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Sequel may be closer as Activision secretly acquires BlackOps2.com domain

Black Ops 2

A sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops, one of the best-selling games of all-time, may seem more likely as it appears Activision has secretly acquired the domain name blackops2.com.

First registered in May 2010 shortly after Black Ops was announced, the domain remained under Whois privacy up until this week using Go Daddy’s Domains by Proxy service.

Now, the domain blackops2.com (Whois) has switched from Domains by Proxy to the privacy service provided by internet brand protection company MarkMonitor, who caters to over half the Fortune 100, of which Activision is a client.

In August, I reported that Activision went through MarkMonitor to buy up a slew of Black Ops domains, all the way up to BlackOps6.com. 

Missing from the list was blackops2.com. 

A deal has now apparently been struck.

Treyarch, the development studio behind Call of Duty: Black Ops, hasn’t officially gone on record to say it is creating a sequel.  But with all these domain acquisitions, signs point to a Black Ops 2 being a very strong possibility in 2012.

If a cash amount was paid, the sale price of the domain will likely remain unknown, as the previous owner’s identity and contact information were hidden through Go Daddy’s privacy service.

As of today, BlackOps2.com does not resolve a web page.

[Update 1 on February 17, 2012: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been outed by Amazon reports GameSpy.]

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Categories
News Video Games

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

Call of Duty Black Ops 6

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.

http://whois.domaintools.com/blackops4.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/blackops5.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/blackops6.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyblackops3.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyblackops4.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyblackops5.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutyblackops6.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutymw5.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/callofdutymw6.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/codblackops3.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/codblackops4.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/codblackops5.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/codblackops6.com 

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