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News Video Games

ModernWarfare3.com begins redirecting to EA’s Battlefield 3, more drama

Battlefield 3

Updated July 15, 2011:  The web address no longer re-directs.  Activision has filed a complaint over ModernWarfare3.com.  The domain dispute has been posted online.

**

The saga of the web address ModernWarfare3.com, which is not owned by Activision, has been a story filled with bizarre twists.

And if you thought the battle over first person shooters between Activision’s Modern Warfare 3 and EA’s Battlefield 3 was interesting, type ModernWarfare3.com into your web browser. 

As of today, the web address takes you to the official website of EA’s Battlefield 3, Activision’s rival.

Last week, I was able to piece together a storyline after keeping an eye on the domain name for months. 

What started as an unofficial fan site, quickly turned into an anti-Call of Duty site.

WARNING — THIS WEBSITE IS UNDER SEIGE, read a message at the top of the homepage up until days ago.

The anonymous owner of the web address ModernWarfare3.com, has taken their sense of humor and anger one step further, by re-directing the domain to battlefield.com/battlefied3.

The redirection started after the site was suspended yesterday by web hosting provider iPage.

It’s unknown why iPage suspended the website, but a Google search shows iPage has shutdown other sites in the past after receiving complaints.  It could also be that the website needed its own dedicated server due to internet traffic, something the owner may not have been willing to pay for.

Discussion: Kotaku, The Escapist, jeuxvideo.com, Videogameszone, PC Games, Games Aktuell and MeriStation

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News Trademarks Video Games

RockYou wants to compete with Zynga with its newest domain registration: GalacticAllies.com

rockyou

Founded in 2005, RockYou is one of the top developers in the social gaming space with over 13 million monthly active users of its games, according to the site AppData. 

Social gaming is a very competitive market and now it seems that RockYou will be creating its own outerspace-like version of Zynga’s popular title Empires & Allies, which has skyrocketed to the #2 spot on the App Leaderboard with nearly 50 million monthly active users.

You read it here first, RockYou’s upcoming futuristic game title will be called: Galactic Allies.

This past week the company registered the domain name galacticallies.com, which considering the popularity of Empires & Allies at the moment and games like Halo, it is not surprising to see a game like this in the works.

In early June, RockYou acquired 3 Blokes to help it develop social combat games as pointed out by TechCrunch.

RockYou is taking this game seriously.  In addition to the domain registration, it also filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on “Galactic Allies”.

GALACTIC ALLIES trademark application

Here’s a look at the Whois record.

Registrant:
   Rock You
   425 Broadway Street
   Redwood City, California 94063
   United States

   Domain Name: GALACTICALLIES.COM
      Created on: 29-Jun-11
      Expires on: 29-Jun-13
      Last Updated on: 29-Jun-11

Registering the domain name before making any announcement is a smart move by RockYou, who hasn’t had much luck securing domain names to match its gaming brands. 

Domains like zooworld.com and gourmetranch.com have eluded the company, while other companies like Zynga have been willing to shell out big bucks to secure their .com brand.  Zynga purchased cityville.com on the domain aftermarket for $38,000 in June 2010.

Cityville is now ranked the #1 game on Facebook.

Discussion: Business Insider

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News Trademarks Video Games

Will Zynga give The Sims on Facebook a run for its money with Familyville?

Zynga Familyville

Electronic Arts is making some big waves in the social gaming world this week amid rumors the company is buying PopCap Games a direct competitor of Zynga.  But that’s not the only news regarding EA and social gaming.  In the fierce competition for the next top game title on Facebook, EA announced that it would be bring the world’s most popular life simulation game “The Sims” to the world’s biggest social network “Facebook”.

You read it here first: After some domain name sleuthing, I have strong evidence that Zynga will answer EA’s challenge with its own yet-to-be released life simulation game on Facebook called Familyville.

That’s right Zynga fans, along with other blockbuster titles like Cityville and Farmville, Zynga may be launching Familyville sooner than later in response to EA’s announcement in early June.

Some Whois history and recent name server changes on the domain name Familyville.com are what lead me to believe that Zynga is working on its next mega hit.

Whois History

In March 2011, ownership of the domain familyville.com changed from its previous owner (Internet Computing) to  Rob Holmes – founder & CEO of IPCybercrime, the very same company that acquired the domain cityville.com on behalf of Zynga for $38,225 at Moniker in June 2010. 

Cityville went on to become the first game in Facebook history to reach 100 million monthly active users.

Here’s a look at the Whois record from March 2011.

Domain name: familyville.com

Administrative Contact:
   –
   Rob Holmes (rob @ipcybercrime.com)
   101EParkBlvd.#400
   Plano, TX 75074
   US

In late April though, the Whois record switched again, this time to GoDaddy’s Domains by Proxy, a Whois privacy service regularly used by Zynga for many of its domain names such as rewardville.com.

Nameserver change

Another change occurred just this week, with the domain name changing from its previous name server to COTDNS.NET, the same nameserver where many of Zynga’s most popular domains reside, including rewardville.com and hangingwithfriends.com.

cotdns

The Sims Social on Facebook hasn’t been released just yet.

But if this rumor of mine proves to be true, EA may want to speed things up a bit on Facebook. 

As of today, Zynga has not filed for a trademark on the word familyville in the U.S. or Europe.  But there’s nothing odd about that;  Zynga didn’t file for a trademark on Empires and Allies until shortly after its launch. 

With social gaming competition becoming fierce, Zynga has gotten smarter with its trademark filings and domain name registrations.

Discussion: The Business Insider, Kotaku, Kotaku Australia, Techmeme, Gamezebo, VentureBeat, Games.com, and Pocket Gamer.

Categories
News Trademarks

Marvel to unveil new social networking service called Blip

Marvel Universe

Activision recently announced its foray into online social networking with “Call of Duty Elite” rolling out this November, and now it appears as if Marvel the comics giant, will be launching its own service called “Blip”.

According to eight recent filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (submitted on June 14) Marvel has some big plans. 

All the applications centered on “Blip” and “Blip.com”. 

In addition to the trademark applications, Marvel also acquired the domain name (which currently doesn’t resolve) this month according to WHOIS records.  The owner switched from Future Publishing Ltd to Marvel.

Registrant:
        Richie Waite
        Marvel Characters, Inc.
        1600 Rosecrans Ave Suite 350
         Manhattan Beach CA 90266
        US
        [email protected]  

    Domain Name: blip.com        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
        Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com

Marvel hasn’t revealed any details on Blip or even discussed it publicly.  The only evidence of the company’s plans are the trademark filings and domain acquisition.

What kind of trademarks did Marvel apply for? 

Here’s a quick look at the trademarks that were submitted for “Blip” and “Blip.com”.

IC 045. US 100 101. G & S: social networking services; providing computer game software, applications and development tools to social networking websites for entertainment purposes and to enhance social networking experiences; providing an Internet website portal featuring social networking opportunities, applications, computer games and links to other websites for the purpose of social networking.

IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game programmes downloadable via the Internet; Computer game programs; Computer game software; Computer game software downloadable from a global computer network; Computer software development tools; Computer software, namely, game engine software for video game development and operation; Downloadable computer game programs; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; Downloadable computer programs featuring positionable game piece figures for use in the field of computer games; Interactive multimedia computer game program; Interactive video game programs; Interactive video games of virtual reality comprised of computer hardware for use with an external monitor and software; Video game software.

IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: computer services, namely, software development services, computer programming, design, development and deployment of computer games, video games, online games, game related applications and development tools for others; computer game development and integration services; providing a website on the internet for hosting computer games; providing a website featuring non-downloadable software tools for use in accessing, playing and tracking performance regarding computer games provided online and via computers, mobile computers and wireless devices, and for communicating with other players of such games, and for creating and hosting micro websites for others

IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Entertainment services, namely, providing a web site featuring photographic, video and prose presentations featuring news and information regarding computer games, computer game enhancements and development tools, social networking tools and opportunities, and links to other web sites that feature computer games and related news and information; Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games; Providing information on-line relating to computer games and computer enhancements for games; Provision of information relating to electronic computer games provided via the Internet.

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=85346078
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=85346074
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=85346071
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=85346069
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=85346029
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=85346028
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=85346026
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=85345993

Discussion: Newsarama

(Photo of Marvel Characters via Marvel.com)

Categories
News Video Games

Microsoft Corporation acquires the domain name Halo4.com, price unknown

HALO 4

Just a little more than a week ago, in a post on this blog I asked the question whether Microsoft would broker a deal for the domain name Halo4.com, after Microsoft had revealed Halo 4 at E3 without owning the domain. 

You read it here first:  The company now owns and re-directs the domain to its official Halo 4 site on Xbox.com.

The domain literally just changed hands today.  Yesterday, it was still registered to Scott O’Reilly (the seller), who I’ve contacted for comment and will update this post if I hear back.

Though the company doesn’t own Halo.com or Halo1.com, it owns Halo2.com, Halo3.com, and now Halo4.com. 

As of today, here are the WHOIS records for Halo4.com.

Domain name: halo4.com

Administrative Contact:
   Microsoft Corporation
   Domain Admin ()
      Fax: +1.11
   One Microsoft Way
   Redmond, WA 98052
   US

Name Servers:
   ns1.msft.net
   ns2.msft.net
   ns3.msft.net
   ns4.msft.net
   ns5.msft.net

Yesterday, the WHOIS records still pointed to Scott O’Reilly. 

Domain name: halo4.com (as of June 14, 2011)

Registrant Contact:
   –
   Scott O’Reilly ()
   
   Rochester, MN 55901
   US

It’s hard to fully understand Microsoft’s strategy of announcing game titles, then purchasing the domain names after the fact.  

One can only imagine what the effect is on the price.

[UPDATE:  Wednesday, June 15, 2011 08:15 PM EST:  I just received a reply from Scott O’Reilly, the previous owner of the domain.  When I asked about the selling price/negotiations with Microsoft, all Scott could tell me is that the only term of the agreement that he can disclose is that he can’t disclose any terms of the agreement.  So, there you have it.]

Discussion: ComputerandVideogames.com, VGChartz, and Kotaku