Ok, riddle me this... (In light of me reserving ESPN)

[sportsgeist]

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dQbell said:
And you know what is interesting, Sega has always had this problem. Remember the Saturn and Playstation. The Saturn was actually a better system. Yes even the Dreamcast...the system that started it all with online play and gave rebirth to Sega's NFL Franchise. But still, the Playstation still outsold it. These things are very interesting to me. It indeed shows how so many follow instead of make up their mind for themselves. Very interesting.

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Actually no they didn't. The Genesis was the top console to have. Sega let EA bring their Madden game to the Genesis and the Genesis out sold the SuperNES because of it. Sega gave EA/Madden their start and it paid off big time for both Sega and EA.


The main reason why the Saturn didn't do well in the U.S. was due to the fact that Madden didn't come out on the Saturn nor the Playstation during their launch (Because VC left EA that year). Sony had NFL Gameday just incase Madden didn't make it and Sega didn't have a back-up pLAN. I'm sure you remember the 2 or 3 year span where Madden was second fiddle to NFL Gameday I sure do.

The Saturn did really well in Japan but not here because of the lack of a football game and you're right the Saturn was a better console. It was actually two machines in one. The Saturn had a 2D GPU and 3D GPU in it. Which made it hard to program on and it turned out to be another nail in the Saturn's coffin.

Sega seeing how they needed sports games for the U.S. market hired VC to make them their sports games for the launch of the Dreamcast. I still feel the dreamcast had the best Launch titles to-date. Sega was practically giving Dreamcasts away and people still didn't bite. I also enjoyed the 2 1/2 years of free online play on the Deamcast. It had some many triple A titles it wasn't even funny. What a waste of the great console. Oh and BTW any company that didn't make games for the Dreamcast lost money while it was out even EA.

[Ifiok]

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Moegames said:
I know what your saying man - it erks the hell out of me that so many people keep running back to madden when there is another football game equally as good if not better. I'll play madden this year too like i always do but im a very unbiased person when it comes to videogames and i've been playing sports videogames for a very long time and ESPN is a bit better then madden overall imho AND i was a DIE HARD madden player.

I guess what bugs me is the lack of effort EAsports is putting into its game each year but yet gamers keep flocking to it. On the other side of the coin we got ESPN that is doing 110% more each year and making its game just as good as madden if not better but yet its still getting ignored.

Though i think this year the tide is gonna change a bit more then last year.

Its like you have two Pro Players here. One that misses practice alot and is only intrested in getting the ball on game day "Madden" and gets all the glamor and popularity and then we got this other Player that hustles his butt of during practice each day during the week and gives his 110% during game day and yet doesnt get noticed even though he produces "ESPN"

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I agree with you. EA is not putting much effort into its games anymore. Did you read some of the reviews for NCAA Football 2005. One site gave it a 5.5!!! That's terrible after all the stuff we heard about it. More people need to go and give ESPN a chance. I mean it's only $19.99. And yes, I have been a Madden fanboy for a long time, but after watching the videos for ESPN NFL 2K5 and the few vids from Madden 2005, I believe that ESPN is going to be the better game. Madden's sales will remain high as long as Madden's name is on the cover.

[Radja]

i wonder how many of the pre-orders you are seeing are from the internet or walk-ins? espn has been on top of pre-order sales at eb games since the price drop. it would make sense that the majority of the pre-orders are on-line since the game has not been advertised any other way.
eb may not notify a store of all the on-line pre-orders until the ship date.

[makeshift3]

This is what you have to do, bc I noticed tuesday morning when I went to pick up NCAA at EB close to my house in Atlanta, there were no advertisement for ESPN, Madden had quite a large number of display in the store. There were a few people in there waiting to get NCAA. I started Convo with one of them, he said "this will hold him til Madden" I told him why wait til Madden ESPN comes out Next week and the clerk replied you can't go wrong for 20 bucks. Then I got everyones attention and made an anouncement "ESPN NFL 05 will be in store NEXT WEEK and it is only $20 bucks since some of you have not seen it in action yet, I gaurantee that if you buy it you will not anticipate Madden's release as much, and you heard this from a Madden fanatic maybe an ex-Madden Fanatic, I like what I have seen thus far." I went back to the store Tuesday evening the clerk said the store cash drawer thanks you. Most of them reserved a copy.

OHHH for the Love of Football

[Boilerbuzz]

Not again...

Even though, in essence, I would agree with the point that people will buy Madden regardless of how good it is, I HAVE to just flat out dispute the assumption that EA doesn't work on it or that ESPN is "far superior" to it. Is ESPN better? Well, it's either slightly better or slighty worse, but the keyword is slightly. The fact that Madden has a staff that is AT LEAST 2 to 3 times as big as the 2K5 staff by definition says that a lot of work goes into that title. And just look at the game. ESPN get's better and better. But so does Madden JUST enough to keep ESPN at bay. If the difference in quality was that large, more people would move to ESPN at a greater rate. It's not. Not saying it's not an outstanding title, but it's not MUCH better than Madden.

There are things that EA just does right - every feature in that game is assessable, their interface is clean, the animations - though not as varied as ESPN - run SO smoothly. The controls are tight. It has a boatload of features, whether you want to call many of them fluff or not. And each feature is complete. They don't feel like a separate part of the game.

Hardcore ESPN fans need to realize that as long as Madden is a good title and is there on the shelf, people HAVE to pick it up. It's the safe bet and will always be. People know what to expect and it has yet to disappoint. Sure, for some, certain features disappoint. Or they just get bored with it, but the game has NEVER taken a step backwards since coming to the next gen systems.

That's a lot for ESPN to overcome. So banging your heads against a wall trying to figure it out is just pointless.

[bgapfire]

(Its kind of hard to dethrone a game thats been out for 15+ years. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out and thats not even close to a riddle because a monkey could figure that out.

Riddle me this....

What do you call a person who plays Madden but doesn't pick up ESPN NFL 2K5 even though all the reviewers give it a better score than Madden2005 and it cost $20 less? )



I call him a person that wants to play the game of their choice. I understand everyone's sentiment toward ESPN. I have been a Maddenite for 15 years. I purchased ESPN this year after wanting to try something new. Most people buy because of brand, comfortability and convenience. Most are more familiar with the Madden brand. Most have grown accustomed to Madden's controls. Most people have friends that own Madden and it is easier to get competition.

People simply buy what they want. It really is not a bash at ESPN. I don't have a lot of friends that play video games, so I don't have to worry about playing other people. I was merely looking forward to different gameplay and control. I will rent Madden this year and if it has improved, I will eventually purchase it as well.

The key to getting ESPN into more households will come down to marketing. The lower price and early release date will do SOME damage. ESPN will pick up a few casual gamers because of decreased competition as well. All in all, we have to stop bashing the people and understand everyone will still play what they want.

The discussions I see in this forum are unbelievable sometime. It is almost similar to someone trying to convince someone to go to church. That person has to make the choice for themselves. You can argue all the good points of church and how it will help change your lifestyle, but ultimately the decision lies with the individual. It is all about choices.

[MercilessMagal]

I kinda disagree with the main post comparison... i think ESPN can beat Madden... it just will not happen so fast... it takes time for the name to grow up... what they did this year was a very good first step, they have a better product, that is cheaper and will be on the stores earlier... so more ppl will try the game this year, and if they like the game better, they will stick with it for next year... this is the way to go... you can't expect ANY game to just sell more than a giant like EA sports without alot of consistency and time.... EA SPORTS is a HUGE brand.. yeah their soccer game is worse than Winning Eleven, yeah their basketball game is worse than ESPN, but they still are everywhere with solid products.. from nascar, to baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey... so ppl associate EA SPORTS with quality... they may not have the best game in ANY of those... but they are close to be the best game in EVERY thing, and they make it for ALL plataforms.

I really think that making ESPN NFL for the PC would help spread the name of this game among gamers as well... so basically what i think is.. it was a first step last year, it will be a great leap this year, but in order to hit #1 spot they need time, consistency. Look at Microsoft for example... with all the money the company has, with a console that is far superior than PS2 and still sell less than 1/2 than PS2... but who knows on next gen.. they may close the gap real good... its the same with this... i think ESPN may eventually be the #1 in some years... but they need to make it for other platforms, and they need to be consistently better than madden for years to come.

[Moegames]

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MercilessMagal said:


I really think that making ESPN NFL for the PC would help spread the name of this game among gamers as well... so basically what i think is.. it was a first step last year, it will be a great leap this year, but in order to hit #1 spot they need time, consistency. Look at Microsoft for example... with all the money the company has, with a console that is far superior than PS2 and still sell less than 1/2 than PS2... but who knows on next gen.. they may close the gap real good... its the same with this... i think ESPN may eventually be the #1 in some years... but they need to make it for other platforms, and they need to be consistently better than madden for years to come.

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Eek bro..i know your my friend but i gotta disagree, sports games just dont sell well on pc's lol. Consoles are made for sports gaming really. I mean yes there are sports games on pc's but pc's dont make or break sports videogames, they are hardly the factor in this. It boils down to sales on the consoles bro, thats where 90% of sports videogame revenue come from.

Sega needs to do marketing and advertising better imho