Looks Like Nintendo Purchased Wii.com

[companyone]

Launching a new product comes with a whole lot of hassles these days, as the folks at Nintendo seem to have found out.

Not only are there issues with creating the said product, but then there are naming, production, pricing and marketing issues to contend with. And, then of course, in the computer age – you’ve gotta have the Web site, too.

That’s where the trouble came in for Nintendo’s Wii. Up until recently, Weyerhaeuser Corp., the paper company, owned the domain name www.wii.com. That’s not so any more as the folks at Go Nintendo have pointed out.

It seems Nintendo has finally locked up the site as its own.

The page loads blank right now and since Nintendo’s been using its main site to plug Wii, that might not change. But, at the very least, with Nintendo now in the driver’s seat it can prevent the domain from being sold to someone else. This, of course, could have had Wii.com being associated with anything imaginable and perhaps some things decent folks might not want to imagine.

As the big September Wii announcements draw closer, it will be interesting to see if Nintendo intends to use the site for anything, or if it was just purchased to ensure the company’s lock on the name.

Regardless, I’m with the folks at Go Nintendo. I wonder how much they paid to get the domain name away from Weyerhaeuser?

http://www.igniq.com/2006/08/wii-web-address-now-nintendos-domain.html


Dan

 

[007]

That was a very smart move by Nintendo... The smarter move would have been buying it for a fraction of the price PRIOR to announcing the name...

I don't know why companies don't think this way though.

Anyway, I'm a Nintendo fan myself, and am glad to see that the domain will not be abused. :-D

 

[NavySeals91]

That's sweet, hurrah for nintendo. And yes, I agree with you 007, they should have bought it before hand, but none the less, the person who owned it made out with some big $$.

 

[Ian]

A laudable move Nintendo to gobble up Wii.com for $$. At least they didn't do this shit called UDRP or law suit against the owner. However, if a domainer had owned the domain name I wonder how fairly he/she would have been dealt.

 

[Olney]

I might be totally wrong with this but I bet that Nintendo of Japan named the product. There are a lot of Japanese companies that would overlook the actual domain name of the product. Exempt for Adsense most companies in the US include the domain in branding.

 

[copper]

A laudable move Nintendo to gobble up Wii.com for $$. At least they didn't do this shit called UDRP or law suit against the owner. However, if a domainer had owned the domain name I wonder how fairly he/she would have been dealt.

Heh, owner/former owner, Weyerhaeuser Corp is not small fish.
It would be really stupid for Nintendo for even thinking of pulling such thing to Weyerhaeuser Corp.

Weyerhaeuser Corp is practically household name within construction industry.
At least in USA that is.

 

[insomnia]

Nintendo would have been way out of their league to try a WIPO case, considering the domain has probably been in use and around for years.

They probably should try to privately buy the names before they go public, but I guess the connections between the brand creators and the internet marketers aren't as close.