Microsoft acquires Xbox 8 domain names

After all the recent Xbox 720 rumors, Microsoft has filed to acquire and won over the following domain names:

• XboxPhone.com
• XboxTablet.com
• XboxLiveTV.com
• XboxCompanion.com
• Xbox8.us
• Xbox8.org

Phone, Tablet, Live TV and Companion all make sense if you have watched Microsoft’s E3 this year. But there has been quite a stir regarding the Xbox8 domains, speculation says it’s the name of the next generation Xbox. My take on the matter is quite simple, Microsoft has been looking at unifying there platforms, be it phone, tablet or personal computer. So why would it be out of the question for the next Xbox to share the Windows 8 vision? After all, the Xbox brand is now becoming more and more about entertainment rather than gaming, with applications like Netflix, Facebook, Twitter and windows media centre. And the latest version of Windows was designed to run on a legeon of hardware combinations in mind.

So will the next Xbox be called Xbox 8? Possibly, if they want to go that far into unifying their platforms, but the more probable speculation would be to say that the next Xbox will share Windows 8 apps and services, and therefor will have a market which will be available on the Xbox8 domains.

Some may look down at Microsoft for jacking the domain name from the owner, but they may have good grounds for it. Many people book domains with intentions to sell them to the copyright holders in the future, which is basically a classic hostage and ransom situation. If i managed to get my hands on BigMacChicken.com, knowing that Macs has a sandwich with the similar name, I wouldn’t be doing it with the best intentions in mind, now would I?