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?