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VR-Zone can as first publication reveal that Microsoft will discontinue its range of SideWinder gaming products, for a second time. The first time was back in 2003, although the company re-launched its gaming brand in 2007 after some co-operation with Razer, although this time around it's not likely that we'll see a return of the SideWinder brand.

VR-Zone can as first publication reveal that Microsoft will discontinue its range of SideWinder gaming products, for a second time. The first time was back in 2003, although the company re-launched its gaming brand in 2007 after some co-operation with Razer, although this time around it's not likely that we'll see a return of the SideWinder brand.

This time around it's not because of poor sales, but rather too much competition from companies such as Razer, SteelSeries and to a degree also Logitech and just about every other company out there making PC gaming accessories. Microsoft has also failed to keep up with the market a little bit and not getting enough new products out in a timely manner.

The entire SideWinder range only ended up with a handful of products in the end with four mice and two keyboards being launched over three years, hardly an impressive track record for a company the size of Microsoft. In fact, the latest mouse addition, the SideWinder X8 has already been pulled from Microsoft's hardware website and no more units are being produced to our knowledge.

Time will tell if Microsoft decides to buy out one of its smaller competitors and use their brand instead, something that we wouldn't be surprised to see happening. It's really a shame that Microsoft didn't decide to stick with it, as the company has come up with some innovative ideas like the swappable keypad on the X6 and the magnetic cable attachment on the X8, but it seems like this is the end of the line for Microsoft's gaming products, at least for now.