Sony Cans Most 989 Sports Titles For 2004

blueZhift writes "GameSpy reports that Sony's 989 Sports division announced today that NFL GameDay, NCAA GameBreaker, NBA ShootOut, and NCAA Final Four for PlayStation 2 will not be updated for the 2004-2005 season. Hmmm, with Microsoft recently shelving their sports lineup for 2004 and EA Sports games allegedly coming over to Xbox Live, one can only wonder if 989's announcement is EA-related as well."

Next-gen launch dates?

[Txiasaeia]

Does this mean that the PS3 and/or XboX2 is around the corner? Microsoft cancels 2004 games, EA does likewise, and now Sony? This means to me that, either people aren't interested in sports games any more (HA!) or that they're starting work on next-gen systems/games - after all, if Sony/MS want to have some kick ass games for startup (MS perhaps in a year, Sony by Q4/05), they need to get cracking, right?

New England Patriots what done killed it

[kisrael]

Game Before The Game [989sports.com] (a gamer from each Superbowl team going at it using their team's virtual representation in NFL Gameday) succesfully predicted the Superbowl winner for eight straight years. This year, it predicted "Panthers 29 Patriots 21". Whoops. Maybe that's why Sony canned 'em. (Probably because it's so hard to have enough AI to make a virtual Bill Belichick...)

If you can't do something right...

[hal2814]

I hate to see 989 and Microsoft stop competing in the NFL games, but both products were inferior. I would have preferred to see them step up to the challenge instead of rolling over and dying, but that's their decision to make. I guess Sega is my only source for NFL nowadays.

TinFoilHatRantOn();
I refuse to play Madden because it does some very un-football things like letting you pick a play by receiver. If you're too focused on one receiver getting the ball, you're going to throw a lot of incompletes and ints. Then again, I refused to play Microsoft's NFL game again after I realized that Microsoft just shuts off your defensive ability in the last few minutes of the game.

This does come from someone who takes the time to see how players move when audibles are called so that I can set up substitutions for a multi-set offense (like lining up in Goalline with my 5WR package so I can call an audible and be in a 5WR formation with the proper personnel while the defense has their goalline squad on the field). I might just be a little too picky.
TinFoilHatRantOff();