[pistoldill]

All things considered, I do not believe that just because a bunch of people on these forums or a few editorials running this game as being inferior to last years (which is a complete lie, as this game alone with the QB Vision deal is already more realistic than games in years past) is not going to make a difference.

Every single year, Madden becomes more and more popular. Madden is already the juggernaut of sports games, at least in America. Having been involved in the Halo 2 night of sales and such (was to pick it up for my brother, I hate the game myself), the crowds to get Madden are large. Literally there were like forty people crammed into a small game waiting for hours to get this game. We are talking about thirty outside the store too.

It was like that last year when I got Collectors Edition.

The year before, Madden 04, it was at a local Meijer store I worked at. We got one hundred copies of the game on the initial shipment. By the time my shift was over at about eight that morning, we were filling in another huge Madden order to come in later that week.

But honestly, some of you are making it sound as if a majority of the Madden base is so frustrated that they are going to throw their controllers down and stop buying Madden in protest of a product they think is inferior. I've seen hyped games and hyped sequels draw the ire of the fan base, and sales suffered. I have never saw that with Madden.

Next year, Madden will draw more first day buys. And more people will buy it than ever before.

The hardcore gamers, which I consider myself a part of that whole deal and have for years, need to get over themselves. In the grand scheme of things, you're just fifty bucks. People think they are so vital to this whole deal, and in reality, they just are self important tools who don't understand that video games aren't made to be these glorious things that they envision. It's about making money.

And Madden draws more than any other sports game, so they are doing something well.

While it would be nice if Madden was perfect right out of the gate one year, you do have to honestly look at the limitations of programming. Sure, there are glitches and such. But tell me a video game that does not have one. There are always holes in the code. But the fact is, there are only a handful of glitches in these games. And personally, they have never made the game unplayable.

It's one thing to complain about market share and all that, but if anyone actually though ESPN was a legit threat, they need to get off whatever drugs they are on. You are talking a game that Madden outsold by millions. For ESPN to make it equal they had to sell two and half copies of 2K5. And without the twenty dollar price tag, ESPN would have been hammered. It was the stand out feature of the game. It was cheap. And example would be best used with professional wrestling. There is the WWE, and then there is TNA. TNA has had a one hour time slot show for a while. Because they have a TV deal, a lot of wrestling fans say they are a legit threat to the Vince McMahon empire. But the fact is, TNA is just a blimp on the radar. They get less that .8 viewers in the ratings where as WWE hits around 4.0 numbers on a weekly basis. The product is there, but it isn't a threat. It's just an alternative.

Seriously, people on these forums who always seem to threaten that they won't buy next year's game or this year's game need to do us all a favor and put your damn money where your mouth is. Don't balk like a pansy. Go update your ESPN 2K5 and say it is a better game to the point of mind numbing stupidity on the 'rivals' forum. We Madden fans always get a good chuckle out of that. But the fact is, if these hardcore gamers that have been so negative of the game finally did shut their mouths and didn't buy the game, it would make no damn difference as the game would still go up in sales in copies and in total revenue. You aren't important. You just think you are. But singing your own praises only proves that you are so weak that nobody else can praise you to begin with.

Me...I'm going back to my game. Just because someone has a differing opinion does not make them less read. But that thought was misconstruded. Many of the Madden 'haters' simply think that one hot flare up is going to get them somewhere. Sure, this thread is seven plus pages, but it's filled with weak anti-Madden points and even weaker counterpoints when someone exposes their idiocy.