Microsoft and Sony Teaming Up?

[Sly Reflex]

Microsoft registers Microsoft-Sony websites, confusing lots of people

Microsoft has been found quietly registering two rather intriguing domain names, microsoft-sony.com and sony-microsoft.com - so what could the two companies be planning?

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/869426-microsoft-registers-microsoft-sony-websites-confusing-lots-of-people

The two domain names are registered to Microsoft Corporation, at the company's Redmond headquarters, and were registered yesterday, Thursday July 14. They were registered by corporatedomains.com, a firm which specialises (rather obviously) in managing domain names for corporate clients.

Currently, trying to access sony-microsoft.com just returns an error message, while microsoft-sony.com simply redirects to a Bing search for the term 'microsoft-sony'.

The domains have prompted speculation about whether the two firms - who are major competitors in the game console world with the Xbox and PlayStation platforms - could be planning some sort of collaboration.

The most likely candidate is that Sony Ericsson might be planning to release smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Phone software. WinRumors points out that Sony Ericsson were originally announced as launch partners for Windows Phone 7, and prototype phones running the software were pictured, but plans for the phones were later scrapped.

Significantly wilder speculation could include an attempt by Microsoft to start some sort of inter-corporation slanging match - or at the other end of the scale some sort of collaboration in the gaming arena between the two rivals. Both are, we suspect, vanishingly unlikely. But you never know.

[hinn888]

Playing each other online would be awesome.

[Sly Reflex]

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/869634-microsoft-deny-that-sony-microsoft-websites-mean-anything-at-all

There was a certain amount of puzzlement at the end of last week when it emerged that Microsoft had quietly registered sony-microsoft.com and microsoft-sony.com - and speculation that it might indicate some sort of imminent collaboration between the two firms (who are, of course, partners in some areas, but competitors in others - notably in the games console market.)

But Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's head of comms, tried to put an end to the wild rumour-mongering, stating that there's nothing deep to be read into the move - they were just trying to ensure that nobody else registered the domain names.

He tweeted late on Friday: 're: sony/ms domain names: Sony = great MS partner. No scoop here, this was just a defensive domain hold. Let's move on to weekend, kay? '

It's not uncommon for firms to register domain names in this way, in an effort to stop anyone else using at them. For example, in late 2010 Bank Of America bought a slew of domain names that insulted their president and CEO Brian Moynihan, such as BrianMoynihanSucks.com, to prevent them from being registered by their opponents.

Kudos has to go to Thumper in the comments to our last article, who called this one pretty accurately - noting that many companies do this sort of thing 'to prevent disgruntled 'customers' from registering a domain with the company's name in it and using it as a platform for slagging off that company.'

It's a lesson Activision are currently learning to their cost - their failure to register ModernWarfare3.com has led to just such a disgruntled customer putting up a website criticising the (as-yet unreleased) game, and redirecting visitors to the website of rival Battlefield 3.

Well that's that then..