XSN Sports Immerses Fans in the World of Online Gaming

By Tim Surette

Fire up the grill!  Crack a brew!  Throw some polish sausages on the BBQ!  It’s time to tailgate… around the Xbox?  XSN Sports from Microsoft thinks gamers will.

Sports fans can never get enough.  There can never be enough sports on TV.  There can never be too many seemingly silly statistics.  There can never be too much fierce competition in tournaments and close playoff races. 

Sports video game fanatics can never get enough.  There can never be too many sports titles available.  There can never be too much competition in franchise modes or tournaments.  There can never be too much of a sense of community in online play. 

Microsoft recognizes the parallels between the Sunday afternoon face painters, tailgaters, and beer drinkers of the sports world and the late-night couch potatoes, button-mashers, and Mt. Dew drinkers of the video gaming world.  The two major parallels?  Fanaticism and competition.  Their new idea for online sports gaming marries the two different worlds in a plan that will revitalize both in sports video games. 

XSN Sports is the first system for online sports games that fully recreates what sports is all about: competition.  The idea behind XSN Sports is simple.  Take the excitement of online sports games and make them count for something.  No longer will online games be played with little or nothing to show for it except an online record.  XSN will fully incorporate these online games into a simulated sports league scenario, just as popular sports sights (CBSSportsline.com, ESPN.com, Yahoo.com) have done for the fantasy sports community. 

This is the way XSN Sports will work:  Gamers with a Microsoft Xbox, an XSN Sports enabled game, and an Xbox Live account sign on to XSN and join leagues or tournaments, either public or private, in any of the XSN Sports enabled titles (NFL Fever 2004, NHL Rivals 2004, NBA Inside Drive 2004, Links 2004, Amped 2, and Top Spin).  A schedule is preset, and games are to be played by a specific time or date (scheduling the exact time and date that games are played is decided by the competitors themselves).  In tournaments, the results automatically decide gamer’s progressions.  In leagues, results update teams’ records and standings in divisions.  All of the information is automatically updated to the XSNSports.com website.  Gamers can then check on league standings, updated schedules, and box scores from league results. 

Each tournament or league will be able to work with 4, 8, 16, or 32 players.  Tournaments can range from a single day of competition or go on as long as it takes to finish them.  Leagues will decide a commissioner to oversee the whole process, make sure games are completed on time, and make decisions on drop-outs or forfeits.  Microsoft is planning to sponsor some tournaments with prizes and prestige for the winners and hope for the next time for the losers.  The actual league or tournament Web site, personalized for the participants, will have message boards, leader boards, and scores and results.  Once XSN allows for players to write columns and stories (ala CBSSportsline.com or Dynastymanager.com), it will be hard to tell them apart from real sports Web sites. 

Each game will have its own online features.  NFL Fever 2004, the first title for XSN Sports, allows players to compete in season leagues or single elimination tournaments (like NFL Playoffs).  NHL Rivals 2004 and NBA Inside Drive 2004 will feature the same modes as NFL Fever and include “Best of” tournaments (“Best of” as in best of 7, best of 5) to simulate NBA and NHL playoffs.  Links 2004 will mirror golf tournaments by offering single elimination stroke tournaments, match play tournaments, and of course traditional make-the-cut tournaments.  Top Spin will recreate ATP tournament settings as well as smaller tournaments.  Amped 2 promises the most innovative online options with team based play or individual competition to see who can pull of the nastiest grinds, flips, and twists while simultaneously riding the same mountain. 

Because XSN Sports is connected to the .Net community (Passport, Hotmail, etc…), participants can be notified of league events via e-mail, Xbox Live, wireless PDAs, and cell phones.  Imagine being in the middle of dinner and getting a text message telling you that your buddy just passed you in the standings for the Wild Card spot in the playoffs.  This is the type of all-consuming competitive atmosphere that XSN promises to deliver. 

Many features are planned for the future of XSN Sports including more titles, extensive web sites, and fantasy drafts.  Because this is the first of its kind, Microsoft is asking for help from the gamers themselves.  They will be scouring the message boards looking for ways to improve their service from the people who matter the most, the gamers.  As of now, XSN Sports will be a free service, but they can’t promise that it will stay that way.  If the deliver the type of competition I think they will, it will definitely be worth it.  Just remember to keep the BBQ outside.  No one wants their living room to smell like bratwurst. 

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