Exclusivity - was it worth it?

[Trevytrev11]

Quote: Originally Posted by LIGHTNING

The sales are only increasing about 7% year over year which is way down from five years ago. This is a sign that some people are getting bored with the game and not buying it every year.

It may not mean people are getting bored, could just mean that fewer new customers are showing interest. That 7% could mean either or. It could mean that existing customers are dropping off while new customers stay strong or it could mean that existing customers are staying put, while new customers aren't coming aboard.

Also, with any product, retail store, etc. it's impossible to keep seeing sales grow year over year at high rates. Eventually you peak out and will experience small increases or decreases year over year. I mean, it would be impossible to grow 25% every year because eventually you would reach a max customer base and people aren't going to buy two games.

If you look at comp sales or same store sales for retail chains, you will see this. They may grow fast at first, but once the mature, they kind of stay put with only a little movement from year to year (unless they do something to drastically change their business (price increases, new merch, etc.) but even then, you typically only see that spike for one year, because after that your anniversering your previous year which included the spike.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trevytrev11

Completely understandable. Nothing worse than a thread being taken off track for something that has been said over an dover again, espeically when there are impressions threads and bug/glitch threads specifically to address these things. I guess people just want to be heard and their complaints to be addressed. As frustrating as it is to sift through the same complaints over and over, it's probably even more frustrating for people to play a game that they feel doesn't live up to what it should be. Or to play a new game that possesses problems that existed in the previous years game. I don't think there is anything more frustrating to a person than not being heard.

Yeah I get that. But I think the behavior of taking over threads with the same complaints continuously is counter productive. I think a lot of times people stop taking them seriously, because they start sounding like looney's

[Trevytrev11]

Quote: Originally Posted by EWRMETS

They obviously are improving their games considering their Fifa, NFL, NCAA, and NHL franchises are all much better than they were on last gen. As a video game player, if you don't accept a game for what it is, you won't find any enjoyment out of any video game.

Personally, I can do both. I play the hell out of MLB 2K7 and enjoy almost every minute of it. In the same breath, there are a ton of problems/issues/bugs/glitches that can frustrate me at times. I still play the game and enjoy my time with it, but I also voice my complaints and demands for improvements in hopes that the game gets even better the following year and the the same problems do not show up again. I can handle problems for a year or so, but when the same issue presents itself year after year, it becomes harder to accept.

The way I see it, I've already accepted that the game is what it is (APF, Madden, MLB, NBA, etc.), my goal almost always that the developer will fix it for the next year or (even better) produce a patch.

[Trevytrev11]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

Yeah I get that. But I think the behavior of taking over threads with the same complaints continuously is counter productive. I think a lot of times people stop taking them seriously, because they start sounding like looney's

At that point, though, I think it's up to the Mod's. But even then, they just end up killing what may have been a good thread...Almost be better if they just deleted the bantering posts rather than killing the file.

[LIGHTNING]

Quote: Originally Posted by RandyMoss84

that doesnt make any sense, but i do know that the people who buy madden will keep buying madden, no matter how good and realistic nfl 2kx is 2k doesnt have a chance

When they get bored with it they will likely stop buying it every year and this will slow the sales growth like it has the past two years . The football game market is probably getting closer to saturation now and that is why the sales are only up 7% year over year since 2005. This is why they bought the exclusive license.

[Brando70]

I don't think EA was nearly as threatened by 2k's sales as it was by 2k's pricing strategy. The $20 price forced them to cut the price on Madden and that probably hurt their margin much more than any sales losses did. I think Madden responded by selling the 2005 game for $30. And even at $10 less and with a very good product, 2k still got outsold 2-1 by Madden across all platforms. The XBox sales were a great showing but in the grand scheme of things not nearly as important as the PS2 sales.

2K did the price cut as a way to gain market share, which did work pretty well for them. But there is no way that price point was going to stick around for long, and no one will know if their share would have held up after prices returned to a more normal level. Given their past performance at higher prices, my guess is they would have lost at least some of those gains, while Madden probably would have continued to sell like Madden always does.

The other thing is, if I remember correctly, that the NFL was not happy about these pricing points. Software that cheap appears as a bargain title, and bargain titles are usually perceived as poor quality. That obviously wasn't the case with 2k5, but nevertheless the NFL didn't like that image. I think that pricing strategy actually pushed the league toward making an exclusive deal with EA.

One more consideration: the deal probably is costing EA money, but if the NFL was actually shopping the license and EA didn't acquire it, it would have destroyed their most robust gaming franchise. Not having the license at all would have been much more costly than paying for it.

I hate that we have only one NFL choice as I usually bought both 2k and Madden every year. This deal and the MLB deal are terrible for gamers because they destroyed two great sports franchises. But blaming EA for making that deal is idiotic. 2k would have done the same thing if they could have afforded it, as they showed with the MLB 2k deal. They also showed just how aggressive they were willing to be with the 2k price cut. Given that, is it really a surprise that EA jumped at this deal? And at the end of the day, it's the NFL that agreed to license its intellectual property to one game company. The decision was ultimately theirs.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brando70

I hate that we have only one NFL choice as I usually bought both 2k and Madden every year. This deal and the MLB deal are terrible for gamers because they destroyed two great sports franchises. But blaming EA for making that deal is idiotic. 2k would have done the same thing if they could have afforded it, as they showed with the MLB 2k deal. They also showed just how aggressive they were willing to be with the 2k price cut. Given that, is it really a surprise that EA jumped at this deal? And at the end of the day, it's the NFL that agreed to license its intellectual property to one game company. The decision was ultimately theirs.

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

[maddenps2]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brando70

I don't think EA was nearly as threatened by 2k's sales as it was by 2k's pricing strategy. The $20 price forced them to cut the price on Madden and that probably hurt their margin much more than any sales losses did. I think Madden responded by selling the 2005 game for $30. And even at $10 less and with a very good product, 2k still got outsold 2-1 by Madden across all platforms. The XBox sales were a great showing but in the grand scheme of things not nearly as important as the PS2 sales. 2K did the price cut as a way to gain market share, which did work pretty well for them. But there is no way that price point was going to stick around for long, and no one will know if their share would have held up after prices returned to a more normal level. Given their past performance at higher prices, my guess is they would have lost at least some of those gains, while Madden probably would have continued to sell like Madden always does. The other thing is, if I remember correctly, that the NFL was not happy about these pricing points. Software that cheap appears as a bargain title, and bargain titles are usually perceived as poor quality. That obviously wasn't the case with 2k5, but nevertheless the NFL didn't like that image. I think that pricing strategy actually pushed the league toward making an exclusive deal with EA. One more consideration: the deal probably is costing EA money, but if the NFL was actually shopping the license and EA didn't acquire it, it would have destroyed their most robust gaming franchise. Not having the license at all would have been much more costly than paying for it. I hate that we have only one NFL choice as I usually bought both 2k and Madden every year. This deal and the MLB deal are terrible for gamers because they destroyed two great sports franchises. But blaming EA for making that deal is idiotic. 2k would have done the same thing if they could have afforded it, as they showed with the MLB 2k deal. They also showed just how aggressive they were willing to be with the 2k price cut. Given that, is it really a surprise that EA jumped at this deal? And at the end of the day, it's the NFL that agreed to license its intellectual property to one game company. The decision was ultimately theirs.

Money talks no one would have outbid EA so it was decided before it even happened.