What is Digg?Sponsored by Dragon Age: Origins
Follow the Dragon Age: Origins development team on Twitter view!
twitter.com/DragonAge - EA presents BioWare's new dark fantasy epic Dragon Age: Origins. '9/10' from Game Informer.
52 Comments
- contextclouds, on 10/12/2007, -0/+56@SLP1111
You might also try a copy of Gray's Sports Almanac 1950-2000. - shit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+57I am the current owner of *****.net
Somehow the .com was taken. - rejectpenguin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+58I'm thinking of a number between 5,000 and 1,000,000...
- Quix, on 10/12/2007, -3/+55Cybersquatters suck.
- Wolfman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+34Hey squatter..... guess what, Nintendo doesn't give a crap about you. Nor would they even use the name if you DONATED it to them.
- AKAImBatman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28"A new report suggests that Nintendo may have paid around 5k-250k just for the domain name."
Well, that narrows it down. - armbar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21"so it wasn't a profit thing."
I don't agree with that. There's no reason why they wouldn't want to make a profit. If they didn't have intentions of making some sort of profit, they would have just handed the domain over, no questions. - spudnic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20"Willamette Industries Inc. of Portland, known by its stock ticker "wii," registered the domain name wii.com in 1994.
When Weyerhaeuser bought Willamette Industries in 2002, it not only acquired the company's forest products, real estate and equipment, it also acquired its intellectual property, including wii.com."
Click link. Read article. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18LoL! Why don't you just say that they sold it within the range of $1 to $1 billion? Is $5k to $250k really an approximation?
- Rhine23, on 10/12/2007, -4/+21I'm pretty sure Weyerhauser is a bigger company then Nintendo so it wasn't a profit thing.
Weyehauser
Revenue: $22.629 billion USD
Nintendo
Revenue: USD$4.5 billion
Figures from wiki - StellarlyAstral, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18When I read this I can only think of how Microsoft didn't bother with spending the money for zune.com
- yujie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+121 wii for each employee?
- mikev, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I think they were hoping that all the revenue the Zune brings to MS, that the domain would pay for itself.
uh..*****.. - Wolfman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9They wouldn't have named it 'wii'.... I'm sure negotiations went on long before the name 'wii' was released to the public. And if Nintendo has any brains whatsoever, it was acquired through a cover company as to keep the price down. Just a corporate name will double the price of any domain you're interested in acquiring. Better for them to think you're Joe Schmoe.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9$5000?! There's no way Weyerhauser sold it for that little. They could have probably asked for just about as much as they wanted up to around the 1 million dollar point. If Nintendo wouldn't buy it for that, you can be sure SOMEone would.
- elk1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8that pun makes me want to punch a baby
- daridave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Whatever they paid, they got more back with the sales... already.
- Jussles, on 10/12/2007, -18/+25A wii bit more than I would.
- 311chaos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Or better yet, lets just say they paid "some money". I think that is just about as accurate as 5,000 - 1,000,000
- BlackCow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6At least they owned it legitimately and they weren't websquatters.
- herrshuster, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6um...hello? it was going to be called the revolution...revolution.com is taken
- nick34, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I completely agree. Part of capitalizing on any name is to make sure people see your company / product when they go to the dot com.
- Eicos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Weyerhaeuser (yes, that's how it's spelled) is petitioner in an anti-trust suit appeal now being heard by the Supreme Court. Weird coincidences!
... since you asked. - RonnieSan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Selling a domain for anything over $8.00 is a profit.
- nuklear, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I disagree with your assessment. Don't you think its possible the domain was sold without knowledge it would be used by Nintendo for their upcoming system? Most people who purchase domains wish to remain anonymous to protect their idea/product.
It is possible the domain sold for over $500k, but realistically I think it was closer to 50-100k. - GeoFan49, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2www.wii.com
From 2005:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050807075646/www.weyerhaeuser.com/ - dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"$5000?! There's no way Weyerhauser sold it for that little."
You don't know that. What if Nintendo purchased it through a 3rd party, so as not to arouse dollar signs. $5,000 for a $5/yr domain name seems like a pretty good profit. - nandorocker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Life is too short. No time to read articles.
That's what article descriptions (and comments like yours) are for! - nuklear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2nevermind I actually read the article and it looks like Nintendo identifed themselves... which is pretty stupid.
- headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I would have thought that Nintendo (or any company) would have checked the status of a the domain name when selecting a name for their product. Suppose the owners of wii.com absolutely refused to sell the domain. Then what?
- headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hmm.. lemme read the article again.. ok..
"With the Nov. 19 U.S. launch of its Wii video game console looming - and gamers around the globe already drooling in the blogosphere over its arrival - Nintendo wanted control of wii.com.
Or did it?
During development of its future console, Nintendo called its competitor to Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 the Revolution. Then in April, Nintendo announced the true name: Wii (pronounced "we"). "
Lets see. In April (which comes before November) Nintendo decided on the name "Wii". Then sometime around November, although probably many months before, they tried to get the domain name.
So it certainly sounds to me like they decided on the name "Wii" BEFORE trying to get the domain name.
"um...hello? it was going to be called the revolution...revolution.com is taken"
un...hello? wii.com was taken too. - qb0ibids, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I am selling a two letter domain on eBay right now:
vi.com - only 165,000 starting bid
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=008&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=180063552659&rd=1&rd=1 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0.........ANYWAY..........
Rockstar Games secretely bought www.vicecitystories.com from a fan site operator less than a month ago. They didn't pay money though...only VCS swag...oh and this is the first time this has been made public. - zip000, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2You know, usually when someone write "lol" they don't actually - but that comment actually made me laugh out loud.
- magus91, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I would think Nintendo paid part (or all) in stocks. No real cost to them and weyerhaeuser stands to make more than a flat price for the domain.
- jschwartz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3I would definitely guess upwards of $500k and more realistically closer to $2m-$2.5m
I am in the domain investment business, so my opinion is more like an educated guess than just an off-the-cuff guess. There is absolutely no chance that this domain sold for 5k and extremely unlikely that this sold for lower than 6 figures ($xxx,xxx). If there was no such thing as nintendo wii and just a random domain investor had the name it would be worth around $7k-$10k. Since there is though.. the above estimate is most likely accurate. - herrshuster, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5HOLY CRAP!! This is my hometown's newspaper (and yes, it's a small city) that's awesome! ok yeah and the domain thing is interesting too.
http://web.archive.org/web/19980206170236/http://www.wii.com/ - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1@ jschwartz - I'd have to agree with you. $5k is a joke.
- Razster, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6Holy Crap! That is my Local Newspaper's website, Redding.com - Digg you amaze me sometimes and this is one of them.
Shame Redding California is the Suck :) - Rotkiv, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2i was trying to figure out how to say the same thing. hehe
- redmaxx, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1I wonder if they figured in the cost of the domains that they have purchased when they say that each Wii will make a profit?
- doodlebumm, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3They probably paid them 500 Wii's, with the promise that they would be the hot item for Christmas, and they could sell them on ebay for a big profit, or maybe give them to their employees as Christmas presents. :)
- spudnic, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2Then it turns out chaos theory was right and you're a bit *****
- DarkDays, on 10/12/2007, -13/+5"...an extremely wide range - approximately $5,000 to $250,000."
That's like $1,667 to $83,333 per letter. =O - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1Rockstar Games secretely bought www.vicecitystories.com from a fan site operator less than a month ago. They didn't pay money though...only VCS swag...oh and this is the first time this has been made public.
- s2kdave, on 10/12/2007, -14/+3I wish I had a few 3 letter .com domain names. Then I wouldn't have to work!
- nandorocker, on 10/12/2007, -15/+4I only wonder why did Weyerhaeuser (this is how it's spelled by the way) own Wii.com.
My guesses:
a) Some project/product they had the site for in the past and ended up redirecting to the main site?
b) One of those spelling things, I mean I'd understand they'd pay for like, Wiirhouser.com, but just Wii? I don't get it. - tEhKewleSt, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2"You might also try a copy of Gray's Sports Almanac 1950-2000."
Back to the Future 2 FTW! - dustko, on 10/12/2007, -19/+4Listado de directorio denegado
Este directorio virtual no permite listar contenidos!
[zune.com] - SLP1111, on 10/12/2007, -27/+5Oh how I wish I could travel back in time and buy up a ton of domain names for a couple of dollars. Thatd easily make me a billionaire by now... *dreams*
-
Show 51 - 52 of 52 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is