Rightside is launching its .Games gTLD this week, using the EAP approach of tiered pricing.
In other words, prices start high, at about $11,000 dollars and get lower as we approach General Availability day.
The .Games gTLD has been anticipated by – you guessed it – gamers around the world, and games studios. Even domainers say they’d register one or more, as speculation in domains doesn’t hurt. 😀
In recent days, Rightside has unleashed a barrage of informational content regarding its .Games launch.
That’s the right approach!
When comparing the value of a two word .com with “games” as the second word, versus a keyword .Games domain, which one is better?
Take, for example, MathGames.com, not your typical parked domain, but rather, a business in the education field.
Formed by domain industry entrepreneur, Bill Karamouzis (Bill Kara for short,) MathGames.com educates kids of all ages presenting them with the joy of math, by using fun games that stimulate the mind.
Bill Karamouzis acquired the domain MathGames.com in 2013, for an astounding $725,000 dollars.
He had a business plan in mind.
Meanwhile, the domain Math.Games has been pre-sold by Rightside, as part of a private allocation of ultra-premium .Games domains. Many interested parties placed inquiries and some have already been sold.
Math.Games was acquired by domain investor, Chad Wright, and it’s currently parked.
There has been no disclosure on the exact selling price, which we’d estimate at high five figures or very low six figures.
The issue with gTLD domains is that they must make sense as a keyword+gTLD combination, in order to deliver SEO value and retain an intrinsic meaning. In the case of Math.Games this is true.
Does MathGames.com find itself in a position to lose traffic to the gTLD variant?
For now, as there is nothing built on Math.Games, this is highly unlikely. Decades of direct type-in behavior by millions of online users would actually steer traffic to the .com.
To compete with MathGames.com, Chad Wright’s acquisition of a domain would have to be expertly developed and promoted, both by spending money on Google AdWords and by raising public awareness.
As with all brands relying on gTLD domains, the importance of understanding the market is paramount.
Good luck to Rightside and .Games, they also have an auction of .Games and .Live domains currently.
Looks like a similar business “www.coolmath-games.com/” managed to acquire their .Games equivalent “coolmath.games”.
It’s currently a redirect to the .com but only time will tell if they make the plunge fully to a new gTLD.
Brian – That’s via the Sunrise period for trademark holders. Math.Games was sold directly.
I had a chance to buy but passed, some regret on that now as when I type it in you can see losing the dot com looks good and makes sense. Chad has a ton of good gaming related domains, I have no doubt this will be another smart buy as time goes on. Welcome to the world of math Chad 🙂
It is going to take a few years, but the “.com”-less domains that are short Word1.Word2 will look edgy/cool and be memorable by the public.
Come on Bill, that was a drop in the bucket from you after you exit, if you really wanted it, why didn’t you pop.
Rightside has been reaching out to it’s best clients, for the .games release, they are proactively selling it to get the buzz out, whats $11K to you, when you shelled out $700K, and you say it looks better, I don’t buy the real reason, I am sorry, have to call B S
It’s like comparing a Ferrari to a Corvette. The Ferrari is better but the Corvette is still a bad ass ride.
WQ – Both can take you to your destination. A Ferrari has higher maintenance cost. A Corvette won’t get you Eurochicks 😀
Hey Kris I didn’t say it looked better I said it looked good and it does. As for 11k we have a difference of opinion on what a drop in the bucket is )
Having said that, I don’t know what the sale price actually ended up being. I thought it was over 50k closer to 100k. If it really did sell for 11k, or is for sale for 11k (which I’m certain it’s not) then I’d buy it. I can see the debate on many of the new gtlds but a few seem like no brainers to me. This is one of them, but I might be biased causes of the whole game connection hah
The domain cost more than 11K. I can assure you of that.
We are in agreement than )
I will go for the .com thanks