Interesting article about the future of Madden

[hawley088]

We can thank the people who play that ultimate team nonsense and actually spend money on it for ruining, what is becoming all sports games. Why cater to the sim fans when you can cater to the casuals who will spend extra money

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gridiron

True. But the North American sales aren't even separated by a big margin, it's like in the hundred thousands. In the rest of the world, Madden is holding its own pretty well and they always do well in Europe, usually about half what NBA 2K does which is a big deal considering it's American Football. I think the big indicator is that, today, Madden is only doing slightly better in sales in America than a basketball game. Rewind 10 years ago and Madden 06 was doing almost 8 million units in America alone while NBA 2K6 didn't even crack 1 million in the U.S.! What the heck happened in that time span? One game went to the next level. The other stayed stuck in the mud. All sports games have their problems. But when we look at Madden, it has lesser graphics and animates, presents, and has less depth than the other AAA sports games. We ask for the most basic things but never get them while the other AAA sports games do. Something is deeply wrong with that picture. I know sales aren't always the biggest indicator of quality, but in this situation I think it speaks volumes. I do believe the reason the sales of other sports games are on or above Madden is simply because they look better, move better, and have more depth. You mention the animation issue in The Show, but there's a mountain more animation problems in Madden and many of them have been there for 2 generations, and I have to believe that all the time going into MUT and other things is a big reason. I know they have to make money, but the rest of the game is suffering and I don't think they see if they improved these little things they'd probably have a larger fanbase. I mean c'mon, how does a basketball game beat an American football game in America like NBA 2k14 beat Madden 25? That's CRAZY when you think about it. A decade ago that would've never happened. It's not like the NFL has less fans or that way less people want a football game.

Your post that I quoted stated that there are WAY more NFL football fans vs NBA or MLB fans. CM Hooe and I disprove that and you are still referring to sales at the end of this post.

Do we need to go back and list all the consoles and hand helds in 2005 vs today?

What exactly are you looking for to prove to people? That other games are more sim than Madden? I think we all know that and get that.

Until Madden become more sim, people will continue to state the above like they have for the past decade here. We have four or more weeks to decide whether Madden is becoming more sim or continue to pound the same drum. Since Rex has been in charge, don't you agree the game has become more sim, if even not a fast pace that you may want?

I know people that have switched from the MLB game to OOTP because of the issues the MLB game has shown.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Your post that I quoted stated that there are WAY more NFL football fans vs NBA or MLB fans. CM Hooe and I disprove that and you are still referring to sales at the end of this post.

Exactly how did you disprove the number of US fans of NFL, NBA, MLB? Worldwide maybe, but domestically?

I don't know what the numbers are, but we would have to compare:
Number of US fans for each Sport
Number of US sales for each Sports Video game while trying to compensate for MLB only being on one platform.

If somebody could do this (w/o bias) we could find some actual conclusions. So far, I just see a bunch of bias.

[Junior Moe]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gridiron

I think the big indicator is that, today, Madden is only doing slightly better in sales in America than a basketball game. Rewind 10 years ago and Madden 06 was doing almost 8 million units in America alone while NBA 2K6 didn't even crack 1 million in the U.S.!

This here speaks volumes to me. You can cite NBA stars or this or that but this is a massive shift. Period. Live and 2K's sales combined didn't touch Maddens. Now NBA 2K, an NBA game, is not only on the heels Madden but has become a cultural phenomenon in and of itself. That's because the game, forget sport, is good to great year in and year out. The market reacts to that. The same way it has with Madden and its loss of sales. So while Madden is still immensely profitable and a good bordering on great (IMO) lets not diminish what they have accomplished to try to prop Madden. That's lame. Every game has issues and 2K or The Show is no different.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by bucky60

Exactly how did you disprove the number of US fans of NFL, NBA, MLB? Worldwide maybe, but domestically? I don't know what the numbers are, but we would have to compare: Number of US fans for each Sport Number of US sales for each Sports Video game while trying to compensate for MLB only being on one platform. If somebody could do this (w/o bias) we could find some actual conclusions. So far, I just see a bunch of bias.

Since Grid's first post that I quoted, I was going by WW. It's apples to oranges if you compare all total sales vs just NA.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Junior Moe

This here speaks volumes to me. You can cite NBA stars or this or that but this is a massive shift. Period. Live and 2K's sales combined didn't touch Maddens. Now NBA 2K, an NBA game, is not only on the heels Madden but has become a cultural phenomenon in and of itself. That's because the game, forget sport, is good to great year in and year out. The market reacts to that. The same way it has with Madden and its loss of sales. So while Madden is still immensely profitable and a good bordering on great (IMO) lets not diminish what they have accomplished to try to prop Madden. That's lame. Every game has issues and 2K or The Show is no different.

You can throw different answers into the equation, too.

There were a lot more systems including hand helds back in 2005 as well.

So, is the definitive statement that the less sim a game, the less sales? Is that the only reason and number one reason why sales has fallen since 2005?

That's a loaded question at OS.

Bucky- I came up with WW figures several years ago that showed there were a lot more customers overseas for NBA vs Madden. I don't plan on taking time to dig that up if I can find it or not.

Yeah, the numbers were all biased I dug up.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Since Grid's first post that I quoted, I was going by WW. It's apples to oranges if you compare all total sales vs just NA.

So we need to compare NA popularity vs NA sales in order to be apples to apples.

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

So, is the definitive statement that the less sim a game, the less sales? Is that the only reason and number one reason why sales has fallen since 2005? That's a loaded question at OS.

Sure it would be very difficult to remove all variables that can cause the variance, but if we are only comparing NA popularity and NA sales to today's games with realism being a fairly significant difference, we can make some assumptions. The degree of accuracy to the assumption can be questioned, but we can make some reasonable assumptions.

[roadman]

Isn't total sales the bottom line for every company?