing the Colombia dot-co domain.

Right now if you type leagueoflegends.co into Google search, you can still see the hit for the porn site as shown in the screen shot below.

LeagueofLegends.co

Since details of the ruling haven’t been posted online yet, it’s unknown whether the previous owner Martin Hornak handed over the name before a decision was even issued or if he was ordered to transfer the name.

One thing’s for sure, Riot must be relieved to have control.

However, the company isn’t finished going after owners of domain names with its popular hit video game ‘League of Legends’ in the name.

In late July, the company also filed a complaint over the domain name LeagueofLegendsPorn.com (Case Number: D2012-1516), which has yet to be decided.  Unlike the dotco domain that pointed visitors to a graphic porn site, LeagueofLegendsPorn.com has a harmless “Coming Soon” page online.  But given that Riot has trademarked the term “League of Legends”, it too will likely end up in Riot’s hands.

UPDATE:  The case is now showing up as ‘terminated’, meaning the parties agreed on a settlement before the panel reached a decision.

Talking about this story: Kotaku, Joystiq, The Verge, Techdirt, GameStar, GamePolitics, MeriStation, GameDynamo, VG247, OnlineWelten.com, The Escapist, Kotaku Australia and Polygamia.pl

(Image of Riot Games Dublin Office via riotgames.com)

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News Video Games

Ubisoft registers SirPainhammer.com, launches website and Twitter feed

Sir Painhammer

During their Press Conference at Gamescom 2012, Ubisoft revealed three new Might & Magic games: Duel of Champions, Raiders, and Heroes Online.  What no one seems to be talking about yet is “Sir Painhammer”, a character who popped up online this week on the website SirPainhammer.com and on Twitter at @Sir_Painhammer.

Sir Painhammer appears to be a Might & Magic character who so far has been posting entertaining tweets like, “Look, I don’t wanna tell anyone how to live, but I just saw a man walk by my front gate wearing skintight green leotards… #coolfashionbro.”  The tweets started appearing online on August 7, 2012, and have continued almost daily since.  A tweet published yesterday reads, “I think I just broke a few ribs diving into my diamond pool but it was totally worth it. #YOLO.”

SirPainhammer.com, which was registered on August 14 according to Whois records, is a website.  The call to action on the home page says, “LET’S DROP THE HAMMER ON SOME FOOLS”.

You can sign up by email, but other than that, not much is known about what the site will ultimately become.

Sir Painhammer appears tied to the Might & Magic universe and as Gamescom 2012 continues, it’s likely more will become known of the character.

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News Video Games

Microsoft trademarks ‘Leap Experience Pioneers’ for game software

"Microsoft Xbox Kinect"

Microsoft Corporation submitted an application this week with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for ‘Leap Experience Pioneers’.

The filing (Serial Number: 85699906), which covers “game software”, comes a little over a week after the company filed to trademark ‘Galactic Reign’ for another yet to be announced game project.

Being that the goods and services only cover “game software”, it’s unknown what Microsoft has planned.

A quick check of the term ‘Leap Experience Pioneers’ across major social networks and popular domain names, shows that Microsoft isn’t that interested yet in owning the brand.   Microsoft hasn’t grabbed leapexperiencepioneers.com at the time of this story, but that doesn’t mean the company won’t have success in the future, should it want the name.

The company has made no official announcement, so for now, we’ll have to wait and see what Microsoft is working on.

Talking about this story: This is Xbox