Sources have confirmed for us that the recent omission by Take-Two on its Q4 fiscal report of an upcoming release for the 2K Sports NHL franchise (or NHL 2K11, if you like) is a reliable indicator of the shaky ground that the NHL 2K franchise is on.

Whispers that we are hearing do seem to indicate that at best the franchise will be taking at least a year off; and at worst the 2K Sports NHL franchise will be dropped completely going forward. If the 2K Sports NHL franchise is dropped going forward, this will likely leave the EA Sports NHL franchise the only game in town.

Despite the fact that the company made some serious strides forward with the release of the NHL 2K10 edition of the game, it still has not been enough to cut into the leadership position that EA Sports enjoys with its competing and award-winning NHL franchise. This is despite the fact that 2K Sports NHL 2K10 was sold at a lower price this season.

The loss of the 2K Sports NHL franchise would also mean the end of hockey on the Nintendo Wii platform and the PlayStation 2, as the EA Sports NHL franchise is only available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. While we would be the first to admit that the 2K Sports NHL product needs improvement, we do think that the most recent release did have some positives in it; so let’s hope that they only take a year off to improve and work on the franchise going forward, rather than dropping it entirely.