Madden's Biggest Issue: Vision and Focus

[djordan]

LOL @ Pinolian

[farnzworth]

I think it is funny that people expect Madden to cater to the "hardcore" or addicts. You guys are basically going to buy the game no matter what. They need to get the 8-12 year old kids asking for it for christmas more than they need to worry about your dislikes or likes.

Yes, they want to keep you semi happy, but lets be honest, most of you will never truly be happy with the game. You are the hot gf that cannot be pleased. After while, you look for newer not so hot gfS. As in plural. More than one!

[ODogg]

farnzworth - I completely disagree. The proof is in the numbers. As the game has become more accessible to the masses the sales have gone down. Those guys you say who will buy it "no matter what" are guess what...not buying it. Yeah a lot still are, no question. But this strategy isn't working at all.

Take a look at the NHL series. They tried the same thing. Make the game accessible and easy. They got destroyed in the sales department by 2K sports. 2K's approach was to make the game as in-depth and realistic as possible. So EA blew up the NHL series and started from scratch. The new games appeal was realism to the sport. With innovation. And guess what, the sales went through the roof. And now 2K sports is left sitting on the sidelines, taking a whole year off to try to catch up.

Honestly, it's pretty ironic that EA can't even see that the perfect example of what is wrong with the Madden series (and what could be right with it) is sitting in their own house. Make the game in-depth and as realistic as possible, with as many broadcast type additions that you can, and the sales will come back. Continue to try to dumb it down every year and make it more accessible to the non-football fans and continue to see your sales plummet. It's really just that simple.

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

farnzworth - I completely disagree. The proof is in the numbers. As the game has become more accessible to the masses the sales have gone down. Those guys you say who will buy it "no matter what" are guess what...not buying it. Yeah a lot still are, no question. But this strategy isn't working at all. Take a look at the NHL series. They tried the same thing. Make the game accessible and easy. They got destroyed in the sales department by 2K sports. 2K's approach was to make the game as in-depth and realistic as possible. So EA blew up the NHL series and started from scratch. The new games appeal was realism to the sport. With innovation. And guess what, the sales went through the roof. And now 2K sports is left sitting on the sidelines, taking a whole year off to try to catch up. Honestly, it's pretty ironic that EA can't even see that the perfect example of what is wrong with the Madden series (and what could be right with it) is sitting in their own house. Make the game in-depth and as realistic as possible, with as many broadcast type additions that you can, and the sales will come back. Continue to try to dumb it down every year and make it more accessible to the non-football fans and continue to see your sales plummet. It's really just that simple.

The last 6 years have seen zero progress with football. There have been a lot of wasted development efforts on things that got zero attention after year 1. This new "locomotion" engine is the 3rd new animation engine since this generation of consoles. Really? Why do you need to rewrite your animation engine 3 times in 5 years? What about all of the wasted elements like weapons, rewind, madden trainer. Who really cared about that? Total waste of development time. How about pro-tak and adaptive AI? Where has the progress happened? Those were untouched this year. Also, does anyone remember Ian's interview from 2007 talking about Madden 08 and the new total control animation engine along with sideline catches? 2010 and we needed sideline catches put in the game...again. Not having a competing product did exactly what we thought it would I've pretty much given up hope for football. It was fun while it lasted.

[farnzworth]

The economy has nothing to do with sales? Competition has nothing to do with sales?

Guys, sales are down because there are WAY too many good games out these days. They dont have to be in the same genre. They are all competing for a limited amount of money. I dont know how old most posters are, but this is a crazy time for video games. The amount of quality games out right now is absolutely insane. I have so many games to buy, that I can't because I dont have the time.

Also, with online gaming, people are buying one or two first person shooters and playing them online for hundreds of hours. People are still playing COD4.

If anything, Madden needs to capture the COD/Halo market (young HS kids). How I have no clue. But that seems to be where the money/sales are.

BTW, anything released near or around Red Dead did not do well. That game took everyones money. Shoot, I can remember when you were lucky if one or two good games came out in a year or two! Every kid had those games. Now, depending on how many systems you have, it could be close to 10 or 15 games.

[ODogg]

If it was the economy and competition that explained Madden's falling numbers then how would one explain that other sports games are selling more each year? The Show, FIFA and NHL all come to mind.

Madden doesn't need to capture the COD/Halo market. It's a completely different demographic. Madden needs to capture their own market that they've lost with the poor design choices and implementation in years past.

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

If it was the economy and competition that explained Madden's falling numbers then how would one explain that other sports games are selling more each year? The Show, FIFA and NHL all come to mind. Madden doesn't need to capture the COD/Halo market. It's a completely different demographic. Madden needs to capture their own market that they've lost with the poor design choices and implementation in years past.

100% correct.

[johnprestonevans]

This is almost a business, sales and marketing debate more than it is about the game itself. Lets put the features, gameplay and presentation specifics aside for a minute. Let's not fool ourselves, gaming is business.

If you are in charge of Madden (I mean the CEO of EA Tiburon) - the guy that is counted on to make the most money for the company, how would you honestly go about it? What would your strategy be? Basic logic says to do research first. Determine your key demographic (who's your main customer). Then define the main issues with your product. Then brainstorm solutions. Pick a couple that are manageable and implement those big fixes. Evaluate customer response. Rinse and repeat. This is exactly what NHL did a few years back and since 07 the game (and its sales) has grown considerably better each year. Why? Because they had a vision of creating the most authentic hockey game they could make. It started with the "skill stick" controls and has snowballed into a very polished playing sports game. (Not perfect yet, but its getting there). They have a longterm vision and plan in place and that is why we dont see things like "Jedi Gretzky" or "Line Change Flow" in a game that is trying to be an immersive NHL experience.

You cannot please everyone all of the time. In the marketplace you're going to have those casual people, the diehards and everything in between. I would venture a guess that diehard fans or moderately interested NFL watchers who are gamers are your core audience. This is where most of your sales are coming from. Sure there are millions of potential buyers out there outside of this demographic, but in order to get them you have to a) make your product appear more accessible/approachable, and b) help them understand and want to enjoy the sport of football. The problem is that by concentrating on this un-captured market, you are damaging the integrity of what draws your main audience in. The ridiculous slogan "Simpler. Quicker. Deeper." just doesn't make a lick of sense. By definition it is an oxymoron. Simpler and Deeper are polar opposites. It's a foolhardy marketing smokescreen to try to attract EVERYONE to the game. Its effectively trying to convince you that we made the game a lot easier and faster for that casual audience, but we also somehow made it more authentic and comprehensive for the guys that already play it. It's just not possible.

Just as most movies and music that attempts to appeal to the widest audience possible at the expense of a focused story or sound, you end up putting out generic garbage. I feel that Madden needs to decide which direction it's going in and stick to it. Whether it be 8 year olds who don't know how to play football, or 25 year olds that love the game and want it pushed to more realism.

There is a feature in all sports games that cushion their accessibility. It's called a difficulty level. Im perplexed by EA's apparent change of focus this year because instead of pushing ahead with presentation improvements and really fixing their horrible commentary, they spent their time and energy on dumbing down the game in the hopes of boosting their lagging sales.

It will be interesting to see how the final product turns out. I really hope it's a lot better than what im reading and seeing so far. EA does not have me (an admitted hardcore Madden / NFL fan) in their wallet this year simply because of the NFL monopoly. I'm very happy with NCAA Football 11. If anything, a year like this may help EA refocus and maintain a more hardcore, polished and authentic NFL game. Time will tell.