Wii U, Xbox One: Nintendo, Microsoft Do Not Own Sites Named Like Consoles
What do Microsoft and Nintendo have in common? Neither owns the site sharing the name of their latest console!
The websites xboxone.com and wiiu.com are not owned by the creators of the Xbox One and Wii U. Both Microsoft and Nintendo have been fighting for the domains sharing names with their consoles, with varying degrees of success, or lack thereof.
Nintendo lost an appeal for ownership of wiiu.com, a site that apparently existed before even the Wii did in 2004. They lost the appeal because the domain is sitting on a redirect site with various links, some which point to Wii U related pages, and some which don’t. Wiiu.com was up for auction before Nintendo filed their complaint in February, and may result in the console company needing to pay a hefty price to secure it.
Similarly, xboxone.com is also owned by a cybersquatter who registered the domain back in 2011. The same guy in the UK owns the rights to xboxone.net. This could mean an Xbox fan got really lucky predicting the name of the console two years before the rumors could even solidify, or he has plans for it. Either way, Microsoft plans to fight for the rights to both domains.
Microsoft has had the additional headache of denying they owned it if anyone happened to come along claiming too far in advance to know what their next console would be called. On the bright side, Microsoft seems to be doing better than Nintendo in winning the battle for their console’s domain.
Could it be that Microsoft simply has more money to throw into legal hassles such as this, while Nintendo is struggling to stay afloat with disappointing console sales?
Fusible is one of those sites that “sniffs out” rumors about new media such as consoles and movies by scanning the registered domains for clues, though how these sites slipped through the cracks remains a mystery. Otherwise the Wii U and the Xbox One console names would have been leaked possibly before the consoles were even designed.
What do you think about Nintendo and Microsoft not owning the sites the Wii U and Xbox One appear to be named after?
