Just wanted to applaud VC/Take Two/Sega on a great strategy so far as far as ESPN goes. Probably not even three months ago, people on boards all over were signaling the possible death-kneel of ESPN by EA's imminent arrival on XBL. Two months later, and that's not even a concern now. They still have a long way to go to sway the casual gamer, but I think what they've done with the more hardcore (those that visit game sites daily, HOURLY, to find any scrap of info they can on upcoming games) has been remarkable.
It seems at every step, they've anticipated what EA was going to do. Or maybe they didn't try to anticipate what they'd do, and simply decided that they'd do everything THEY could to make their game better. I think EA looked at the XBL announcement like many fans would, and thought that'd pretty much squash whatever ESPN could muster given the sales disparity between the two games. I find it so interesting that EA was first out the gate with info and video, but then were quickly quieted by the onslaught of feature announcements by ESPN. They announced the new server structure almost matter-of-factly, and they fully expected EA to be on XBL before EA was hinting that they'd do it. Then came the IGN press release, with all these details about the game being developed with the XBox as the lead SKU and the ton of new features - the most ever for a football game - let alone a SEQUEL to a football game that already had made major improvements. There are almost too many things that happened that were unexpected - the partnership w/Take Two, the price drop announcement, the starting of football fridays (with a bang, I might add) in JUNE, etc.
It's too bad this isn't a chess match, because so far this really hasn't been a contest. But it shows just how strong Madden is - EA has went practically quiet in terms of the game, yet at this point it's still most gamers choice for a football game. I'm not sure what type of mass marketing campaign Take Two/Sega/VC have planned. It'll be very interesting to see if they have some "new" idea with getting the word out, or if they're going to go heavy traditional, with the hope of swaying more people into trying their game. Either way, just really wanted to commend them on a great job so far; would be a boring summer so far without them.
P.S. - IGN - I'm sorry for clowning you guys as not knowing how to play, because I miss all the videos you were putting up...
It seems at every step, they've anticipated what EA was going to do. Or maybe they didn't try to anticipate what they'd do, and simply decided that they'd do everything THEY could to make their game better. I think EA looked at the XBL announcement like many fans would, and thought that'd pretty much squash whatever ESPN could muster given the sales disparity between the two games. I find it so interesting that EA was first out the gate with info and video, but then were quickly quieted by the onslaught of feature announcements by ESPN. They announced the new server structure almost matter-of-factly, and they fully expected EA to be on XBL before EA was hinting that they'd do it. Then came the IGN press release, with all these details about the game being developed with the XBox as the lead SKU and the ton of new features - the most ever for a football game - let alone a SEQUEL to a football game that already had made major improvements. There are almost too many things that happened that were unexpected - the partnership w/Take Two, the price drop announcement, the starting of football fridays (with a bang, I might add) in JUNE, etc.
It's too bad this isn't a chess match, because so far this really hasn't been a contest. But it shows just how strong Madden is - EA has went practically quiet in terms of the game, yet at this point it's still most gamers choice for a football game. I'm not sure what type of mass marketing campaign Take Two/Sega/VC have planned. It'll be very interesting to see if they have some "new" idea with getting the word out, or if they're going to go heavy traditional, with the hope of swaying more people into trying their game. Either way, just really wanted to commend them on a great job so far; would be a boring summer so far without them.
P.S. - IGN - I'm sorry for clowning you guys as not knowing how to play, because I miss all the videos you were putting up...
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