Microsoft cries "OOOooOOooOOOO"

[shiznitz]

Microsoft Cancels 2004 XSN Range
Officials from Microsoft have announced that they are canceling the entire range of XSN sports titles for the Xbox this year. The only XSN title that will now be released this year is RalliSport Challenge 2, which is being developed externally by DICE.

According to Kevin Browne, XSN Sports Studio Manager, the opinion was reached that the quality of games was not up to standards and that attention would now be focused on the 2005 range instead.

"We actually did think we had good games last year, but the market and the direct feedback that we have shows us that we fall short in a couple of areas to our competition," admits Browne. "We think it's the best thing we can do, to take this year off, and to close that quality gap that we have in respect to the EA Sports and ESPN sports titles."

Browne also revealed that the studio would be ending its relationship with Illinois-based developer High Voltage Software, preferring to take on a developer “closer to home” instead.
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Read: EA is kicking our ass. From Gamasutra.

[WayAbvPar]

Anything that improves the quality of the games is all good IMO. There are enough crappy sports titles out now- a GOOD title should sell like hotcakes. Might as well make them well so they can stand out.

[Morfiend]

Wow, im impressed. A major game studio (other than blizzard) is going for quality over quantity. Maybe this is one of the first signs that the producers are realizing releasing tons of crappy products is not as good in the long run as having fewer really solid products.

Good job Microsoft.

[HaemishM]

Other than I think Top Spin, the XSN sports titles just didn't hold a candle to EA or ESPN's entries. And for football anyway, the ESPN is outselling the Madden 2004 title on the X-Box. May have something to do with EA's dumbass decision to not get in on the Live train.

XSN does have the best Live league options, it's just that the games aren't as good as their competitors. Good move.

[Rasix]

This is great. I was worrying about having to buy updated versions of TopSpin and Links.  Not that I'd mind an improvement on either, but my wallet says thanks.

And I welcome a worthy competitor to the EA sports franchise. Hopefully out of this, some quality products will be born.  Because quite frankly, between EA and XSN, there is one utterly terrible sports game for just about every sport (EA basketball games are fucking horrid) and enough mediocre piece of a crap to last a lifetime.

[Alluvian]

I always wondered what kind of weirdo would buy the microsoft football game anyway.  It sucked ass compared to even Madden which I hate.  Sure it had better leagues, but that was IT.

[Rodent]

And for football anyway, the ESPN is outselling the Madden 2004 title on the X-Box. May have something to do with EA's dumbass decision to not get in on the Live train.

That and first person football. First person football is a blast!

ESPN hockey also raised the bar for what is defined as a good hockey game.

[shiznitz]

I am stunned how some of you are reading this. Microsoft is out of sports games forever (other than golf since do that ok.) They suck at it. It is naive to buy their bullshit that they are refocusing on making their game better. That is marketing/PR bullshit from the textbook on "How to Admit Your Product Sucks."

[Morfiend]

"We actually did think we had good games last year, but the market and the direct feedback that we have shows us that we fall short in a couple of areas to our competition," admits Browne. "We think it's the best thing we can do, to take this year off, and to close that quality gap that we have in respect to the EA Sports and ESPN sports titles."

Yeah marketing PR, but, do you really think Microsoft of all people can look at all the sports games that are selling, and they dont want a piece of that pie?

I think what he was saying is:

"Our games sucked, and didnt sell, so we are going to spend some time figuring out how to make you buy our sports games. See you next year, fucking wallets."

[UD_Delt]

May have something to do with EA's dumbass decision to not get in on the Live train.

I'm going to have to disagree with ya here. I've payed pretty close attention to the story as I invested a bit into EA 2 years ago.

EA decided not to do XBox live because Microsoft basically wanted the content for free. They were not willing to pay EA for making their games Live capable and yet they wanted to charge EA's customers for the content. Seeing as Microsoft was a direct competitor of EA's sports franchise with the XSN series EA said, "Go screw yourself Bill, there's no way we are going to let your profit off of our hard work without some sort of kickback." MS wanted to compete head to head with EA in the sports arena and also wanted to make a buck off of EA's games to boot.

It was pretty much a no-brainer decision for EA to not go Live on the Xbox. In hind sight it was the right decisions as for the time being they've forced MS out of the sports game market. In the next month or so EA's contract with Sony is up for renewal, when that comes around I'm betting you'll see EA taking control and setting up a nice profitable agreement between both Sony and MS to have online content for both consoles.

It's an interesting argument on both sides though. You have the 2 gorilla's, EA vs MS, butting heads. You have some people saying MS's money will win any battle for them. You have others saying MS doesn't really have any pull in the video game world. And then you have the final answer and that as always is, "Content is King." Microsoft didn't realize it and tried and failed to create their own content rather than just suck it up and do what they had to do to get EA's content.

[shiznitz]

I repeat, Microsoft is out of sports games for quite some time. The upcoming contract renewal only makes it more likely they will just climb in bed with EA. Earning $1 on every EA Live game with zero investment = teh win.

[Alluvian]

It was pretty much a no-brainer decision for EA to not go Live on the Xbox. In hind sight it was the right decisions as for the time being they've forced MS out of the sports game market. In the next month or so EA's contract with Sony is up for renewal, when that comes around I'm betting you'll see EA taking control and setting up a nice profitable agreement between both Sony and MS to have online content for both consoles.

Wrong, ESPN and visual concepts outsold madden on the xbox.  If anyone forced them out of the market it was them, not EA.  And they did it by providing a complete package with innovation in the game and excellent online play.

[HaemishM]

As Alluvian said, ESPN outsold Madden on the X-Box, while on the larger console base, EA won the battle. Microsoft sports games never seriously contended with either franchise, mostly on the weakness of its games. Where EA or ESPN had a contender, XSN got its shit kicked. It won with games like Top Spin (quality and online play) and Links 2004 (since Tiger Woods had no Live play). In the sports arena, EA is King Kong, and XSN is more like Fay Wray. Microsoft probably figured why bother putting money into development this year when they wouldn't have the time to really compete against EA.

As for EA's choice with Live, sure, it may be better for them in the long run when you talk about profit per unit moved. But for X-Box owners, I think EA may have just pissed in their own Cheerios. The people who would buy a game for online play have had a year to get used to the competitor's games. They've already made the choice to switch brands, based on the lack of Live play in EA titles. EA missed the chance to hook them on their brand. I can almost guarantee you that if Madden 2004 had come with Live-enabled play on the X-Box, it would have killed ESPN, because it is the odds on favorites. Now, it's going to have to work to get people to play 2005 on the X-Box because they've already experienced ESPN NFL 2k4 (which is a superior game, IMO).

But since the X-Box has less than half the installed user base of the PS2, it didn't really effect EA all that much.

[UD_Delt]

As Alluvian said, ESPN outsold Madden on the X-Box, while on the larger console base, EA won the battle.

Can you point me to a link? Only thing I can find is NPD data for 2003 which says Madden is the #3 seller in 2003 for xbox. Second to #1 Halo and #2 Grand Theft Auto. Need for Speed (also EA) is the only other sports related title in the top 10 for 2003.

Here's a link to look up NPD data:

http://www.gamedaily.com/trsts/

Again, I can't find individual numbers for NFL2k4 but everything I've read said it was outsold about 10:1 across all platforms and acording to the NPD data I've found it was also outsold on the xbox.

Want to rethink your stance or point me to some news source to back it up?


Edit: Nevermind... I found nothing on the other article. It must be older than I remember.

[HaemishM]

I can't remember where I saw those numbers. It might have been in X-Box magazine, I'll check when I get home tonight. It showed that ESPN NFL 2k4 was #3 top seller and Madden 2004 #8.

[Faust]

"...direct feedback that we have shows us that we fall short in a couple of areas to our competition," admits Browne..."

Damn!  Major bonus points for being fookin HONEST.  (IMHO)

Could you possibly imagine someone like Sony saying this out loud?

[HaemishM]

I have yet to be able to find where I saw the numbers that said ESPN outsold Madden on the X-Box. I'm not pulling it out of my ass, but I couldn't give you any sort of attribution to the figure.

Madden 2004 sold more on all the consoles than ESPN, and I think the PS2 version outsold the other two versions and ESPN combined.

[UD_Delt]

I'm guessing you may have misread a stat and now are remembering it in a different context. In September 2003 Sega's version (#2) did outsell Madden (#3) on the XboX but only for that single month. Was that possibly the month NFL2k4 came out? I'm pretty sure Madden comes out each August with Sega releasing the following month. The first month is usually the best for any sports title so that would explain Sega outselling Madden for the month of September but after September NFL2k4 fell completely off the charts while Madden still held on through December after falling off in November.

Overall Madden did better than NFL2k4 on the xbox and MUCH better across all other consoles. So, I'm still going to have to go with EA being the biggest factor in driving MS out of the sports game biz rather than give Sega the credit.

If EA does announce they made a deal with MS to go Live with Madden in July/August then they may in turn drive Sega completely out as well over the next year or three.

With game development starting to reach into the $100 million dollar range companies that can't produce million+ sellers on a regular basis are going to find themselves in a world of hurt which just makes EA's position that much stronger with 27 million+ sellers last year.

I can't say that it's a good thing for gamers because it stifles innovation and makes the cost of entry too high for a company with a great idea but no budget. But as an investor it's a great thing...

[HaemishM]

I'm pretty sure the numbers I saw were either for December or the year 2003. But without any source to link to, that's only my fuzzy memory. Do you have a source to link to for your numbers?

[UD_Delt]

This site show's the NPD data broken down by console and month or year.

http://www.gamedaily.com/trsts/

I've always thought the NPD was the be-all-end-all of sales stats but I could be wrong. At least it is the source most often cited when reading investment sites like Motley Fool, Raging Bull, etc...

[HaemishM]

According to that site, you are correct, and I was wrong. Madden has outsold ESPN. My apologies, and thanks for giving me that link.