03-30-2004, 04:42 PM
|
#1
|
|
Rookie
OVR: 2
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Panorama City,Ca
|
EA XBOX LIVE SPORTS TITLES 2005?
Microsoft cancels sports video games for autumn
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Microsoft, which has struggled to gain share in the intensely competitive sports video games market, Tuesday said it would not release new versions of its sports games this autumn.
"After analyzing market conditions and customer feedback, we're focused on closing the quality gap between our sports line-up and that of our competitors," Kevin Browne, who manages sports games for Microsoft Game Studios, said. "Therefore we will not be shipping new versions of our sports games this fall."
A Microsoft spokesman said three titles that had been planned to be released annually —NFL Fever, NBA Inside Drive and NHL Rivals— were affected, as were three other titles —Links, Top Spin and Amped— that were not necessarily on an annual release schedule.
Those six titles were exclusive to Microsoft's Xbox video game console. Another sports game, RalliSport Challenge 2, is still on track for a May release.
The company said it would keep its "XSN Sports" brand, which it launched last May as a way to unify and promote its sports properties, and would maintain its online leagues and downloads for existing XSN titles.
Microsoft, Sony and Sega, among many others, have been forced to contend in recent years with the increasing dominance of Electronic Arts in sports games, particularly football. EA's Madden NFL 2004 was the best-selling console video game of 2003.
Of all the football games released for the Xbox since its late-2001 launch, NFL Fever 2002 ranked ninth and NFL Fever 2003 ranked 10th in an average of reviews compiled by Gamerankings.com.
NBA Inside Drive 2002 was 10th in a list of basketball games for the Xbox in Gamerankings' database, while NHL Rivals 2004 was ninth.
|
|
|
