Will the Madden Franchise ever be #2 again?

[USF11]

Not one person thinks its possible for madden to be overtaken. If I had any money I would go out and buy more EA stock. For the sake of fair competition we need a new Tecmo Bowl

[CeriousBuc]

Anything is possible. If EA continues to stand pat in the graphics divisions and ESPN can improve its franchise mode, EA may take a loss. Especially after this years showing. I expected to be blown away by Madden 2004 after playing NCAA 2004 and I came away somewhat disappointed. I believe Madden will start to lose its fanbase if it dones't do something to match ESPN's preseantation, graphics and certain aspects of gameplay (i.e. "getting skinny"). I'll stay with EA just because nothing beats the gameplay and feel that I'm used to, but I hope that ESPN did enough last year to cause some concern down at EA headquarters or else we'll be stuck playing the same game with 'minor' improvements year after year.

Not that that's a bad thing....

[mvandor]

Rome fell. Robert Redford is no longer THE sex symbol he once was. EVERYTHING comes to an end, and EA's dominance will too. I'm a big EA customer but felt that Madden grew very tired the last few versions and was trumped by ESPN this last year. I truly preferred ESPN by a large amount.

Now I'm sure that served as a wakeup call to EA, they really pushed their baseball game a long way this year, for example. But it should be interesting when Sega is talking online leagues for XBox and EA is probably still not going to support XBL for Madden 2005. Sure PS2 still dominates, but who knows which next gen system will control the hardware landscape? No guarantee Sony will continue to.

[scamden311]

Nope. It will be #1 for at least the next 3-5 years.

[ODogg]

Yeah comparing Madden to movie stars is pretty much apples and oranges. The game is loved by millions and updated every year. I don't see it slipping to #2 unless they really goof it up when they're programming for the next gen consoles ala PS3 and XBOX 2. Even if it's not up to par one year I doubt it'd slip to #2. The reason is there is no viable alternative that most Madden fans like enough to switch no matter what Maddens all about. I myself have issues with Madden but still don't like playing ESPN. I think alot of people are in the same boat.

[USF11]

I think thats a good point that you raise about we all have problems with madden just not enough problems to even consider any other game. The only football game that comes close to madden as far as overall package is NCAA. Together I guess they are EA's license to print money.

[scamden311]

Exactly. I have 100 complaints about Madden. Yet I have 101 about ESPN.

[Jon22]

YEs it could happen this year if sega want to. Promote Promote Promote Shove all this info up everyones *** and put many commercials out on draft day. To give people know choose which is the better game(if) Thats it plain and simple O you have to tend to those Mtv fans throw in a little of that Rap