Tag: cityville

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News Trademarks Video Games

Zynga likes to buy unlikely domain names, and social gaming is expected to be a billion-dollar business in 2011

Warstorm

MafiaWars.com, Cityville.com, Rewardville.com, Warstorm.com, YoVille.com:  As reported by Leena Rao of TechCrunch, social gaming is expected to be a billion-dollar business this year.  And those businesses that are getting into the social gaming market will be looking for domain names. 

As they did in 2010 and previous years, social gaming market leader Zynga will likely be looking for more domain names to use for their up-and-coming games.

The company has bought thousands of dollars’ worth of domain names on the aftermarket, including the name for its best performing game on Facebook Cityville.com, which it paid $38,225 for in June 2010 at Moniker.   Cityville is expected to top 100 million monthly active users on Facebook at any moment.

Most recently, the company paid  $4,500 for the domain name Rewardville.com at Sedo, which is rumored that it will be used for its virtual rewards system.   Though Zynga hasn’t publicly confirmed plans for a Rewardville application, the company filed for a trademark in  Europe as reported here on Fusible.com.

But Cityville.com and Rewardville.com weren’t the only publicly reported domain name purchases by Zynga on the aftermarket.

Zynga purchased Mafiawars.com in 2009 on Sedo GreatDomains for €23,500.00 (or about $33,100).  Mafia Wars has gone on to be one of the top Facebook games, with nearly 3 million daily active users according to the latest Appdata metrics. 

The company also owns Warstorm.com.  Though Zynga didn’t directly buy the domain name Warstorm.com, it did buy the company Challenge Games that acquired the domain on Sedo in 2008 for $9,450.

But one of the best domain deals for what is now a Zynga-owned game, is that of Yoville.com, which was purchased for a measly $400 on Sedo in April 2008, shortly before Zynga purchased the Facebook game in July.

With the social gaming market looking to make history in 2011, so might sales of domain names that end up as Facebook games.  Are you holding a winning lottery ticket?

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News Video Games

Cityville app is oh-so-close to 100 million monthly active users (Domain bought for only $38,000)

Cityville by Zynga

Cityville, the popular social game developed by Zynga, is very close to reaching 100 million monthly active users. 

According to the latest stats from application trends and metrics tracker Appdata, Cityville has reached 98,798,539 monthly active users and is set to be the first game in history to hit 100 million users, within the next week.

Cityville, like many of Zynga’s social games, has experienced a quick rise to the top.

It quickly hit 6 million online users within 8 days of going online.

The domain name Cityville.com, which Zynga owns and re-directs to its Facebook application page, was purchased for a mere $38,225 at Moniker less than a year ago.

Although Cityville and Zynga have made a lot of headlines, the company did recently acquire Rewardville.com for a somewhat bargain price of $4,500.

But after the historic success of Cityville and other games, Zynga may have a hard time acquiring “ville” domains at these prices on the aftermarket. 

At least with people and companies a little more familiar with domain names and the possible mystery buyer behind the offer.

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News Trademarks Video Games

Elliot’s Blog, Fusible, get credit from AOL’s Games.com for breaking, then confirming Zynga Rewardville story

AOL Games

The bigger technology sites and mainstream blogs often take credit for breaking news stories, even though some of those news stories are on occasion reported by bloggers first. 

That’s not the case with a recent breaking story that appeared on Domaining.com yesterday, in which Elliot Silver asked whether Zynga bought the domain name Rewardville.com.

It seems that AOL’s blog over at Games.com is giving credit to Elliot’s Blog and the blog here at Fusible for breaking, then confirming the rumor that Zynga has plans for Rewardville. 

After reading Elliot’s story, in which he noted the domain was marked private and re-directed to rewards.zynga.com, I did some research and discovered that in fact, Zynga Inc. had filed for a European trademark back in December 2010 on the word “Rewardville”. 

Alexander Armero, the Games.com blogger that wrote the story titled, “RewardVille: Zynga plans a mysterious rewards program”, had this to say:

Hot on the heels of CityVille, Zynga may already be planning another release: RewardVille. Today, Fusible confirmed rumors that Zynga has big plans for this mysterious reward program.

The speculation about RewardVille solidified into fact when it was discovered that Zynga had actually filed a trademark for RewardVille back in mid December. Not only that, but they paid $4,500 for the website: rewardville.com. Would you pay that much for a website you didn’t plan on using? I think we can definitely expect to hear a lot more about RewardVille in the future.

Alexander speculates that Rewardville could be used for a new Zynga Lotto, or maybe a new game entirely.  Whatever the case, at the time of this story, Rewardville.com now resolves to a GoDaddy.com parked page.

AOL Games.com

If you’re a fan of Zynga, you should check out the blog over at Games.com.  The writers at Games.com do some of the best coverage on Zynga’s social gaming properties, including Cityville. 

Cityville.com sold for $38,000 in 2010 and is now Facebook’s most popular game of all-time. 

According to AppData, Cityville is expected to top over 100 million monthly active users by the end of this week.

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News Trademarks Video Games

Predictions on the next Facebook game title by Zynga

facebook games

With Zynga’s latest Facebook game Cityville topping the charts as the most popular Facebook game in 2010, I thought I’d offer up a few predictions on Zynga’s next blockbuster game title in 2011.  With Cityville, Farmville, and Frontierville numbering daily users in the millions, one can only guess what’s next for Zynga, like another game with “ville” in the title.

Back in late 2009, the game publisher went on a trademarking spree as pointed out by Games.com.  

Libe Goad, wrote: “Zynga, the social game publisher responsible for FarmVille, PetVille, Mafia Wars and more, went on a trademarking spree during the month of December, securing 21 names for potential new games. Of course, many of the names follow the end with ‘ville,’ including TreasureVille, FrontierVille, CrimeVille and AnimalVille.”

The complete list of trademarks (which can viewed easily over at Trademarkia) included: Pet Hospital, Poker Blitz, Safari World, Treasureville, Zoo city, zoo island, mafia world, hotelville, hotel world, hospital world, hospitalville, frontierville, frontier world, frontier, crimeville, crime world, casino world, casino blitz, bountyville, animal world and animalville.

While FrontierVille ended up as one of the top Facebook games, it wasn’t until June 23, 2010, that the company purchased the domain name Cityville.com for $38,225 at Moniker – in what would turn out to be the single biggest game ever on Facebook.

The game title Cityville, has spawned hundreds of domain registrations and websites with “cityville” in the name, ranging from CityvilleGuide.com to CityvilleGamecheats.net.

Zynga is known for using a myriad of companies and individuals for registering domain names, so predicting the next big game title might prove to be much harder.  For example, the company used IP Cybercrime LLC to register its Cityville.com domain. 

Predictions

What are your predictions for Zygna game titles in 2011? 

Will the game developer go with a “ville” name? A “world” name?

Is the company somehow behind the recent buys of Songville.com, Dreamville.com, or Slotsville.com on Sedo? Or maybe RestaurantWorld.com (which was purchased for nearly $8,000 in September)?

The company has plenty of names to choose from, but who owns those names is the question.  As I wrote about before, though Zynga might use a certain title for a game, it doesn’t always own the domain (even after launching the game).

Petville.com was launched in 2009 by Zynga, and the company acquired the domain name Petville.com from its previous owners for an undisclosed amount.  Visit Petville.com, and a message at the top of the site reads: ‘the content that was previously found at petville.com can now be found at ipawz.com’. 

Though Zynga owns Petville.com, Farmville.com and other ville domain names, it doesn’t own Fishville.com – which saw a spike in traffic according to Compete when the site launched in November 2009.   It appears Zynga and the owners of Fishville.com couldn’t come to an agreement, but Zynga is doing just fine – its Fishville game owns nearly all the top spots on Google, and the company does own the .net which it uses for the game’s home page.

Why Cityville is so hot

If you’re wondering what Zynga is doing to make its’ games so popular, Gamasutra the online gaming magazine, has an interesting write up titled: How Zynga’s CityVille Has Compelled 70 Million Players.

If you still haven’t checked out Cityville yet, here’s some gameplay footage provided by IGN.

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News

$38,000 domain sold in June at Moniker, now the most popular Facebook application

cityville

After selling for $38,225 in June at Moniker, CityVille is now bigger than FarmVille, Mashable is reporting.  

Referring to the latest statistics provided by Appdata, a site that tracks Facebook application metrics, Cityville surpassed Farmville and the Facebook game now has nearly 17 million daily users.  On Dec. 11, Cityville which had been online less than 2 weeks, had 6 million users and it has continued to grow at a phenomenal pace.

The top 10 Facebook apps on the leaderboard according to Appdata are:

1.  CityVille 
2.  FarmVille   
3.  Phrases   
4.  Texas HoldEm Poker  
5.  FrontierVille   
6.  Causes   
7.  Mafia Wars Game   
8.  Café World   
9.  Phrases (new)  
10.  My Year In Status