Saw this posted over on NeoGaf

Trademark popped up today on USPTO's site:

Word Mark LAUNCHWORKS

Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Game software

Standard Characters Claimed

Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK

Serial Number 85872912

Filing DateMarch 11, 2013

Current Basis 1B

Original Filing Basis 1B

Owner (APPLICANT) Microsoft Corporation CORPORATION WASHINGTON One Microsoft Way Redmond WASHINGTON 980526399

Attorney of Record Lisa M. Martens

Type of Mark TRADEMARK

Register PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

Source: http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer...Index=1&page=1

The trademark was filed on the 11th of March which is also the date when the domain microsoftlaunchworks.net was registered. This is information from VeriSign:

Domain Name: MICROSOFTLAUNCHWORKS.NET

Registrar: MARKMONITOR INC.

Whois Server: whois.markmonitor.com

Referral URL: http://www.markmonitor.com

Name Server: NS1.MSFT.NET

Name Server: NS2.MSFT.NET

Name Server: NS3.MSFT.NET

Name Server: NS4.MSFT.NET

Name Server: NS5.MSFT.NET

Status: clientDeleteProhibited

Status: clientTransferProhibited

Status: clientUpdateProhibited

Updated Date: 11-mar-2013

Creation Date: 11-mar-2013

Expiration Date: 11-mar-2014

Source: http://www.verisigninc.com/en_US/pro...is/index.xhtml

It's Mark Monitor and not Microsoft itself that's the registrar, but that's common for a lot of things (look at the recent xboxevent.com domain for example). Anyway, Mark Monitor is the "global leader in online brand protection". The domain currently features nothing as far as I can tell, but directs you to a Bing search site.

As for the name, it sounds kinda important. Like some kind of portal for new game launches or maybe something for indie developers (as a natural evolution from Xbox LIVE Arcade/XNA). It's anyway related to some kind of gaming. Whether that's for Durango, Windows 8 or something completely different we can only guess.

new kinect!

I'd be skeptical of anything ms registers as xboxevent ended up not being about xbox in any way.

At least it's not LaunchworX.

Probably the Zune 2.

Huh?  It isn't unusual for a company to register a domain and do nothing with it for a while.  Since they know people look for those things (like patents) and they'll be immediately reported.  So once the decision has been made to use a domain name, they register it to lock it in.  Then the marketing company goes to work building the site while the site is redirected and no one is really paying attention anymore.

So you're agreeing with me then.

The xboxevent domain was registered less than 1 month ago. It may be another month or 2 before anything goes live on it.

Mistershine answered this succinctly enough, but the bottom line is give it time.  It'll be something. 

Originally it didn't point to anything.  Now it's redirected.  At some point it'll have relevant information.

It also pays to watch the sites.  A few years ago I sourced Microsoft's E3 presentation hours before the presentation happened because I checked out a site that wasn't supposed to be available until Microsoft's presentation.   Someone apparently didn't know the difference between Eastern Time and Pacific Time.

So, no.  Right now it may not be something, but it'll eventually be something and it'll be Xbox related.

Folks this probably isn't a site meant for the public dissemination of information. If it were it would be a .com rather then a .net registry. I would speculate it is a site that will function as technical support for third party suppliers. Plus it will probably be a place where Microsoft will outline the standards and practices for their platform. Basically I think it is going to be a lot of mundane technical jargon, and a bunch of legalese. That will basically tell suppliers what they can and cannot do on this specific platform.