Sony Cancels Many Sports Video Games for '04

[kilcher]

It always bothered me having to buy a "new" game every year. Now that most game consoles have hard drives it would be nice if you could just buy/download updates like new stats and features. I guess they would probably lose a lot of money doing it that way.

Sony Cancels Many Sports Video Games for '04

The U.S. video game arm of Sony Corp. 6758.T said on Wednesday it would not update some of its sports titles this year, mirroring a similar move by Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O amid intense competition.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America said its 989 Sports label would not release the professional or collegiate versions of its football and basketball games for the 2004-2005 season.

The company's baseball, soccer and Olympics titles are unaffected, as is its hockey franchise, all of which have either been released or remain on track for release this year.

A spokesman said the company intends to bring the football and basketball games back in 2005, taking the interim time to work on game development and make the titles more competitive.



Full story...

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=5053865&section=news

[s-p]

With the Olympics and Euro 2004 coming up, that doesn't suprise me one bit that those affiliated games would be realeased. The amount of money those games much reap in with little effort on the developers part must be nothing short of staggering. How they can ever justify bringing out 2 soccer games from the same makers in the same year still baffles me.