Bethesda takes over falloutnewvegas.com

Brother None

Brother None

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Belated but there you go.<blockquote>Some of you might have seen the fansite set up by some fans at falloutnewvegas.com, which, while understandably lacking in content, had mostly the #1 spot in Google searches for Fallout: New Vegas. However, as of October 5, the site has been shut down. According to registration data, the domain is now registered with CSC Corporate Domains, Inc. As it turns out, so is bethsoft.com, zenimax.com and other domains owned by Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax Media.

Honestly, I was surprised that Bethesda had not registered the domain on the very day they announced the game, and them taking the domain over from the fansite now is simply them protecting their trademark. The fansite will likely be free to continue at some new address. </blockquote>
 
Companies can just take over domain names? I didn't know that. Do we know if it wasn't simply bought out?
 
K.C. Cool said:
Companies can just take over domain names? I didn't know that. Do we know if it wasn't simply bought out?
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I think the details are a bit sketchy right now but it is usually a little bit of both. Unless the company is a prick they give a offer to the site owner, then if a reasonable one is refused they do that bs "your using the games name without permission" or some similar poo like that. It's the same with corporations and everyone. Well, now days games ARE corporations. That's why their content is so crappy and the release's are like beta quality. The dreaded "Deadline" corporate tactic.

Walgreens did this with a site with a real close named to theirs a couple years back if I am not mistaken it was wallgreens.com instead of walgreens.com. I can't remember what it was about exactly, I think to get them to stop selling cigarette's. They strong armed their way and the site is no more.
 
I've been through this before with Origin years ago. If you are doing a fan site it doesn't matter if it's the exactly same name. As long as it isn't a commercial venture and it's contains a disclaimer, it pretty much falls into fair use of the trademark. But I wouldn't put it past them threatening.

I think however, they probably bought it outright.
 
K.C. Cool said:
Companies can just take over domain names? I didn't know that. Do we know if it wasn't simply bought out?
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It depends on a lot of things. If your website is older than the product then you're safe but if it's a website created after a product with the same name then you can be forced (in court) to relinquish the domain to the copyright/trademark owner (especially if you're not using the domain or are using it to mislead people). Back in the old days, there were a lot of domain squatters (Pepsi, Coke, etc.) so some companies bought them out while others took them to court and won on the basis of trademark infringement.
 
maximaz said:
Same thing happened with the Diablo 3 site if I'm not mistaken.
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It did. The former owner got a new address from Blizzard and they promised him there would be a bit extra info on Diablo 3 for him down the line. No money and no court involved. Or so they said.
 
I bet this generated quite some traffic to the mentioned url. PR stunt to warm up the crowd?

(would have been a nice rickroll... )
 
It's not very important for a "pr stunt", imo. Someone got a domain regarding New Vegas, Bethesda/ZeniMax got it now and thats it. No big thing.

It would be nice if the old domain holders would say something to it.
 
Hmm, i wonder when we will see an update on Fallout: New Vegas. Something deep inside tels me that we won't be seeing the game until sometime towards the end of 2010 or early 2011.
 
I'd say in 4 or 5 months we're hearing from it, not seeing. Much like FOE, release late in the year, march that year we were hearing the first things about it, wasn't it?
 
I just hope, it will not be Bethesda-esque hype-machine again. See nothing of the game until it is three weeks before release... and even then just see 10 promo pics.
 
The game will definitely not suck so much as FOE, so there's little reason for them to hide it from the public, unlike what happened with Bethesda.
 
I know that the team that is working on Fallout: New Vegas is different but now that Alpha Protocol is delayed i am kinda worried. Of Course, i would accept these delays if they make the game better. Just like miyamoto once said: " A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever".
Of course, a delayed game is not always good but still...
 
Chris Avellone said in his latest blog entry that most people working on Alpha Protocol has moved on to other projects and that the remaining ones are doing QA, though the bug queue is apparantly small.

As far as I know, aside from Alpha Protocol, Obsidian is also working on New Vegas as well as one as of yet unannounced project which is using their own Onyx engine.

I guess it's possible that they may have started another new one though if the majority of Alpha Protocol team has moved on.

Anyways, hope we'll hear something new on New Vegas soon. I'm not exactly holding my breath for a "true" Fallout game or whatever, but it'll be interesting to see what they're doing with it.
 
Astiaks said:
I know that the team that is working on Fallout: New Vegas is different but now that Alpha Protocol is delayed i am kinda worried. Of Course, i would accept these delays if they make the game better. Just like miyamoto once said: " A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever".
Of course, a delayed game is not always good but still...
Click to expand...

i would change that to:

"a delayed game has a delayed chance to be good, a bad game is bad forever."
 
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