Domain Squatting causes game company...

[Achaias]

to change the name of their game.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53971

Though Quake Zero--id Software's free online version of Quake III--was announced at QuakeCon 2007, the name was subsequently changed to Quake Live with no explanation.

id co-founder John Carmack today revealed that the change of the name was due to an enterprising domain name squatter.

"This was an idea we had mere weeks before QuakeCon," said Carmack, emphasizing the freewheeling nature of the Quake Zero announcement.

As it turned out, the speed of the game's unveiling came back to bite the company, when a quick anonymous individual purchased the Quake Zero internet domain names.

"They offered us a considered buyout option for it," added Carmack. "We just decided heck, we're only a few months into development of this, we'll just change the name."

In this instance I really don't feel bad for id Software since they should have already registered the domain names. On the other hand it was kind of dirty to rip it out from under them like that. Oh well I guess the sqatter got stuck swallowing the fees and no future for a deal. C'est la vie.

 

[HuntingMoon]

quake live sounds better