Activision has registered several new domain names, which means more new video games could be on the horizon. 

The company registered the domains on June 16, the latest additions to its portfolio since registering CallofDutyEliteAwards.com and CallofDutyElitePrizing.com on June 7.

Here’s a look at the company’s latest domain name purchases.

http://whois.domaintools.com/topshotsport.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/survivalvideogame.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/survivalshadowsofkatmai.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/biggamehunterhuntingparty.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/activisionsurvivalgames.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/activisionadventuregames.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/activisionadventurecamp.com

For all you Saints Row fans, it looks like THQ will have a Nyteblayde mini game in Saints Row: The Third, set to release on November 15, 2011.

I found two new domain names registered this week by THQ that point to the possible game – nyteblayde.com and nyteblade.com.

Domain Name: NYTEBLAYDE.COM
      Created on: 08-Jun-11
      Expires on: 08-Jun-13
      Last Updated on: 08-Jun-11

Domain servers in listed order:
      NS1.THQ.COM
      NS2.THQ.COM
      NS3.THQ.COM

Both domain names were registered on June 8th using a thq.com email address according to GoDaddy’s Account Retrieval System.

According to the Saints Row Wiki, Josh “Nyteblade” Birk is game character well-known for his acting role as Nyteblayde in a Saints Row TV show about a vampire hunter turned vampire, who is hunted by the organization he once worked for.

In the past few days, details have been surfacing about Activision’s Call of Duty Elite subscription service that is scheduled to go live in November 2011.  The service will begin its closed beta test later this summer and promises to be innovative by letting you to connect, compete and improve your Call of Duty experience.

Though there have been grumblings over a paid subscription service, it looks like Activision has plans to offer incentives in the form of awards and prizes — based on the company’s newest domain registrations this week.

The gaming company registered two new domains on June 7, 2011.

Domain Name: callofdutyeliteawards.com
Domain Name: callofdutyeliteprizing.comCreated on…………..: 2011-06-07.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-06-07.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-06-07.

    Domain servers in listed order:

    ns3.activision.com
    ns2.activision.com
    ns5.activision.com
    ns0.activision.com

Registrant:
        Mary Tuck
        Activision Publishing, Inc
        3100 Ocean Park Blvd.
         Santa Monica CA 90405

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: It looks like the U.S. Marine Corps, a component of the U.S. Department of the Navy, is throwing their hat into the video gaming ring.  In late May, the Marine Corps applied for six different trademarks on “Marine Ops” and “Marine Ops: The Crucible”.

While other branches of the military like the Army have long been at the forefront of game development with its popular title America’s Army, it looks like the marines will be putting up a challenge to the soldiers.

The trademarks were all filed on May 25, 2011 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (uspto.gov). 

a look at the filings.

Word Mark  MARINE OPS: THE CRUCIBLE
IC 038. US 100 101 104. G & S: Streaming of audio, visual and audiovisual material via a global computer network

Word Mark  MARINE OPS: THE CRUCIBLE
IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game programs; Computer game software; Downloadable video recordings featuring military topics; Interactive game programs; Interactive game software; Interactive video game programs; Motion picture films about military topics

Word Mark  MARINE OPS: THE CRUCIBLE
IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Continuing public service programs in the field of military topics produced and distributed over television, satellite, film, audio, video, internet, and 3-D virtual reality media; Entertainment and education services in the nature of a series of short shows featuring military topics distributed to mobile handsets, which may include video, text, photos, illustrations or hypertext; Entertainment services, namely, providing online electronic games; Entertainment services, namely, providing online video games; Entertainment services, namely, providing temporary use of non-downloadable video games; Rental of pre-recorded videos that may be downloaded from an Internet web site

Word Mark  MARINE OPS
IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Continuing public service programs in the field of military topics produced and distributed over television, satellite, film, audio, video, internet, and 3-D virtual reality media; Entertainment and education services in the nature of a series of short shows featuring topics relating to the military distributed to mobile handsets, which may include video, text, photos, illustrations or hypertext; Entertainment services, namely, providing online electronic games; Entertainment services, namely, providing online video games; Entertainment services, namely, providing temporary use of non-downloadable video games; Rental of pre-recorded videos that may be downloaded from an Internet web site

Word Mark  MARINE OPS
IC 038. US 100 101 104. G & S: Streaming of audio, visual and audiovisual material via a global computer network

Word Mark  MARINE OPS
IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game programs; Computer game software; Interactive game programs; Interactive game software; Interactive video game programs

[Photo of Marines from 2005 urban simulation via Dept. of Defense] 

In Kevin Butler’s latest commercial, the fake Vice President of Sony’s Playstation division gives tips on SOCOM 4 to Multiplayer Player Ty Jackson.

My story last week about Activision failing to renew several of their “gameoftheyear” domain names like gameoftheyear.com, caught the eye of  Activision’s social media guy, Dan Amrich.  Dan followed up my story with a story of his own, titled, Fact Check: Activision & gameoftheyear.com. 

What happened to those “gameoftheyear” domain names?

Here’s a quick update on the domain names mentioned in my last story.

gameoftheyear.com– The domain is no longer registered to Activision and is now registered to a “Joe Lee”.

thegameoftheyear.com– The domain is still registered to Activsion, but is in a pendingDelete status, meaning, the domain expired and is no longer available for redemption. The registry is about to erase it. A domain name remains in this status for five days before it is deleted, according to GoDaddy.

computergameoftheyear.com– The domain is still registered to Activsion, but is in a pendingDelete status.

pcgameoftheyear.com– The domain is still registered to Activsion, but is in a pendingDelete status.

game-of-the-year.com– The domain is still registered to Activsion, but is in a pendingDelete status.

Activision’s latest dropping domain names

As part of an ongoing effort to track gaming developments with Activision, I monitor changes to Activision’s domain names.

If you’ve wanted to own a piece of internet once belonging to Activision or one its companies, there’s plenty of opportunity to get a generic domain name that Activision has decided to let expire.  Every week an Activision-owned URL expires, and this week is no different.

Keep in mind, while many of Activision’s internet addresses like gameoftheyear.com are generic, other terms may be trademarked.  So I would not recommend trying to register a domain name like bournesessions.com (which recently expired).

Here’s a look at the latest list:

swat.biz– Swat.biz was once the website (screenshot above) for SWAT, a first person shooter computer game published by Vivendi Universal Games. Vivendi Universal Games merged with Activision.  Many of the domains that have been expired were acquired by Activision during the merger. The domain expired on March 26, 2011. 

ninjasvspiratesgame.com–  The domain is still registered to Activsion, but is in a RedemptionPeriod status, meaning,  the domain name expired, and the registry is waiting for 30 days as a precautionary measure before releasing it.

evenmorecontraptions.com–  The domain is still registered to Activsion, but is in a RedemptionPeriod status.

sovietassault.com– Activision almost let this name expire, but instead decided to renew it just in time on April 3, 2011.

larrylovage.com– Another domain name Activision almost allowed to expire, but opted for renewal.  Larry Lovage is the main character of the game Leisure Suit Larry.

Come back each week for more names.

What happens when you don’t win Game of the Year at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards?

Well, in the case of Activision, which saw its best selling game in U.S. history, Call of Duty: Black Ops, lose to Red Dead Redemption— the company has decided not to renew several of its domain names surrounding “Game of the Year”.

The list of names includes:  gameoftheyear.com, thegameoftheyear.com, computergameoftheyear.com, pcgameoftheyear.com, and game-of-the-year.com.

Gameoftheyear.com, which was originally registered in 1999, expired on February 2, 2011.  Now the domain name appears over on the Pending Deletes List provided by Pool.com, an online service that offers its’ customers access to a list of thousands of daily deleting domains.  If a person is lucky enough to find a name they want in the Pending Deletes List, the person can obtain the domain before it becomes available for public registration.

Thegameoftheyear.com, according to Whois records, expired on February 18, 2011 and is still registered to Activision, but the status of the domain is set to ”Redemption Period”.  According to GoDaddy, RedemptionPeriod means the domain name expired, and the registry is waiting for 30 days as a precautionary measure before releasing it.

Computergameoftheyear.com, pcgameoftheyear.com, and game-of-the-year.com are all in a Redemption Period status.

No love at the Spike Video Game Awards for Activision

Though Activision didn’t win “Game of the Year” in 2010 announced this past December, it did win in the “Best Shooter” category.  And the company has won the distinction of “Game of the Year” by other blogs, magazines, and gaming sites — just not necessarily by Spike, which holds one of the biggest events each year.

However, the company just hasn’t had much luck winning a coveted Spike Video Game Award.

In 2009, Activision’s, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 lost out to Sony’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.  In 2008, Activision wasn’t even a contender for Game of the Year.  Grand Theft Auto IV, another game published by Rockstar Games took the crown.  2007 went to Bioshock and 2006′s title went to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. 

Going all the way back to 2003, Activision has won in a number of different sub-categories, just not for “Game of the Year”.

UPDATE:  Activision’s social media guy, Dan Amrich, who tweets using @oneofswords, has posted an insightful follow-up to this story. 

Dan writes, “Truth is, there is no link between the expiration of these URLs and the Spike VGAs. What’s more, there’s barely a connection between these URLs and Activision. These URLs were registered by Vivendi/Sierra, and were used to promote the Game Of The Year editions of Half-Life in 1999 and Half-Life 2 in 2005.”

 As I mentioned yesterday on this site’s sister domain blog, “…while one has nothing to do with the other necessarily, had Activision won “Game of the Year”, renewing the domain probably wouldn’t have been overlooked.”  Either way, it was good to see an Activision rep do some outreach and respond to clear things up.

And for the record, Call of Duty: Black Ops should’ve totally taken the “Game of the Year” title in my opinion.

Earlier this week, Gamasutra reported that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment confirmed that F.E.A.R. 3 will be released on the PlayStation3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC  in the UK on 27th May 2011. 

The game is scheduled to be released in the US on May 24th 2011.

What is F.E.A.R 3?

F.E.A.R. 3, is a first person-shooter developed by Day 1 Studios.  The sequel to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.

As described by GameBandits: “F.E.A.R. tracks the history of Point Man as he battles evil and occult forces beginning with a confrontation with Paxton Fettel’s telepathic controls of supersoldiers out to wreak havoc. F.E.A.R. 3 reveals that Point Man and Fettel are brothers and a thread of treachery, betrayal, and horror is promised to be in store for this latest installment.”

Watch the GamesCom 2010 trailer below.

Publisher: Warner Bros. (http://www.warnerbros.com/)
Developer: Day 1 Studios (http://day1studios.com/)
Official website: http://www.whatisfear.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/fear3videogame