Tag: activision

Rumor: Call of Duty Elite to offer Founders Program

Post author By J.B.
Post date August 19, 2011
1 Comment on Rumor: Call of Duty Elite to offer Founders Program

Earlier this week, Activision went on a domain buying binge of Black Ops and Modern Warfare domain names.

The shopping spree hasn’t ended.

On August 17, 2011, Activision acquired a slew of domains focusing on a Call of Duty Elite Founders Program ranging from EliteFounders.com to CallofDutyEliteFounders.com.

The company hasn’t announced anything official yet for the “Founders Program”, as far as I can tell. The “Call of Duty Elite” service launched in Beta last month and if the Founders Program is much like other programs provided by gaming companies it could involve benefits like discounted fees for the subscription-based service, a head start on games and other products, among other things.

Activision registered the domain names through brand protection company MarkMonitor, where it’s own callofduty.com is registered, however each of the names remains hidden behind Whois privacy.

Here’s a look at each of the domains registered earlier this week.

http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyelitefounder.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyelitefounders.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/elitefounder.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/elitefounders.com

Tags activision, Call of Duty Elite, Call of Duty Elite Founders Program

News Video Games

Activision may go up to Modern Warfare 6, Black Ops 6 with its newest domains

Post author By J.B.
Post date August 17, 2011
5 Comments on Activision may go up to Modern Warfare 6, Black Ops 6 with its newest domains

Activision has apparently gone on a domain name shopping spree through the registrar MarkMonitor, acquiring over a dozen Call of Duty-related domain names that hint we might see the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops series go up to at least six titles.

Domain names like BlackOps6.com and CallofDutyMW6.com were registered.

Here’s a look at the full list of domain registrations that took place on August 15, 2011.

The actual registrant of the name is DNS tination Inc, a Whois privacy service offered by MarkMonitor. But these domain names are almost certainly owned by Activision, as MarkMonitor is a well-known brand protection company used by top companies like Apple.

It’s entirely possible that these recent registrations are nothing more than part of the company’s intellectual property strategy, but if it’s learned anything from the fiasco over ModernWarfare3.com, it may be planning ahead.

Discussion: Kotaku and VGChartz

Tags activision, Black Ops, call of duty, call of duty black ops, call of duty modern warfare, featured

Disputes National Arbitration Forum News Video Games

ModernWarfare3.com owner revealed, Go Daddy’s Privacy removed during UDRP

Post author By J.B.
Post date July 19, 2011
9 Comments on ModernWarfare3.com owner revealed, Go Daddy’s Privacy removed during UDRP

The Battlefield 3 fanboy who has fueled the drama between Electronic Arts and Activision by re-directing ModernWarfare3.com to Battlefield.com has been officially revealed.

Originally hidden behind Go Daddy’s Domains By Proxy (DBP) service, it appears the registrar giant doesn’t want to get involved in the domain dispute recently filed under the UDRP by Activision against the owner of ModernWarfare3.com.

Today, Go Daddy’s DBP has removed the privacy service on the domain, revealing the identity of the ModernWarfare3.com owner who has entertained Call of Duty and Battlefield fans with his online antics for weeks.

So who is this person who got the attention of gaming publications, fans and of course, Activision?

The registrant is Anthony Abraham of Florida according to the latest Whois records furnished by DomainTools.

Anthony, who has been hush hush since the beginning, will likely be receiving calls and e-mails from reporters over the next few days.

Now, if you’re wondering why the privacy service was removed all of the sudden, according to the Domains by Proxy website, cancelling the privacy service is just how it handles UDRP matters.

“DBP routinely receives notices from its affiliated registrars informing it of the filing of various administrative proceedings under the Policy. Upon receipt of such notices, DBP cancels its privacy service for the domain name that is the subject of the Policy dispute and notifies its customer about the cancellation of service.”

Discussion: Kotaku, Joystiq, Game Rant and Machinima

Tags activision, Anthony Abraham, Domains by Proxy, Electronic Arts, featured, Go Daddy, Modern Warfare 3, ModernWarfare3.com

Disputes National Arbitration Forum News Video Games

Activision files complaint over ModernWarfare3.com, posted online

Post author By J.B.
Post date July 15, 2011
27 Comments on Activision files complaint over ModernWarfare3.com, posted online

Breaking update July 19, 2011 04:57 AM EST: The identity of ModernWarfare3.com has now been revealed.

Activision has had enough with ModernWarfare3.com.

The gaming company has filed its first domain name dispute with the National Arbitration Forum.

The complaint was filed today, July 15, a week after the mystery owner of the domain started re-directing the URL to EA’s Battlefield.com, sparking a flurry of news stories.

Although I track domain disputes filed with the National Arbitration Forum and the World Intellectual Property Organization, I didn’t find out about the dispute through their online databases, instead I found out about the dispute when I paid a visit to ModernWarfare3.com.

As of today, ModernWarfare3.com is back to its old format online, but with a twist. Sitting on the home page is a copy of the complaint (read here) the owner received.

Now begins the UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy), which was adopted by ICANN in the late nineties.

The complaint cost Activision $2,600 USD to file for a three-member panel.

The 11-page document, includes among other things, reasons by Activision as to why the respondent has no right or legitimate interest to the name.

Activision states, “It appears that the Respondent supports the game Battlefield from the game developer Electronic Arts (“EA”). EA is one of Complainant’s principal competitors in the video game industry, and Battlefield game competes in the marketplace with Complainant’s MODERN WARFARE games and its other military-themed shooter games in the CALL OF DUTY series.”

Discussion: Kotaku, gameinformer, Electronic Arts UK Community, Gaming Union, RipTen, GameSpot, Benzinga, Games On Net, GoNintendo, Joystiq, IGN, ars technica, The Daily BLAM!, Game Rant, Digital Trends, VideoGamer, GameSpy, Kit Guru, MCV, The Inquirer, PCWorld, The Escapist, Facepunch, Gamasutra, VE3D, Lazygamer, The Morton Report, Spong, 1UP and bnet

Tags activision, Battlefield 3, Domain Dispute, EA, Electronic Arts, featured, Modern Warfare 3, Moderwarfare3.com

News Video Games

Activision has purchased the domain SurvivalAdventure.com, quietly

Post author By J.B.
Post date July 11, 2011

Activision has acquired the domain name SurvivalAdventure.com using MarkMonitor, a brand protection company.

The domain was purchased earlier this month from BuyDomains, an online marketplace that owns hundreds of thousands of domains.

On July 6 the registrant information switched from BuyDomains to DNStination, Inc. (the name of MarkMonitor’s domain buying service) according to Whois history.

Then only days ago on July 8, the Whois information switched again, this time to Activision Publishing’s Mary Tuck.

SurvivalAdventure.com was listed for sale online with a buy-it-now price of just $1,588, however the final sale price wasn’t made available, so it’s unknown whether Activision paid a different amount.

Unlike previous domain purchases by Activision which are easy to spot because the company regularly uses activision.com for its name servers, this purchase was done using a more stealthy approach. When the name came out from behind Whois privacy, it switched from MarkMonitor’s name servers to att-dsa.net, which just so happens to be the same name server of its most popular web address, callofduty.com [Whois].

Here’s a look at the current Whois record via DomainTools.

Obviously, the game publisher has plans for the name to acquire it on the aftermarket instead of registering it for the first time, but at this point, it’s hard to speculate as to what game the company is planning to develop.

At the time of this posting, no other gaming news site or blog has reported this news. Nor has anyone written about Activision releasing a game called: Survival Adventure.

Tags activision, Activision Publising, Mary Tuck, Survival Adventure, SurvivalAdventure.com