It might not be Electronic Arts or DICE, publisher and developer of this fall’s Battlefield 3, respectively, but an anti-fan of the Call of Duty series, someone quick enough to snatch the Modern Warfare 3 domain name before Activision could claim ownership. The domain is currently owned by an anonymous entity, registered through a proxy and housed on web hosting provider HostGator’s servers.
Until last week, ModernWarfare3.com simply hosted an anti-Call of Duty video and the following screed stuff with the standard complaints about the Infinity Ward and Treyarch-made series:
Modern Warfare is crap. On November 8, 2011, the most over-hyped first-person action series of all-time returns with the copy and paste sequel to the lackluster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Check out the E3 2011 gameplay demo featuring the Black Tuesday level for a look at the epic fail of the campaign. Pre-Order Call of Duty MW3 Today for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC to secure exclusive bonuses only available online for Modern Warfare 3 fanboys who don’t know that Battlefield 3 is the better game.
Now, the domain simply redirects to DICE’s Battlefield 3 site, a change that went into effect this past Friday but was spotted earlier this week by a whole lot of people today. (Oh, thanks for all the tips, tipsters!)
Web site domain watcher Fusible.com has been keeping an eye on the domain for the past few months, reporting that the switch occurred after previous host iPage shut down the web site. Prior to that, the owners of ModernWarfare3.com attempted to gain a following on Facebook and by soliciting e-mail addresses from Call of Duty fans through a newsletter sign up form.
As Fusible has pointed out previously, Activision does not own the domains ModernWarfare.com, ModernWarfare3.com or ModernWarfare4.com.
Fans in both camps have been disparaging each other’s preferred game well in advance of the official announcement (and leak) of the next Call of Duty, but Battlefield fans make have the most effective troll in whoever owns ModernWarfare3.com. So who does own the domain that should probably be Activision’s? That’s what we’re trying to find out.
Kotaku has contacted reps for Activision and Electronic Arts seeking comment on the domain dispute.
Uncle Bob
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 1:24 PMI saw it last week before the change and thought it Activisions before I actually started to read.
It was well done.
Chazz
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 1:42 PMAnd people say CoD fans are immature and childish?
Braaains
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 2:03 PMYes. People do say that.
Chazz
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 2:11 PMInteresting. Very interesting.
Alinos
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 2:27 PMactually theres no evidence that he’s not a CoD fan either.
im a fan of CoD. I’m not a fan of any of the release or design decisions since W@W.
he could simply be an immature Cod fan dissapointed with the fact that they keep trying to shove what 5 years ago would of been expaks down our throats.
Chazz
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 3:46 PMHe could also simply be an alien or a russian spy. But it’s not likely…
gis
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 10:25 PMWith good reason too, as Cod is a mainly kiddie console game nowadays and If they had any sense they wouldn’t buy dumb down copy & paste headless chicken games . So yes seem`s like its a fair assumption of your average COD player ;)
mattroe
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 12:48 PMThis doesn’t come across as childish or immature at all. I think it’s quite clever actually.
SupremeBeans
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 2:48 PMIt’s interesting the shit that’s heaped against EA – for DRM, recycling sport sequels, Origin – to see them billed as the underdog, the little company that could, against Activision. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge COD fan and I’m as keen for Battlefield 3 as the next guy, but on the off chance it actually manages to usurp the title of biggest franchise from COD, then … well, I’d wager it’s going to be the exactly the same. Colossal video game corporation raking in cash with a military FPS. Same ball-game, different name.
Alinos
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 3:54 PMExcept the difference is that At least the champion is winning personally i want BF3 to overtake CoD for the sole reason that it should make activision wise up and make a game that is being made to be good as opposed to another yearly cash cow.
We should really be looking for the 2 companies to try and 1 up one another with each game. so that neither grows complacent.
the one issue is that Cod and BF both serve different crowds regardless
Reoh
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 3:57 PMI think its hillarious. Was funnier when I thought someone had hacked the official MW3 site at first before reading more of the article. :)
TBH though I’m losing a lot of excitement for BF3 too though the more I hear about what distribution side. It’s starting to sound a lot like COD these days.
Lazarus
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 4:01 PMWill this whole thing go down in history much like other gaming rivalries of the past: Doom vs Duke3D; Quake vs Unreal; Starcraft vs Total Annihilation (or C&C?); Mario vs Sonic?
Wesley
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 4:38 PMhaha look how Mario and Sonic turned out!
Lazarus
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 8:14 PMHolmes vs Moriarty… Aristotle vs Smashy Spike Plate!
Allanon10101
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 4:38 PMI don’t know that Activision have a leg to stand on here. It’s been pretty well established in the past that owning the brand name doesn’t = owning the domain name.
Chazz
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 9:30 PMDid you even read the article?
Nick
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 4:46 PMhilarious
Will
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 1:58 AMGood troll is good.
Anonymous
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 2:10 AMWould be a shame say that link would redirect you to callofduty.com/mw3?
Joe
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 4:16 PMWe all know who’s the fanboy in this case. If I were him I’d auction off the domain name, you could make some serious cash off it.
Reoh
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 5:18 PMSome people make a lot of good money doing that.
Alex Slade
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 8:45 PMThis is so annoying. What about the non-fanboys who are looking forward to both games equally. It pisses me off when people do this. Grow up.