Wow, I wouldn't want to be a stockholder, with the price as high as $21.00 per share this year(and much higher in previous years) and have some EA Exec tell me it's the economy and not the purchase of the NFL license. The license was still an expenditure, so, it is tied into the layoffs, the low stock price, the declining sales, etc.....
And it does have everything to do with how the game turns out. It's called a budget. You only have so much to play with. As an employee, you need to stay under budget. If Madden sales keep declining, the suits allocate how much budget the team receives. Budgets sure don't go up when revenue falls, at least, not with smart businesses.
NBA Elite hasn't even been sold, yet. They've been lagging behind 2k basketball since I can remember. I can go into any GS in the area and they will tell me that 2k leads in preorders by a 3 to 1 margin. As far as NCAA goes, they've been behind Madden in game play for the last 4 yrs or so and now, it appears that they might be a bit better than Madden and people hop on the bandwagon.(they did improve alot!) How many patches will NCAA have? 3 by tomorrow? As far as FIFA and NHL, they are made by a different house, EA Canada. Don't know much about them because I only play football, baseball and basketball games.