Tag: Blizzard Entertainment

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Disputes Featured National Arbitration Forum News Video Games

Blizzard’s lawyers take control of Blizzard.tv domain, is there something in the works?

Domain dispute over Blizzard.tv withdrawn, does Blizzard Entertainment have something in store?

This week, the dispute over the Blizzard.tv name (Case Number: 1528644) was withdrawn after being filed with the National Arbitration Forum back in early November.

So, the question is, were the lawyers at Blizzard Entertainment just trying to defend their intellectual property or does the company have something more planned for Blizzard.tv?

Like, say, a potential competitor to the live game streaming service Twitch.tv.

Blizzard doesn’t often file disputes, and hadn’t filed a complaint since 2011 when it won the transfer of worldoflordcraft.com.  So, why now?

Though the complainant in the Blizzard.tv dispute wasn’t officially revealed, it’s pretty much guaranteed that Blizzard Entertainment is behind it.  At the time of this story, Blizzard.tv is registered to intellectual property law firm Christie, Parker & Hale LLP – the same firm that has represented Blizzard in past disputes for names like Blizzard-North.com (Claim Number:  FA0302000146620). And since the complaint was withdrawn, the domain redirects visitors to Blizzard.com.

Often times, when a domain name complaint is withdrawn, both parties have come to an agreement.  And because Blizzard had no guarantee of winning the dispute, it’s possible the previous registrant received some type of payment.

Whether Blizzard Entertainment has something in store for the domain, is only speculation at this point. But live game streaming has become very popular and Twitch has a virtual monopoly.

Last month, Blizzard live streamed an event on Battle.net, prompting one Reddit user to say, “Blizzard should make their own Twitch”.

Talking about this story: Ubergizmo, JudgeHype, Blizz Pro and OnGamers

(Image of StarCraft II Pro Players via Blizzard.com)

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News Video Games

Blizzard Entertainment registers the domain name ProjectBlackstone.com [UPDATED]

Project Blackstone

Project Blackstone

Blizzard Entertainment has had quite a bit of activity lately on the domain front.  Earlier this month the company filed a complaint against the owner of HeroesofWarcraft.com.  Then this week, Blizzard registered the name ProjectBlackstone.com (WHOIS).

ProjectBlackstone.com was at one time registered to a resident of Texas, but expired in early 2011 and wasn’t renewed by its original owner.

On November 26, 2012, Blizzard registered the name, as you can see from details of the WHOIS record.

Project Blackstone

It’s unknown what Project Blackstone is destined to be.  At the time of this story, the name doesn’t resolve to a web page.

UPDATE 1 February 6, 2013 – A new teaser site on Battle.Net is teasing narrative elements for the campaign of Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm.  (Project Blackstone via Gamenguide)

Project Blackstone screenshot

Talking about this story: Gamespy.com, MMO-Champion, Buffed.de, PC Gamer Magazine, Game Revolution, Side Mission, Blue’s News, Shacknews, Video Game Writers, Escapist Magazine, Joystiq, Softpedia, The Force Feed, Massively, Game Informer, Gameplorer.de, JeuxOnline, games.on.net, Ubergizmo, VG247, Bayoubuzz, gamona.de, GameSpot.com, Jeux Video.fr, IncGamers, playNATION.de, IGN, FZ, ZAM News, Reddit gamernews, Inquisitr, GameBreaker.tv and Strategy Informer

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News Video Games

Blizzard Entertainment registers WarcraftBattles.com domain name

WarcraftBattles.com domain name

While it may be nothing more than a defensive registration to protect its Warcraft brand, Blizzard Entertainment this week registered the domain WarcraftBattles.com.

The name had at one time been registered to a Massachusetts man back in 2007, but it expired in 2009 and became available again, according to Whois historical records.

Blizzard registered WarcraftBattles.com (Whois) on October 10, 2012, two weeks after the company’s release of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria on September 25, 2012 and only days after hackers hit World of Warcraft resulting in a massive amount of virtual deaths.

It is not known whether the company has plans for Warcraft: Battles yet.

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

Talking about this story: Kotaku Australia

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News Video Games

Nearly 15 years after first release, Blizzard has acquired StarCraft.com [UPDATED]

StarCraft

For years, the website StarCraft.com has flip-flopped between being home to a Starcraft Marine boat site and an online RV Buyer’s Guide.  It has never hosted information for Blizzard’s real-time strategy game StarCraft.

The official StarCraft website can be found on Blizzard.com, but that could be about to change.

According to Whois, the domain name StarCraft.com no longer belongs to its previous owners.  The name is now registered to DNStination, Inc., a privacy service of the global internet brand-protection company MarkMonitor, of which Blizzard Entertainment is a client.

Names like WarCraft.fr and Blizzard.fr are just two examples of many names owned by Blizzard Entertainment and registered through MarkMonitor.

At this point, it’s unknown if Blizzard paid money for the name or whether the company threatened legal action.  Given there is no record of a complaint being filed over StarCraft.com, Blizzard likely paid a pretty price for securing rights to the domain name.

For now, it’s only speculation that Blizzard acquired the name, but don’t be surprised to see the name being used by Blizzard very soon.

The sequel StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released in 2010.  An expansion pack StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is expected to be released in 2012, although no official date has been announced.

I’ve reached out to StarCraft.com’s previous owners via e-mail to inquire about the transaction and will update this post if I hear back.

[UPDATE 2 June 27, 2012:. It’s official: Blizzard is the owner of StarCraft.com and StarCraft.net.  The Whois records here and here now show Blizzard Entertainment as the registrant.]

[UPDATE 1 June 25, 2012:. StarCraft.net was also acquired from the same owner, according to Whois.]

Talking about this story: VG247, Lazygamer, MeriStation and Videogamer.com

(Image of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty via Blizzard.com)

Categories
News Video Games

Blizzard knows domains; Warcraft.com, Diablo.com, Battle.net, many more

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of some of the most popular computer games of all-time, ranging from World of Warcraft to Diablo, not only focus on creating amazing entertainment experiences, but they also focus on using generic keyword domain names for their company and several of their products.

The company’s web site  runs on the domain name Blizzard.com: a site that gets well over 500K unique visitors every month.  They’ve owned and operated Blizzard.com as their company website as far back as 1996, but that’s just one of many names they’ve owned and operated since the early nineties.  Other names include Battle.net and Diablo.com.

While Blizzard doesn’t own every one of their product names, like Starcraft.com (Starcraft Marine who manufacture boats and pontoons own starcraft.com), the operators of Blizzard Entertainment certainly understand the value of domain names – and they have understood the power of domain names and the internet for years and years.

Their domains may not be “category-killer” names as one of our readers has pointed out (thanks ggc), but they certainly are premium generic keyword names that have been built into their own online successful brands – rather than just sitting parked, or changing owners every few years to the next highest buyer.

With an amazing track record of developing computer games, they’ve been matching their games with domain names.

Diablo, the action/RPG game is matched up to Diablo.com.

Warcraft, the game with over 11 million players online, is setup with Warcraft.com.  If you type warcraft.com into your browser, you’re redirected to Blizzard’s battle.net page for a 10 day FREE trial to World of Warcraft.  Battle.net receives over 1 million unique visitors per month according to the latest Compete.com profile.

The List goes on and on.  To top it off, they acquire the .net and .org versions, too.  From Blizzard.net to Warcraft.org.

If you’ve wondered if there are end user companies out there who get domain names – Blizzard Entertainment is a great example of an innovative company with a great portfolio of names.