Next-Gen Madden Vs Other EA Sports Games,What Happened?

[bucky60]

Exclusive Rights deal.

It was a great business decision by EA, but terrible for NFL Video games. This gave EA the time to move from Last Gen to Next Gen, maximizing profit, by minimizing expenses while moving to the Next Gen. People still bought it because it was the only NFL game in town. EA didn't need to put in the resources it would take to innovate. They didn't need to. The sales would still be there w/o it.

I don't blame the Dev team, I blame the decision making at EA for NFL video football taking over half a decade step backwards.

With competition (w/o the exclusive rights), we would have seen a much better NFL Video game from either EA or some other publisher.

[ODogg]

I honestly think the reason EA doesn't change Madden as much as other games is because they are afraid of changing something that will alienate and/or cause their base to revolt. In other words, err on the side of caution. Don't make any radical changes. This is their cash cow and they want it to remain so, the less it's altered the better (is how they see it IMO).

[beastwork]

The worst thing that happened to Madden is that EA started treating it like a commodity. Reduce bottom line, increase sales, improve profits. It simply is not a good formula for innovation. On the flip side, treating Madden as a commodity is probably the best thing that happened to EA because you all are going to buy the game anyway. There has to be a commitment to reinvest the dollars into the core business and not simply to line the share holders’ pockets.

Madden will never live up to its potential until the framework of the game is built based on real life football fundamentals. 10 Years since the introduction of 32 bit consoles and we are just now getting blocking assignments. It’s very indicative of the poor structure of the game. Guys, this is probably the most fundamental concept in the game of football.

Someone said M11 will be a good gauge of the future of the game. Shouldn’t we already be in the future? I have no interest in fronting seed money that isn’t going to be responsibly reinvested into this series.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

I honestly think the reason EA doesn't change Madden as much as other games is because they are afraid of changing something that will alienate and/or cause their base to revolt. In other words, err on the side of caution. Don't make any radical changes. This is their cash cow and they want it to remain so, the less it's altered the better (is how they see it IMO).

There is something to this and it won't change until competition forces it. That's why the exclusive rights deal has set back NFL video games so much. EA/Tib didn't need to make the huge investment to take the chances on innovation. Having no competition, they could stay the course. That's why it was such a good business decision for them.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by beastwork

The worst thing that happened to Madden is that EA started treating it like a commodity. Reduce bottom line, increase sales, improve profits. It simply is not a good formula for innovation. On the flip side, treating Madden as a commodity is probably the best thing that happened to EA because you all are going to buy the game anyway. There has to be a commitment to reinvest the dollars into the core business and not simply to line the share holders’ pockets. Madden will never live up to its potential until the framework of the game is built based on real life football fundamentals. 10 Years since the introduction of 32 bit consoles and we are just now getting blocking assignments. It’s very indicative of the poor structure of the game. Guys, this is probably the most fundamental concept in the game of football. Someone said M11 will be a good gauge of the future of the game. Shouldn’t we already be in the future? I have no interest in fronting seed money that isn’t going to be responsibly reinvested into this series.

I don't know how anyone expects any real innovation w/o any real competition. The exclusive rights has allowed EA to treat Madden as a commodity.

[ODogg]

Yeah I agree Bucky, if there was another football game really pushing EA then we'd see Madden improve at minimum in the areas the competition improved...

[ODogg]

Like remember how when Gameday was 3D and EA said "it can't be done" and then Gameday did it and voila, a couple of years later Madden is 3D? This is what I am talking about. Without Gameday would we all still be playing 2D football????

[elleykelly]

well there is no competition so dont try to hardworking,