XSN Sports is a defunct Microsoft Game Studios

Microsoft Game Studios

Microsoft Studios is the video game production wing for Microsoft, responsible for the development and publishing of games for the Xbox, Xbox 360, Games for Windows and Windows Phone platforms. They were established in 2002 as Microsoft Game Studios to coincide with the release of the Xbox, before...

 brand focusing on sports game

Sports game

A sports game is a computer or video game that simulates the practice of traditional sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, athletics and extreme sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport , whilst others emphasize strategy and organization...

s that also featured an online game matching service that allowed players to set up private leagues and tournaments for titles in their lineup.

Game matching service

In XSN Sports branded games, players would simply supply the league or tournament name and password, which then would automatically record the game result along with team stats. These stats were then updated on the XSN Sports website within 30 minutes after the game was completed. Even the game setup ran through XSN Sports, which allowed for the same settings for all league or tournament games.

Announcement

XSN Sports was announced at Microsoft's E3 2003 press conference with Peyton Manning

Peyton Manning

Peyton Williams Manning is an American football quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League . Manning holds the record for most NFL MVP awards with four. He was drafted by the Colts as the first overall pick in 1998 after a standout college football career with the...

 in May 2003. The brand was officially launched on August 28, 2003 alongside the first game in their line up - NFL Fever 2004.

Closure

Microsoft announced on March 29, 2004 that the sports division would not be releasing games that year, citing quality issues. With Shane Kim taking over in 2004, the decision was made to stop investing in sports games with two strong competitors on the market (EA Sports

EA Sports

EA Sports is a brand of Electronic Arts that creates and develops sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to mimic real-life sports networks by calling themselves "EA Sports Network" with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John...

 and 2K Sports

2K Sports

2K Sports is a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. It comprises a single development studio, Visual Concepts, which was purchased from Sega in the year 2005. 2K Sports mainly develops and publishes American sports video games such as NBA 2K series...

) and to focus their resources elsewhere.

On August 20, 2004 Microsoft closed down their internal sports studio, resulting in the layoff of 76 employees. Although the Salt Lake Studio was not affected at the time, just a few months later they were sold to 2K Games

2K Games

2K is a global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games. 2K Games is a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, which also owns Rockstar Games notable for the Grand Theft Auto series...

 in October 2004.

Website Closure

In early September 2006, the XSN website was replaced with the following text:
Two weeks later, the XSN Sports website was permanently shut down on September 15, 2006.

Games in XSN Sports lineup

• Amped 2
  Amped 2
  Amped 2 is a sequel to Microsoft's snowboarding game Amped, which was an Xbox launch title. The game was introduced as part of the XSN Sports lineup, which included such games as NFL Fever, Top Spin and Rallisport Challenge.- Career Mode :The career mode in Amped 2 is much like other extreme...
  
  — Snowboarding
  Snowboarding
  Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A...
  
  
• Links 2004
  Links 2004
  Links 2004 is a golf simulation computer game by Microsoft for the Xbox. It was part of the XSN Sports, which also included sports games such as Amped, Top Spin, NBA Inside Drive, NFL Fever and Rallisport Challenge....
  
  — Golf
  Golf
  Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
  
  
• NBA Inside Drive 2004 — Basketball
  Basketball
  Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
  
  
• NFL Fever 2004 — Football
  American football
  American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
  
  
• NHL Rivals 2004 — Hockey
  Hockey
  Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
  
  
• Rallisport Challenge 2
  Rallisport Challenge 2
  Rallisport Challenge 2 is the sequel to the platinum hit Rallisport Challenge. This game contains new features such as a cockpit cameras and ability to change car at the last moment. However, stats like total horsepower and number of gears have been eliminated from the car selection screen.Cars are...
  
  — Rallying
  Rallying
  Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...
  
  
• Top Spin — Tennis
  Tennis
  Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
  
  

Trivia

• The team creation option in NFL Fever 2004 allowed a player to make a team called the South Park Cows, which is most likely a reference to the Comedy Central hit show, South Park
  South Park
  South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
  
  .

External links

• Official XSN Sports website — (no longer exists as of September 15, 2006)