Microsoft has purchased the domain name Xbone.com from its original owner for an undisclosed sum, just a few days on from Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb saying publicly that he wasn't a big fan of the nickname.
It's not clear at this point who Microsoft paid off for the domain or how much it paid for it, but it represents a completely different strategy than the one taken with XboxOne.com and XboxOne.net which it was able to gain ownership of via the court system. Perhaps it was thought that since Xbone is somewhat of a derogatory name for the system, the owner could have argued having it running was a statement or an opinion on the system and therefore warranted not being owned by Microsoft.
Either way, the software giant now owns Xbone.com and it now points to a search on Bing for the console.
That may change soon though, as Microsoft spokesperson and director of programming at Xbox Live, Major Nelson said in an interview with NeoGAF that he wasn't a fan.
"I don't like it...it disrespects the teams that have put in thousands of hours (already) into the development of the product. Sure, it's cheeky but I don't care for it myself," he said.
Well, it seems like whether he likes it or not, the name is here to stay, for now at least. Announcing you're not a fan of it, is also probably not the best plan for helping to reduce its usage.
[Cheers CVG]