Tag: Halo 4

Categories
News Video Games

Halo4.com story sparks lively discussion about domains, squatting at video game news sites

XBOX Halo 4

My Wednesday night story on Microsoft acquiring the domain name Halo4.com from Scott O’Reilly sparked discussion about domains across a number of video-game news sites and blogs.

Kotaku, part of Gawker Media’s “Gawker” network of sites, was the first to publish this story with proper credit to this blog.

After the story went online at Kotaku under “The Annals of Cybersquatting”, almost 24 hours later and thousands of page views here, more video-game news sites and blogs from around the globe wrote about the acquisition including MeriStation, 3D Juegos, Gamers.fr and more.

Discussion among readers got lively.

Here, I selected some of the best comments.

The Owner of halo4.com Probably Made a Lot of Money, but He Isn’t Saying [Kotaku]

Vondruke:  Things like this shouldn’t be allowed and I wonder why it is. I mean if you own the IP you should be able to own the URL.

Kimochi Sama: you’re just jealous because you couldn’t snap the domain first to sell it for sizable cash

Microsoft obtains Halo 4 domain via secret dealings [ComputerAndVideogames.com]

Nitramuse:  Probably rubbing his hands watching his bank account increase. If MS was herassing him, he’d say it…I’m sure.  And now, he receives a s**tload of money, under the condition to “not talk about it, or we want our money back and we’ll keep the domain name. Sign here, please”.

StonecoldMC: *lightbulb moment*  Goes off to register the domain of halo5.com

Microsoft Obtains “Halo4.com” Domain from Man in the US [VGChartz]

scat398: it’s actually against the law to squat on domain names now…so more than likely his rights to the name were taken…with little or no money changing hands.

KylieDog:  In other news, a side character going by the name of “O’Reilly” was just revealed in Halo 4.

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

Categories
Disputes News

Will Microsoft broker a deal for the domain name Halo4.com?

HALO 4

Microsoft will be releasing Halo 4 at the end of 2012, as reported by a number of sources including ars technica. 

“It’s official. As expected, at this morning’s E3 keynote, Microsoft revealed both Halo 4 and an enhanced remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo 4 will be the start of an all-new trilogy and will launch on the 360 at the end of next year. And unlike some of the more recent entries in the franchise, it stars none other than Master Chief.”

Once again though, Microsoft doesn’t own the domain name for an upcoming title.  In this case, Halo4.com.  The unidentified owner has put up the name for sale at Sedo with an asking price of $10,000.

Halo domain names

Halo4.com isn’t the only domain related to the Halo franchise Microsoft doesn’t own.  The company also doesn’t own Halo.com or Halo1.com.

The company does own Halo2.com and Halo3.com.  Both Halo2.com and Halo3.com were acquired by Microsoft on April 27, 2004.  Halo2.com switched straight over to Microsoft Corporation, while Halo3.com was put in Microsoft’s broker’s name Trout & Zimmer, before switching over to Microsoft Corporation nearly two years later on February 23, 2006, according to DomainTools.  

In 2010 Microsoft launched Halo Reach without owning the domain, a name it still doesn’t own.  However, it did finally acquire Kinect.com. 

Readers:  What do you think?  Will Microsoft purchase the name for $10,000 via Sedo from its current owner, acquire the name through other means like a domain  dispute, or simply do nothing?