Microsoft Benches Sports Gaming Series

Having once vowed to "revolutionize" sports video games as we know them, Microsoft Game Studio's XSN Sports label has postponed its insurgency into enemy territory until further notice. XSN Sports is a spin off of Microsoft Gaming Studio that sought to take on the likes of Electronic Arts and Sega in the sports gaming arena by adding a new twist to online game play – a web site that manages leagues and tournaments. Five XSN Sports titles were on track to ship in the fall prior to Microsoft's decision to pull the plug.

"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. Therefore we will not be shipping new versions of our sports games this fall. MGS will continue to build on the goal of developing extraordinarily creative, epic-scale, platform-driving games for Xbox and Windows. Sports will just not be part of our MGS publishing plans this fall," a spokesperson told BetaNews.

XSN Sports is essentially a re-branding of earlier Xbox sports titles paired with the XSNsports.com web site. Titles that did not make the cut include: Top Spin (tennis), Amped 2 (snowboarding), NBA Inside Drive 2004 (basketball), Links 2004 (golf), and NHL Rivals 2004 (hockey).

Despite canceling the lion's share of the line, Microsoft has indicated that Rallisport Challenge 2 is still bound for release in May, and will be supported via XSNsports.com.