Madden 10 sales are weak this year is that alarming to EA?

[Tiko7523]

Analysis: Madden NFL 10 First-Month Sales Fall 18 Percent Over '08
by Matt Matthews

September 15, 2009


[As part of our exclusive monthly look at August's NPD numbers, Gamasutra analyst Matt Matthews looks at this year's decline in the industry-bellwether Madden NFL franchise, its performance on different platforms, and what the results mean in a down economy.]

Each August Electronic Arts and its EA Sports division release another update to its dominant American football franchise, Madden NFL. While the industry is in the grip of a downturn, it's natural to look at standards like Madden to measure which way the wind is blowing.

As indicated in an internal EA memo, sales of Madden NFL 10 are down this year compared to last year's Madden NFL 09. In particular, Madden NFL 09 moved 2.3 million units in August 2008 while only 1.9 million units of Madden NFL 10 were sold in the same period this year. That's a drop of about 18 percent.

It's helpful to break down how Madden sales differed from 2008 to 2009. First, practically every system saw a drop in unit sales for the first month.

Unit sales of the Xbox 360 version dropped only 7 percent, while the Wii version fell by 42 percent, and the PlayStation 2 version by 62 percent. Sales of the PSP version were down, while EA declined to publish a Nintendo DS version at all this year.

Against this set of declines the PlayStation 3 version grew a very modest 3 percent.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=25233


Does anyone else think ea might think the license isnt worth it anymore ?

[marginwalker]

You're beating a dead horse

Also, you've got to take into consideration that the economy was in much better shape last year

[mike24forever]

Quote: Originally Posted by marginwalker

You're beating a dead horse Also, you've got to take into consideration that the economy was in much better shape last year

AGREED!

[Favre4]

the economy is definitely the main reason. anybody who wants to play a football game, really has very little choice in terms of what game to purchase so its fairly easy to see that its not cause of a lack of popularity.

more evidence to support the theory of the economy being the main reason for the decline in sales is the demographic of people who play the game. we dont see CEO's playing madden. it's typically 12 - 25 year old males i would say.....sometimes not the most stable people financially.

[Tiko7523]

Quote: Originally Posted by Favre4

the economy is definitely the main reason. anybody who wants to play a football game, really has very little choice in terms of what game to purchase so its fairly easy to see that its not cause of a lack of popularity. more evidence to support the theory of the economy being the main reason for the decline in sales is the demographic of people who play the game. we dont see CEO's playing madden. it's typically 12 - 25 year old males i would say.....sometimes not the most stable people financially.

yeah i plan on never stop playing videogames tho maybe when i am 80 and my hands are shaking lol.

xbox9090912 and ps409343 here i come

[raidersbball20]

I read in some articles that this is not a fear at all, and they are expecting the sales to be up again next year for Madden 11

[jbrew2411]

EA will credit the economy and not poor/broken game. Hard to say who is right EA (economy) or the consumer's (poor/broken game).

[kjcheezhead]

I'm sorry but the NFL is the most popular league in the country. Blame the economy all you want but if this game was really great, it would be selling like hot cakes. If I was broke and had to choose 1 or 2 games this year, as much as I love football, madden wouldn't make the cut.