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This is my first question here, so please tell me if I'm doing something wrong :)
I've recently noticed that many game websites end in 'game.com' (www.helloneighborgame.com, www.gunpointgame.com, etc). Is there a specific reason for this, or is it just a coincidence?
I've also noticed that many of these titles are usually indie games. Is it a common thing to do?
You can perform a whois search to see if and when a domain got registred.
helloneighbor.com is taken since 2002 and gunpoint.com since 1996. The names were not available for the games which came much later, so they had to be creative in their domain choices.
When it comes to domain names, short and generic is usually better than long and specific. But if the name of your game is already taken, attaching "game" is the next best pick for search engine optimization. When someone wants information about the game from Tiny Build and Dynamic Pixels, searches for "hello neighbor" and the first hit is an air freshener, they will try "hello neighbor game" next. If your search query is already almost a domain name, then most search engines will usually rank that domain first, even if other websites rank higher on the search terms when it comes to content and inbound links.
By the way: The .game TLD is available since May 2016. We will see if it will catch on. (Registration prices are far higher than for .com domains, but for professional game development studios they are not prohibitively high).
Likely because the domain without the "game.com" suffix was unavailable.
Alternatively, perhaps it was available but potentially close enough to infringing on another industry's trademark that it was deemed pertinent to specify that the site in question is for a game.
Maybe somebody thought it would be more searchable or more discoverable.
Or perhaps somebody just thought it sounded cooler.
The reason why so many game developer publish their game using their own domain that end with game.com is to make their customer find the official website of their game in easy way , like if you have game called " iamsowhat " , and you need the official website for it , you may like " iamsowhat.com is good because customer only need to add .com to go here . "
The point is , it's marketing strategy .
