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News Video Games

EA buying up Battledrome domains, game originally published in the nineties

Electronic Arts logo

Electronic Arts has been quietly buying up “Battledrome” domains, according to recent name acquisitions made through the brand protection agency Corporation Service Company (CSC).

In early January, the domain Battledrome.com (WHOIS) switched owners from a resident of Australia to CSC.  Though it’s “officially” unknown who is really behind the dotcom, because CSC is currently the listed registrant, you can bet it was Electronic Arts using CSC as an intermediary in order to keep the price lower.

But there’s no doubt Electronic Arts is working on a project called “Battledrome”.  With the dotcom acquired, on January 16, EA went ahead and registered a slew of related domains through CSC, like Battledrome.net (WHOIS), Battledrome.org (WHOIS), Battledrome.us (WHOIS), Battledrome.co.uk (WHOIS), Battledrome.eu (WHOIS), and Battledrome.info (WHOIS).

So, what is Battledrome?

Battledrome

In the mid-nineties, Battledrome was a videogame published as part of the Metaltech series, where players commanded giant HERCs in head-to-head combat over a network.

The game wasn’t developed or published by EA, but the game sure seems like a good candidate for online battle.

At the time of this story, Electronic Arts has made no official announcement and none of the domain names resolve to a web page.

Talking about this story: playm.de

Categories
News Video Games

EA put up $80K to buy Battlefield domain, owns all the way up to Battlefield9.com

Battlefield

Earlier this month Marchex announced it would be splitting into two companies, with Marchex becoming a pure play mobile advertising company and Archeo focusing on a premium domain and advertising marketplace.

With the news came the announcement of the company’s top 500 domain sales (PDF), one of which included the sale of Battlefield.com to Electronic Arts for $80,000 USD.

A number of bloggers and tech journalists wrote about the news, with blogs like Domain Name Wire digging into the historical sales to learn which companies plunked down cash to acquire names.  As Andrew Allemann points out, several paid top dollar.  Glam Network dropped $90,000 for foodie.com, while Google shelled out $100,000 for Chromium.org and $40,000 for HotPot.com.

Electronic Arts has invested a lot of money into its Battlefield franchise and its domain report card shows it has succeeded in the online arena.

In June 2011, EA acquired Battlefield.net for an undisclosed amount of cash.

The company also owns other matching names in the video game series like battlefield2.com (WHOIS), battlefield3.com (WHOIS), battlefield1942.com (WHOIS), battlefield2142.com (WHOIS), battlefieldheroes.com (WHOIS), and battlefield1943.com (WHOIS).

Battlefield 1943

It’s already been reported that the franchise isn’t ending at Battlefield 3 with talk of Battlefield 4 already swirling around the internet.

Perhaps though, Battlefield will see new releases to rival Activision’s Modern Warfare for years to come.

EA currently owns names all the way up to Battlefield9.com according to WHOIS records.

Battlefield9.com WHOIS record
That’s right, Electronic Arts owns battlefield4.com (WHOIS), battlefield5.com (WHOIS), battlefield6.com (WHOIS), battlefield7.com (WHOIS) and even battlefield8.com (WHOIS).

While one might say owning all these names may be nothing more than EA protecting its intellectual property, one could also speculate that EA has long term plans going far beyond Battlefield 4.

Talking about this story: MP1st and Gameranx

Categories
News Video Games

PopCap’s parent Electronic Arts registers ‘Bookworm Heroes’ domain names

Bookworm Heroes

It’s been a few years since PopCap Games has released a new Bookworms title, but it looks like something new may be on the way for the word-forming computer puzzle game, according to new domain registrations by PopCap’s parent EA.

On November 1, 2012, Electronic Arts registered several names like BookwormHeroes.com, BookwormHeroes.org, and even BookwormHeroes.co.uk.

All of the names were acquired through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.

Below is a list of some of the names the company registered:

http://whois.domaintools.com/bookwormheroes.co.uk
http://whois.domaintools.com/bookwormheroes.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/bookwormheroes.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/bookwormheroes.org
http://whois.domaintools.com/bookwormheroes.ca
http://whois.domaintools.com/bookwormheroes.eu

An empty Twitter account is also online at twitter.com/bookwormheroes, but it’s unknown whether PopCap grabbed the social network name.

Not much is known beyond the domain names.

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

Talking about this story: HardGamers

(Image of Lex the Bookworm via PopCap.com)

Categories
News Video Games

Sequel to be called Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare according to domains

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

It looks like the folks at PopCap Games have settled on a title to Plants vs. Zombies 2, due out in the Spring of 2013.

The company has registered a slew of domain names like GardenWarfare.net, PlantsvsZombiesGardenWarfare.com, and PvZGardenWarfare.com.

In August, PopCap Games officially announced Plants vs. Zombies 2 in a press release, but revealed no details about the game’s name.

While the title seems more than fitting, oddly enough, a Twitter user suggested the name to @PopCap back in June.  However, it’s unknown whether the company took the advice or already had plans for the title.

Here’s a look at the full list of registrations:

http://whois.domaintools.com/gardenwarfare.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/gardenwarfare.org
http://whois.domaintools.com/plantsvszombiesgardenwarfare.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/plantsvszombiesgardenwarfare.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/plantsvszombiesgardenwarfare.org
http://whois.domaintools.com/pvzgardenwarfare.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/pvzgardenwarfare.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/pvzgardenwarfare.org
http://whois.domaintools.com/pvzgw.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/pvzgw.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/pvzgw.org

All of the domains were registered through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor on October 16.

At the time of this story, nothing official has been put out by PopCap, or its owner Electronic Arts.

Currently, none of the domains resolve to a web page.

Talking about this story: IGN, NowGamer and Shack News

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

EA follows up ‘Jet Set Detectives’ trademarks, with ‘JetSet Secrets’ filings

EA

UPDATE – AUG. 29, 2012: Electronic Arts Inc. announced the first details regarding their newest Facebook game, JetSet Secrets.

ORIGINAL STORY: Electronic Arts earlier this week filed trademark applications for Jet Set Detectives and now the company has submitted two additional filings for ‘JetSet Secrets’.

The trademark filings (Serial Numbers: 85694205 and 85694206) cover online computer games and computer game software.

There’s not much speculation as to what Jet Set Detectives will be and it may be the same case for JetSet Secrets.

While it appears the video game company took steps to secure the domain name JetSetDetectives.com (Whois) through the brand protection company CSC Global, it didn’t act fast enough to register JetSetSecrets.com.  According to Whois records, the name was registered this past May.  A website offering tips on obtaining the best international flight deals is what appears online as of today.

EA did however register the name in a number of different extensions.  It even picked up the dotXXX adult domain as shown in the screenshot below.

JetSetSecrets.xxx Whois

Other domains registered include:

http://whois.domaintools.com/jetsetsecrets.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/jetsetsecrets.org
http://whois.domaintools.com/jetsetsecrets.info
http://whois.domaintools.com/jetsetsecrets.co.uk
http://whois.domaintools.com/jetsetsecrets.de

No announcement has been made by EA, but with the number of trademark filings appearing on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, it seems we can expect to hear something soon.

UPDATE: EA is investing big time in ‘JetSet Secrets’ related domain names.  After a little digging, I found more domains registered by EA.  Here’s a look at the list.

jetsetsecret.com
jetsetsecret.net
jetsetsecret.org
jetsetsecrets.info
jetsetsecretscheats.com
jetsetsecretscheats.net
jetsetsecretscheats.org
jetsetsecretscodes.com
jetsetsecretsemail.com
jetsetsecretsemail.net
jetsetsecretsemail.org
jetsetsecretses.com
jetsetsecretses.net
jetsetsecretses.org
jetsetsecretsgame.com
jetsetsecretsgo.com
jetsetsecretshacks.com
jetsetsecretshacks.net
jetsetsecretshacks.org
jetsetsecretsmobile.com
jetsetsecretsmusic.com
jetsetsecretsofficial.com
jetsetsecretsofficial.net
jetsetsecretsofficial.org
jetsetsecretsplay.com
jetsetsecretssocial.com
thejetsetsecrets.com
thejetsetsecrets.net
thejetsetsecrets.org

Talking about this story: VG247

(Image of EA Update via EA.com)