Madden NFL 09 Not Releasing For The PC

[Brassman]

As a middle aged, married father of four I have enjoyed playing Madden (coach mode) on my PC for nearly 20 years. Being able to forget the real world for an hour or two each night while I "right the wrongs" of the Buffalo Bills GM & coaching staff has been a minor obsession of mine. In addition to a PC I have owned, or purchased for my sons, every console since the intellivision and have just about every sports game made for each system so I have no deep seated dislike of that form of gaming. For me, the computer is my sanctuary. I can enjoy my quiet time without disrupting the rest of my families activities. What bothers me is that EA has now dictated that I no longer will have a choice. I just don't get it. Make games for three totally different consoles and two hand helds but not the PC? Increadable! Now I will not be able to discreatly play my evenings game on my PC but will need to take over the family room just to play a game of Madden? So I have a question for all you Next Gen gamers out there. How do you spend $1500 on a flat screen TV, $300 on a 7.1 sound system & a $100 a month for Hi Def TV and then take over the living room to play Madden? Don't you wife and kids get a little bent out of shape? I can already hear all the macho crap but it will be a cold day in **** when I tell my wife she can't watch TV tonight because I"m playing a game. Or better yet, you spend all this money on your dream home theater so your 16 year old and his friends can hold a Halo 3 weekend. That's progress for you. I don't need the latest bells and whistles to be happy so I'll keep the peace and continue to enjoy gaming on my PC. In fact thanks to a great modding community I'm finally able to enjoy MVP baseball and have found that Madden 2004 plays a better game than 2008. I know the Mod Squad's will insure many more years of gaming enjoyment. No thanks to EA Sports.

[Pared]

What pisses me off about all of this is the fact that EA has the NFL License on the PC as well. Because they can't justify the sales on the PC we the gamer get screwed again.

I love being stuck with having no PC NFL option.

Thanks go out to the NFL and EA. You two always have my best interest at heart.

[mva5580]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pared

What pisses me off about all of this is the fact that EA has the NFL License on the PC as well. Because they can't justify the sales on the PC we the gamer get screwed again. I love being stuck with having no PC NFL option. Thanks go out to the NFL and EA. You two always have my best interest at heart.

No doubt. My opinion is that if you're going to fork out the millions that it cost to allow you to be the sole developer of NFL Football games, then at that point you are damn well OBLIGATED to release a game on every platform possible. To own the rights and then decide one platform or another isn't worth your time, there's something wrong big-time there. I'm just as disappointed in the NFL for not forcing them to make the game for every platform. Just not right

[TurboTitan]

I think a lot of the reason that PC gaming is "down" s because the graphics cards required to play some of these games that are out now cost just as much or more than a console. Its just way more affordable, and makes more sense to a person who isnt into building PC's (I enjoy it, btw) to buy a 300 dollar console, as opposed to building a 1500 dollar game rig, when those same people probably cant tell the difference in the graphics. I never played the PC madden much, but I know it has a great modding community that will keep 08 alive for a long time.

[Crimsontide27]

I have played console and PC games since around the time I learned to walk.

I was slightly too young to care about the odyesse and a few other systems , but mainly grew up with the NES generation . Got one for Christmas the year they were launched and never looked back. My PC gaming goes all the way back to Lode Runner , Demon Attack, and Touchdown Football for the Tandy 1000.

Having said that, I have my own thoughts on why PC gaming is going down hill.

Arcade machines used to be the cream of the crop, so everyone went to the arcade to play the latest hot title. As technology improved, you saw a huge shift from the arcades to the home console markets. Arcades are virtually dead due to the fact you can have a similar experience on your couch.

With big screen HDTVs, home surround sound systems, consoles that push the envelope on graphics capabilities....why would you really need to PC game anymore?

PCs used to have superior graphics, and for the most part still can...however at a huge price.

For about $400 you can have a PS3 or 360 that is jsut as capable of pumping out graphics as a $2000 computer. Then comes hardware conflicts. Soon as your computer is up to date, here comes a new game that requires some form of new technology that must be used in order to play the game on the highest settings....or you could just buy it for the console you purchased 2-3 years ago and not have to worry about it.

Graphics capabilites??? 8600GT, 8800GT, 8800Gt-s, 8800 GTX, 8800 GTX OC, ..then add in all the memory styles...256, 512, 640, 728 , blah blach.....and you dont know what the hell you are buying. There is no clear cut progression. 99% of people would have no clue what to shop for, and be jsut as disappointed when theygot home and learned they just spent $300 on a card that isnt any better than a $200 card. Want a nice new shiney card?? OMG..whats that? You have an AGP motherboard...well, time to go buy a new motherboard...to buy a new video card....omg..RAM is not compatible...time to by new RAM...whats that?? power supply isnt enough...time to buy another one of those....

and so on and so forth...

Then factor in pirating. Pirating is on game consoles too, but no where near like they are on the PC. Download a torrent, and have the game for free a week earlier than everyone else.

The ability to mod games ....is not a selling point.

Its so easy to mod games on the PC that if EA released 09 and it was trash, the community wouldnt buy it and just keep updating 08. Since community mods are so popular on sports games on the PC, its hard for companies to sell its sports games if they havent innovated anything. Time and time again you see the PC mod community put together better games with the tools given to them, than the developers and publishers that are paid to make the games....and they are made for free! Ever heard of Half Life Counterstrike?

Even though I enjoyed my PC gaming for decades, and still enjoy the PC MMO games, there is just no way for companies to spend millions on games that will be pirated #1, and 95% of most computers wouldnt be able to run them as well as the consoles #2.

[Brassman]

You know, in the great scheme we are just cash cows to the corperations. Why should EA Sports discontinue making a best selling game for the largest installed base of computing power, the PC? Why, because it doesn't help Microsoft and Sony sell Next Gen game systems. New gaming systems don't sell without games and if average Joe consumer is happy playing games on what he already ownes he doesn't spend $$$ to buy what's new. But, stop making games on the old systems and now average Joe will feel a need to buy the new hardware. Now, I was just looking over the OS Madden wish list and you know what? In four pages I didn't notice one "wish" for improved graphics. In fact, many of the wishes I found where for the Next Gen game to play more like the current gen game. Mostly I found comments hoping that EA would finally fix the things we've been asking for them to fix over the years. You know, things like improving the AI, deepening the franchise system, sliders that work, realistic stats and adding the ESPN presentation that we where promised. I could go on and on but I think you get my point. None of the wishes have much, if anything, to do with video cards or extra computing power. Just for better programing. Now, I'm not saying that we all don't appreciate having a game that looks stunning. In fact we're all graphic hounds or we'd just say the heck with Madden and start playing Front Office Football. That said, in looking over our wish list it seems that we really haven't been asking EA for better graphics but just that they fix what's been broken for years and add what's been promised.

[Nza]

Crimsontide27, a good post but I just wanted to respond to a few things.

First of all, all those reasons you list for the PC "going down hill" have existed forever on the PC. It was never an easy platform to master, it was always about being informed and involved in the industry so you know what to buy, what works with what, when to upgrade for maximum value etc. This isn't new stuff, and if anything it has gotten a lot better now days. Drivers, incompatibilities, stability issues etc - are much better these days than years past. Around the year 2000, PC gaming somewhat reached its peak of complexity, with a lot of vendors, config issues between vendors etc. Now days we have unified drivers, a move to integrated audio with basically no issues to speak of, and a well established move towards standardization eliminating many issues. It's getting easier and easier now days just to develop a game to DirectX standards and assume every DX compatible PC works fine. I remember Madden PC readme files that had a huge list of specific card models and possible issues. Now days every card works fine.

So I'm not sure it's really PC gaming that's on the down hill. I'd argue it is still inclining. In fact it definitely is (inclining and evolving). It just isn't inclining at the same rate as consoles, which are moving up very rapidly. But then why should it? OCZ don't sell overclocking RAM in the hope every PC user buys it. Ferrari don't sell cars in the hope every motorist buys it. It's a more than sustainable platform for gaming that just takes a more niche specialized approach. Some genres won't work, but then I'd like to see the console sell Flight Simulator X. The fact is there will always be gamers who want the best, and PC offers that in most genres. Its impending death is a complete myth that has been popular for quite some time now. Every new console age brings on the PC's death, but a lot of people seemingly don't understand there are more than enough core PC gamers who don't even take the consoles seriously and appreciate the PC's appeal. Personally, I don't think another major mainstream gaming platform could exist anyway, so the PC isn't really missing out, it's carving its own niche and will always do so since it's an ever evolving platform.

Pirating - yes it's a burden, but it's overrated and hugely misunderstood. Activision claimed there were more bittorrent downloads going off major BT tracker stats of COD4 PC than retail purchases. Perhaps this is true, but it's useless information on its own, and its sole purpose for being mentioned is for shock value on Activision's part (or, in other words, a half hint, half empty threat to PC gamers). Here's why:

1. COD4's multiplayer is the main selling point and you need a legit copy to do that.

2. Then you've got to account for "trying before buying". Plenty of PC gamers do it.

3. Then you've ultimately HAVE to account for the fact the vast majority probably were never going to buy COD4 anyway - if they couldn't download it, they wouldn't have bothered either way. Most of those who did this probably play it a couple of times and don't touch it again. On the console they're called "renters". Using the same logic as some do for PC warez, I'd argue the revenue companies lose from gamers renting a game rather than buying one is more than PC game warez. Blockbuster buy 12 copies, and it's rented 100's of times a year - you do the math. PC gamers can't "rent" full games, so they warez it. Of course that logic, like for PC warez, is flawed - you have to consider that most console gamers probably wouldn't have bought a game if they can't rent it first, and renting may have actually sold a copy later on due to the gamer liking what they tried so much. In many ways, PC warez can be compared to console renting - right down to the fact the providers (warez sites) make a small revenue for every "rent" - online ad traffic.

4. Can't say it's "fact", but with the above in mind, I'd warrant a very small % of actual warez users were prepared to buy a copy but instead downloaded it. Very small. That's the REAL money lost.

5. Fact: PC gaming still makes money off warez users. You can't warez hardware, and whilst it may avoid the software makers, Nvidia and ATi making money is ultimately good for PC gaming, and it's in their best interest to continue investing in PC gaming on every level, so as long as people want to game on the PC, that pure revenue stream exists. Hell, with Nvidia moving into CPU's soon, maybe they'll even fund a few game studios, but they probably haven't yet because they haven't seen the need.

The bottom line on warez is this. Like music downloads, it's misunderstood by the general public because companies claim it is "stealing", and they drive that home hard. This is a complete falsehood. Warez is *not* stealing, at least not stealing in the same sense as stealing something physically from a shop or stand. When you do that, you're literally taking a buyable product off the market. If a shop has 20 copies of Madden 09 on the shelf and you steal one, it now has 19, therefore it literally lost money. Digital media can be produced an unlimited amount of times. It simply isn't the same thing, not even close. I'm not condoning it, and I'm not saying people who weren't going to pay for something should be able to use it for free, but ultimately the way most companies calculate losses from warez is misguided and downright inaccurate. It's completely possible that (for instance) if COD4 PC was not possible to warez, it wouldn't have sold 1 copy more anyway. Realistically it would have, but how much more is impossible to say.

Quote:

"The ability to mod games ....is not a selling point."

It is, for the right genre. Why do you think Half Life sold as well as it did? 50% because it was a great game, 50% because of Counter Strike. A few users on FF have said they bought 08 *because* of our mods.

Quote:

Its so easy to mod games on the PC that if EA released 09 and it was trash, the community wouldnt buy it and just keep updating 08

Possibly true, but keep in mind Madden PC has been like this since it came about, really. 08 was literally so close to 07 it was hard to tell them apart, but I think almost everyone at Football-freaks who was active in modding 07 bought it, and if they did - the forefront of Madden PC modding - then I doubt it factors in much.

[CM Hooe]

Somewhat related, but not quite on topic:

Upon learning this news, and learning about the expanding ability to mod Madden 08 PC, I picked it up today... can someone point me in the right direction as to where I can find out about the various utilities available and how to use them? (in particular, the texture modification utility that allows for completely customized uniforms?)

Thanks.