To EA and Madden Consumers, Madden Is a Success

[LiquorLogic]

Madden a is success; based on what exactly ? There are sources that say sales are growing,but there are also just as many sources that say sales are starting to slide. Who knows who is right ? You would think that if sales were truly growing every year, there wouldn't be so much info stating otherwise, but( again) who knows ?

What we do know is that there were two games released six and three years ago ( respectively) that many people favor over the latest iteration of Madden. That's a disgrace! Look at other sports titles, or other games from other genres, and you won't see that phenomenon.

What we do know is that Madden 05 had more options, and features, than Madden 11. There's no excuse for that.

Also, EA's overhead, due to the expensive licensing fee, is much higher, so even if their sales have grown the over the years, have they increased enough for EA to still gain some sort of profit ?

Quote: Originally Posted by MMChrisS

That was a Y-O-Y figure. Totals sales are probably going to end up roughly flat to slightly down. Saying Madden didn't sell well one month and saying it's a failure is roughly equivalent to saying an NFL team has had a bad season for losing two weeks in a row, even though it appears they're playoff bound.

That doesn't equate to being a success. Remember, the exclusive license has severely increased EA's overhead, so sales need to increase to the same degree. Profits equal success, not sales figures.

[1WEiRDguy]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

"I'm gonna play the oldies" always cracks me up. Really? You prefer Tecmo Super Bowl over Madden 11? Really? I love Tecmo Super Bowl. I love some of the old Madden's but come on. For all the things you complain about Madden, the older games had none of them. Tecmo had 8 plays per team. 8 plays! That game was fun as hell back in the day but today it pales in comparison. The problem is back in the day we gave games a pass because they were fun. People ignored Tecmo Super Bowl's issues because it was fun. We dont give current games that kind of pass. We expect them to be supersims and get upset when they have flaws. I have a ton of issues with Madden 11 (Special Teams sucks, Broken Gameplanning, Penalties like offsides and PI still broken) and many of these have been issues for years. The reason I'm able to ignore it is because I'm willing to give it the same pass I gave games like Tecmo in the past. I dont know how anyone could enjoy Tecmo today but hate Madden unless they were holding them to a different standard.

to be honest man...i dont know ANYONE who uses more than about 10-12 plays over and over in madden...how many times have you seen someone successfully run a reverse?

my point is, quality over quanity...at least in tecmo bowl (other than the zig zag DL exploit) the other user had to pick your exact play to "blitz" you. Even with a very limited playbook, i can probably count on one hand how many times the cpu or another user guessed my play. Hell for the early version of Tecmo Bowl, they didnt even have the NFL...but they had the Players Union which let people have the names of the players.

[pietasterp]

Well, I give Chris Sanner credit for taking on the responsibility of defending Madden to a pretty rabid sports gaming fanbase. Nothing he said in the op/ed is that controversial, frankly - without knowing the exact financials, I presume EA is happy with Madden's performance, and everyone keeps buying the game, so I assume that means they are at least semi-satisfied with it (although people buying the game doesn't necessarily mean they think the game's a success...but that's another conversation). It's true that games are held to higher standard today, but shouldn't that be the case? I mean, I think with all the processing power and advances in games in other genres, it's reasonable to hold the games to a more modern standard. But that's neither here nor there.

Whether or not Madden is a "success", however you want to define that term, for a lot of people (myself among them) the name/brand represent much of what is wrong with sports gaming in this current generation. That stigma is unlikely to go away no matter what they do, and in my mind, was stamped the day they signed the exclusivity deal and will never be erased. Once you come to it with that mind-set, it's really hard to see past anything else, even if they do a lot of good things with the game.

In the end, if people have a good time with the game, then great. There's just too much negative mojo surrounding the game for me to ever really enjoy it....not to mention, the game just bores me to death. Success? It's all in the eye of the beholder....

[WakeUp]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

I'm gonna play the oldies" always cracks me up. Really? You prefer Tecmo Super Bowl over Madden 11? Really?

That's nice that it cracks you up. But you've missed the point entirely so I'm not exactly sure what you found funny. Add on the point that I mentioned past Madden's as well and not just Tecmo Super Bowl and it's more puzzling.

To clarify, I don't directly prefer Tecmo Super Bowl over Madden 11, I prefer a FUN football game that accomplishes what it set out to do over one that sucks and is mediocre in every area. So you could plug in a ton of football games in place of TSB that I'd rather play than Madden 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, and 11.

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

I love Tecmo Super Bowl. I love some of the old Madden's but come on. For all the things you complain about Madden, the older games had none of them. Tecmo had 8 plays per team. 8 plays! That game was fun as hell back in the day but today it pales in comparison.

This is why you missed the point. I'm not comparing it to Madden in that way. When I take a classic car for a drive, I don't compare it to a Mercedes made today. I appreciate the classic and marvel at what they were able to accomplish for its time. And if the Mercedes I buy new happens to be missing essential parts that cars of the past had, then I'm going to be real about the situation and admit that the Mercedes I just bought is lacking in critical areas and it's unacceptable. Your perspective of appreciation is supposed to be set for the time in which the object of appreciation came into being. When I play Tecmo Bowl I appreciate it for what it was for it's time, not based on today and I can enjoy it for that. How can I enjoy Madden knowing that it's actually a game made today that's behind it's time in so many easily identifiable areas? That may be okay for you, but not for me. I expect better because better was already done. I don't wanna enjoy high end aged steak on a regular and then be forced to eat hamburger with a few jazzed up side dishes just because it's new, because it's still just a hamburger. No thanks.

Furthermore, back in the older days we didn't complain the way we do now because the frame of reference was so much smaller. We didn't have message boards with 10's of thousands of people pointing out every single flaw. Besides that, when Tecmo was at their height, there was very little to compare it to and it was in most people's minds the best 8-bit football game ever made. But times have changed, technology has advanced and I expect (as I should) for Madden to make me marvel the way I did with games that were the best of their time did, like Madden USED to make me marvel, like other football games made me marvel last generation. But that's not happening now and the game isn't fun to me anymore and it's just not as a tight a package as a number of past football games have been. Franchise is not as a good as last generation, presentation blows compared to old competitive efforts from last generation and other sports games this generation, the animations are not smooth like last gen Madden and are far behind other sports titles, and so much more. This game is a crock.

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

I dont know how anyone could enjoy Tecmo today but hate Madden unless they were holding them to a different standard.

If evolution in gaming exists, and it does, then it's indisputable that we're supposed to hold the games of today to a higher standard than those of yesterday. We're going to do that anyway, since we do in fact expect so much more. However, Madden seems to be the one franchise where mediocrity and poor performance is accepted and defended tooth and nail.

[TheCreep]

For all of you gents that dont like Madden and claim it is broken. I have two key words for you. Subjective opinion. I'm a sim head through and through and I absolutely love the game. Especially Madden/NCAA 11. I can really agree about 06-09 versions. Not so great, but to still be harping on em after 10 and 11. Come on now.

I too would love a new phyics engine and boy oh boy I'm still waiting on decent presentation. Oh and I want my Ion 4d ropo with the correct facemask and u bar too, but claiming Madden is pretty much garbage, you all have lost every last marble. Might wanna find em lol.

[KingV2k3]

I replied to the "contrasting" article, and this one reinforces my point(s)...

Marketing at EA is driving the creative "bus", just like accounting used to control the creative decisions at music companies in their heyday,,,

It's just the way it is,,,

The game is targeted at casual, online randoms and head to head, NOT the offline sim franchise player for exactly that reason,,,what we want eats up a lot of resourse and man power to please a relatively small portion of their overall market,,,

So where would that motivation come from?

Madden competes with Madden and the "victory" is in the numbers...

So what if they're down a bit...

So is the entire economy...there hit is probably minor compared to other non essential purchase items...

We'd all like them to compete with the 2K Series, The Show, etc. on a creative / inovation in the marketplace level...

But how does that "play" to "The Marketeers"?

No so mucho...

I would just like more customization overall, so I can put in the man hours to get it to play as close as it can to the "sim" ideal...

That would (continue) to be close enough (or in this case, even closer) for me....

Yeah, '11 is flawed, but after putting in a ton of reseach, testing and man hours, I have it playing well enough to really enjoy it...

The other sports titles I enjoy (The Show, NBA2k, NCAA11) don't take nearly as long to drag decent gameplay out of, but after a decade, I hate to say, I'm pretty used to and begrudgingly accepting of...

And, yeah...against my best intentions, I'l keep buying it every year...so it's my fault too...

[charter04]

I'm all for a better Madden game. My copy of Madden 11 is now at Gamestop or someone's house. I thought that I could just play Madden 10 if I want a next gen Madden fix. But, when you look at things from EA's point of view why make drastic changes?

EA has no reason to take that kind of a risk. As long as they sell Madden like they have why make a big change? I wish they would, but for them it may back fire. What if they scaped the whole game and made a totally sim game with a very deep dynasty? What if it sold a lot less. How do we know the majority of those who buy Madden even want those changes? It could be the best game ever and not sell as much.

I hope I'm wrong but I don't see them making the big changes to the game until there is comp.

[KyGamerLT]

Madden fans need to stop buying for a year, it can be done and send a message to EA. I have been a fan fo years but the crap of a game EA put out last year wow. I won't be buying madden 2012, NCAA will have o do it for me.