Why Is Madden Still Not Available On PC At This Point?

[Goffs]

EA can easily dominate the sport genre on the PC....oh well...

[Nza]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

When are the excuses gonna stop? If there is such a booming sports PC market explain to me why NBA 2k sold under 10k copies this year? Why did FIFA sell only 10k when its selling millions on the consoles?

What are you sources? Keeping in mind PC sales are notoriously hard to source given most these days are online sales like Steam, and they tend to keep sales figures pretty guarded.

[Ueauvan]

id prefer a PC version of Madden here in the UK, then again i like franchise and playing as coach. i have 2 copies of 08 on pc, one on my desktop and the other on laptop with all the frenzy mods. methinks ea wont do it because the mods blow away the standard game

and given the USA's stellar performance last night may change perceptions of soccer in the US. was it right that Soldier Field was full watching it?

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nza

What are you sources? Keeping in mind PC sales are notoriously hard to source given most these days are online sales like Steam, and they tend to keep sales figures pretty guarded.

The only thing we have to go on is sites like Video Game Chartz which isnt 100% accurate but they are never hundreds of thousands off the actual number. Its all that we have to go on because the NPD doesnt release numbers anymore but I dont think anyone here has an evidence to dispute those numbers.

Again even if you dispute those numbers what no one here has been able to tell me is why EA would ignore a market that they could make a profit? Lets say what people are arguing is correct and im wrong:

- The game would be relatively cheap to produce/port on pc.
- There is a significant market in the US who buys PC games.
- The other sports games are selling hundreds of thousands on PC.

Why would EA not release the game on PC and make a profit. This would go counter to EVERYTHING we know about EA. When have they ever not done something that would make them a profit?

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ueauvan

id prefer a PC version of Madden here in the UK, then again i like franchise and playing as coach. i have 2 copies of 08 on pc, one on my desktop and the other on laptop with all the frenzy mods. methinks ea wont do it because the mods blow away the standard game and given the USA's stellar performance last night may change perceptions of soccer in the US. was it right that Soldier Field was full watching it?

Why doesnt EA care about the thousands of mods on Fifa which is a more popular game than Madden?

[Brother3Wright]

Andrew Wilson (Current CEO of EA) answers this question for the most part in "Reader Questions for EA CEO Andrew Wilson" by Polygon last November. (Just search for it on Youtube. He talks about the topic starting at 5:50)


To paraphrase, EA doesn't want to just "port" the console version of a game over to PC. He also states that besides FIFA the major player-base for sports games are playing them on console/mobile.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Now what does that tell us? A couple of things. 1) Madden's PC first week sales were under 77k. 2) The sales of Madden PC likely didnt increase after that since most games sales numbers dont rise after the first week. 3) That Madden PC's numbers were minuscule compared to the consoles. (360: 900k, PS2: 650k).

You missed a very important point.
4) Madden 08 PC was really Madden 07 360 with updated rosters. I'm pretty sure that had a great deal of affect on PC sales vs console sales. If you wanted the latest Madden, you got the console version. You really can't compare PC and console sales because you really are comparing apples to oranges. If PC got the same love and attention as the console, then you would be comparing apples and apples.

[Flamehead]

Just a reminder that the pc versions of Madden were based on, or equivalent to, the PS2 and Xbox versions, not the current Gen systems of the time. Of course most of the market will go with the consoles when they are perceived as the superior versions, or at least built on the latest hardware.

To imply the versions were equivalent and in the same breath say "we'll, the pc version just isn't as popular" is misleading. When the pc version is built the same as the consoles and we can compare apples to apples, THEN let's see how popular the pc version really is. Right now it's apples to oranges.

Edit, bucky and I posted the same thing at the same time, lol.