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News Video Games

Zynga sports games like football may be coming soon as more hints are dropped

Zynga football

Zynga football

If you’ve been itching to play sports games developed by social gaming giant Zynga, they may actually be closer to launch than you think. 

In the past 12 months, the company has made moves indicating social sports games may be under development, like the hiring of EA Sports Creative Director Mark Turmell, who was also the lead designer of NFL Blitz (picture above) while he was at Midway. 

Zynga’s latest move: acquiring the domain name ZyngaSports.com.

I did a little domain sleuthing today and found that the domain ZyngaSports.com (Whois) was transferred this week to the intellectual property law firm, Keats McFarland & Wilson, who of course acts as Zynga’s attorneys in IP matters such as that of the Blingville dispute.

So which sports game will be first out of the gate? 

It’s anyone’s guess, but if I had to pick it would be Zynga Football. 

And yes, Zynga owns ZyngaFootball.com, ZyngaFootball.net, and even ZyngaFootball.org.

It acquired those web addresses in April 2010 with the help of internet brand protection company MarkMonitor, along with over 500 domains based on existing and possibly future games. 

The names which were transferred over a two day span in April, are too many to list here in this post, but included domains like animalvillegame.com, bountyville.com, casinoblitzgame.com, coasterville.net, crimevillegame.com, friendempires.com, hotelvillegame.com, ranchville.info, zyngadopewars.com, zyngadragonwars.com, zyngaglamourlife.com, and of course, zyngafootball.com.

While the imminent launch of Zynga Sports is purely speculation, it looks like a very good possibility.

Though not an exhaustive list, you can see hundreds of the domains Zynga acquired in April 2010 here.

Discussion: Kotaku, Games.com, Gawker, All Facebook and Gamezebo

Categories
News Video Games

Domains show Activision may create a new game called “Skylanders Giants”

Sklyanders Giants game

Sklyanders Giants game

Activision, which is a known client of the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor, has apparently gone on a small buying spree for “Skylanders Giants” domain names, hinting that a new game is in the works.

On January 19, the video game company that released Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure last year, acquired six domains with Skylanders Giants in the name like SkylandersGiants.com and SkylandersGiantsgame.com.

Although the owner of each name is hidden behind Whois privacy, because MarkMonitor is in the business of protecting brands of some of the biggest companies, the owner is all but guaranteed to be Activision.

Here’s the list of names that were registered:

http://whois.domaintools.com/skylandersgiants.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/skylandersgiants.dk
http://whois.domaintools.com/skylandersgiants.it
http://whois.domaintools.com/skylandersgiants.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/skylandersgiantsgame.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/skylandersgiantsgame.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/theskylandersgiants.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/theskylandersgiants.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/skylandersgiants.fr

At the time of this story none of the domains resolve to a website and Activision has made no official announcement.

[Update 1 on February 7, 2012: Activision announced Skylanders: Giants. It is scheduled to be released in Fall 2012.]

Discussion: Giant Bomb, Joystiq, Wired.com, Co-Optimus, Multiplayer.it, VG247, Eurogamer.se, Eurogamer.it, Game Rant, darkSpyro Forums, Shacknews, Family Gamer and NeoGAF

Categories
News

Facebook Timeline getting a movie maker app? Domains privately registered

Timeline Movie Maker

Facebook announced dozens of new apps for its Timeline feature this past week, and now it looks like another app to help users tell their story may be on the way.

This is merely speculation at this point, but it appears a top brand has privately registered the domains timelinemoviemaker.com (Whois), timelinemoviemaker.net, and timelinemoviemaker.org, through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor. 

Because the owner of the domains is hidden behind Whois privacy, it may not be known for some time what the plan is.  MarkMonitor counts among its clients Facebook, Microsoft, and other internet giants, so it could literally be any of dozens of companies.

Facebook has had its share of drama since announcing Timeline.  Back in September, Timelines.com filed a trademark-infringement suit against Facebook. Then last month, Facebook filed a counter lawsuit.  “Facebook dropped the legal equivalent of a bunker-buster on its rival with a new filing that asks a court to strip Timelines.com of its trademarks. The claim asks the court to declare that Facebook is not infringing and to cancel the marks because they are generic,” wrote Jeff Roberts for paidContent.

Timeline Movie Maker may be something, it may be nothing.  It may not even have anything to do with Facebook Timeline. 

But for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.

[Update 1 on Jan. 22, 2012: It does appear Facebook is behind the registration.  Today, the web address began redirecting today to http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline.]

Discussion: All Facebook

Categories
Movies News

Sony working on ‘Van Helsing and Dracula’ movie according to domains

Dracula

Dracula

Sony Pictures appears to be working on a new film based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel called “Van Helsing and Dracula” or “Dracula and Van Helsing”.

This week, Sony Pictures registered a slew of domain names through the brand protection company MarkMonitor that revealed the movie’s possible titles. 

At least eight domains were purchased, all on January 17, 2012. 

Here’s a look at the registrations:

http://whois.domaintools.com/draculaandvanhelsing-movie.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/draculaandvanhelsing-movie.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/draculaandvanhelsing.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/vanhelsinganddracula-movie.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/vanhelsinganddracula-movie.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/vanhelsinganddracula.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/vanhelsinganddracula.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/vanhelsinganddraculamovie.com 

Last June, Pajiba reported that Universal Pictures was developing another Van Helsing movie based on the Bram Stoker character.    

At the time of this post, Sony Pictures has not made an official announcement, nor do any of the domains resolve to a web page.

Discussion: Movieline, Celebrities.com and I Watch Stuff

(Image of Gary Oldman as Count Dracula via Bram Stoker’s Dracula)

Categories
News

Facebook registers domains for something called “FB Origin”

FBOrigin.com Whois record

FBOrigin.com Whois record

This week, the social networking giant Facebook registered several domains for something called “FB Origin” ranging from dot-com to dot-biz.

On the same day the company held a media event where it unveiled 60 new apps that you can add to your timeline, Facebook registered fborigin.com, fborigin.net, fborigin.org, fborigin.biz, fborigin.info and even fborigin.co.uk.

The domains were registered through the brand protection company MarkMonitor.

I scoured through the list of new apps, looking for something with the name “Origin”, and didn’t find anything.

Though it’s only speculation at this time, with all these new domain registrations, it appears Facebook has plans to launch a new product or service called “Origin” to go along with its other services like Timeline. 

At the time of this story, none of the domains resolve to a web page.

Discussion: Techmeme, @RobinWauters, ZDNet (blog), All Facebook, Inside Facebook, Marketing Land and Ubergizmo