After reevaluating its business strategy, Microsoft has quietly pulled the plug on Mythica, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), which was due out later this year.

A statement posted on the game's Web site indictates that Microsoft is scaling back its efforts to invest in the MMORPG landscape.

As consequence of this decision, up to 40 employees of Microsoft Game Studios could find their jobs "eliminated."

The statement written by Adam Waalkes, studio manager at Microsoft Game Studios, reads, "Our goal with 'Mythica' was to create a truly innovative massively multiplayer online role playing game.  While the game looked ready to deliver advancements to the genre, after careful evaluation of the MMORPG landscape, MGS has decided to stream-line its portfolio, making fewer investments in this genre. After a rigorous review of current and future projects, the decision was made that Mythica would not be one of the projects we would continue to invest in."

During the Electronic Entertainment Expo last May, Microsoft touted Mythica as a game that would revolutionize MMORPG by focusing heavily on game play. A preview of the game revealed a premise where players wandered a virtual realm as individuals in bands of immortal Norse gods, and whose actions have lasting consequences later on in the game.

Fans of Mythica are lamenting its loss in several online forums dedicated exclusively to the game.

"Why, I just don't understand it. This game had so much going for it. The team was great, the concept great, and the mythos was incredible," one enthusiast posted to the Mythica HQ forum.

Despite its short tenure at Microsoft, Mythica did generate its share of controversy. The Fairfax, Va.-based game developer Mythic Entertainment sued Microsoft over the resemblance of the game's title to its own name, claiming that the similarity may cause confusion in the marketplace.

Mythica Entertainment, developer of Dark Age of Camelot, was seeking a permanent injunction from the courts that would require Microsoft to re-name Mythica, as well as an economic remedy.