Madden Sales Down 18% Y-o-Y in October

[grismosw]

Re: Madden Sales Down 18% from last year

But that engine was built to make a completely arcade game which makes things so difficult.

I still think the mistake they made was starting from scratch when they went to current generation. The Show, NBA 2K, and College Hoops 2K meanwhile built off what they had already started and were light years ahead of EA. EA can't even catch up with what they already had in last generation. Outside of NHL all of their sports series are in the dumps, I think NCAA Football this year is decent but you can't get too deep into Dynasty Mode without all sorts of flaws.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Madden Sales Down 18% from last year

Madden's problem and every game problem for the most part is that they care way too much about the online features of the game and completely shafts the offline players. I mean who cares if you can have online leagues and roster share if the core of your game isn't up to snuff ?

You can but a Porche grill and logo on an ford escort and call it a Porche but it is still a ford escort. And that is the problem with Madden now. Sure they slap on Madden and NFL logos, got Dree Brees on the cover, but the core isn't right.

For the past 10 years I have seen Madden add more and more fluff to their game. From Madden cards to Madden Moments, that is all FLUFF.

They need to get the basics done right 1st. And stop with the clever marketing phrases. Calling Madden simple and faster......Sure it is faster when you elminate 1/4 of the playbooks that was in last years game.

The whole AI is just totally out of whack. From mobile QBs not scrambling in any of the EA football games, which is Madden and NCAA, to the cpu punting the ball out of bounds majority of the time, to bad clock management, teams not going for fake punts or fake FGs.

Hell I have never seen the CPU ever block a punt in a Madden or NCAA football game, EVER. I mean what is the point of having all out block or max protect or regular protect if they still don't come close to blocking your punt ???

I mean we talking simple logic here. If player A is regular punt formation, player B is in All out Block formation, shouldn't the CPU player B block the punt most of the time in that situation ????

Same thing with mobile QBs.......simple logic......if you a mobile QB and you see a WIDE OPEN LANE TO RUN, wouldn't they take off in real life to exploit that WIDE OPEN LANE ?

I mean whats the point of having a throwing on the run rating if the CPU QB don't run ? I mean don't you have to run in order to throw on the run ?

Why is it in 2010 we still can't assign blocking assignments in football games ? I mean hell in basketball games we can assign double team assignments. So why can't we tell our linemen to double team block the defense's best pass rusher ?

Why can't we have real good pre-game, halftime and post game show ? OR, more importantly why can't we have a dynamic commentary ????

You know when they talk about stuff going in game, what happened last game, what happened in the 1st quarter, 1st half type of stuff. And not some canned lines that talks about stuff that isn't really relevant to what is going on in the current game.

People want realism. They want dirty uniforms, live interactive sidelines that react to what is happening on the field and to the score of the game. They want the field to get tore up come second half. What happened to line shifts that use to be in Madden years ago ? Where you could shift the formation and all that ?

New engine not going to cut it.....they need a new director, new president of their sports division or something. Everything comes from the top like in any company.

So I can't see how they can honestly say hey I watch football every saturday and sunday and then make NCAA and Madden and say with a straight face that is actual football, what you see on Saturday and Sunday.

And who ever is in charge of their beta testing needs to be replaced too, because really it is the quality control team job to ensure the game plays like the real thing. And over the years I am seeing way too many flaws getting passed them and making it to the retail version.

Then when people buy the game they want to say oh yeah we are aware of the problem we will release a patch for it.

This generation of videogames, the word PATCH has become a cop out and excuse for not doing your job. They need to call this generation of videogames the Patch Generation, because way too many games come out needing MULTIPLE PATCHES.

Makes no sense.

[dcsoldier]

in reality it really doesn't matter because the sales are down period......recently the EA CEO came out and said during a stockholders conference hearing that he is unhappy with madden's performance and that sale's are way below expected. in 09 madden sales were down tremendously from 08 and to even compare this year's sales to last year is very disappointing. like everyone is saying, if madden doesn't start winning its hardcore fans back (that go and buy the game every year and stand in line on midnight release) then it will be less than 5 years before the game is no longer in production ex. nba elite. when 2k makes a football game it will be good bye charlie for madden.

[The Amaizen Blue]

I personally think it was because NCAA 11 was just THAT good. I know a lot of people don't buy BOTH Madden AND NCAA so when people hear "NCAA is better this year" they'll only go for that.

[RaychelSnr]

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Well to me this is clearly only for October but I seem to be on my own.

It's Madden sales from Aug-Oct this year compared to last. So Madden sales are 18% behind where they were last year at this time.

Edit: Unless Cowen and Company comment on game series sales differently than other analysts. Either way, this will result in Madden sales being significantly down if this number holds for consecutive months.

[dcsoldier]

It took them this long to get where they are today, you honestly think a new engine is the answer?

and where are they exactly? half the people that buy madden hate it and the other half buys it cause its NFL.

i just got done playing apf2k8 and during a cut scene in the background there was a cop standing by the stands......amazing DETAIL! this game came out 4 years ago, and never used crappy gimmicks to suck people into buying the game....4 years later and im still enjoying the game..........i don't even think if i combine all of the maddens would it equal 4 years.

[timmymvp6]

I didn't buy Madden 11 because Madden always stays the same to me. There are never any huge inprovments on the game, so I think the Madden franchise needs to take a huge step in Madden 12.

[dcsoldier]

they have to, if they don't 2k will come along in 2013 and put madden to sleep.....if there was ever any pressure on madden dev team i think it is now. the only chance madden has survive is if EA finally decides to buy out Take Two which i think Activision has a better chance of doing so. nonetheless, if 2k is successful in getting the NFL license it will be the beginning of the end. at that point i can see madden only come out for Wii or gameboy or something lol

[rooney8]

Re: Madden Sales Down 18% from last year

It's Madden sales from Aug-Oct this year compared to last. So Madden sales are 18% behind where they were last year at this time.

Edit: Unless Cowen and Company comment on game series sales differently than other analysts. Either way, this will result in Madden sales being significantly down if this number holds for consecutive months.

You know more than me. This is great news for sim gamers. No way does John Riccitiello survive this. Probably a few others will go aswell.

[RaychelSnr]

You know more than me. This is great news for sim gamers. No way does John Riccitiello survive this. Probably a few others will go aswell.

Haha, I think at least. I see what you are saying. I actually hunted down the original quote and it was just as vague, so you don't know how they are defining it.

However, 18% Y-o-Y declines each month (if that's how it is actually being calculated) would result in Final Madden sales being down nearly 8-10% anyways. So if the game started off well and then sales collapse compared to the year before, that's a VERY negative sign for sales the next year anyways. So regardless on how Cowen and Co. did calculate this, this is horribly negative for EA and Co.

Either way, I'll update the thread title and add a bit to the original news piece just to give this possibility some air-time

[InSainn]

I keep hearing people say how good NCAA was this year. Yes, it didn't have an addictive dynasty mode and yes, they way they captured the atmosphere of college football was amazing. I also love all the different offensive styles. To me these are all things that should be a given in a college football game. NCAA still lacked big time in the gameplay department. Linebackers don't stop on a dime, time their jump perfectly, and swat the ball down everytime they attempt it. NCAA still has alot of the same gameplay flaws that Madden has. Still no true consecutive hits, still no route based passing, still the same stale ol' gameplay feel. Before I traded it in I loved playing with all the lil side things in NCAA but when it came time to get on the field it was just a headache, much like Madden. I traded both games in and got NHL 11, which I'm personally very happy with, it's not a huge upgrade from last year but the small additions that were made really add to the realism. Anyway, as for Madden, I'm done with it, hopefully someday we'll see another NFL 2K game. Maybe in the meantime 2K could make us a UFL 2K or CFL 2K game.

[Titans4lyfe]

Re: Madden Sales Down 18% from last year

I was one of the people who didn't buy Madden this year. Like Gotmadskillzson said, they seem to not care at all about the people who play offline. They expect me to play basically the same Madden with a couple of new gameplay gimmicks. If they added the features off of NFL Head Coach 09 franchise, then the offline franchise wouldn't be nearly as boring. Add that to the fact that they still haven't added all the little things (progressive weather, interactive sideline, better commentary, ect). I, for one, will not be buying Madden until they make some type of progress in improving offline franchise.

Edit-I hate to always bring NFL2k into a Madden discussion but, Madden IMO is still behind NFL2k5. That game was able to pull me in like NBA2k11 has recently done to me. Madden hasn't had that affect on me since last gen.

[RaychelSnr]

Re: Madden Sales Down 18% from last year

You know more than me. This is great news for sim gamers. No way does John Riccitiello survive this. Probably a few others will go aswell.

Also on your John Riccitiello point, I'd like to know how he's surviving with EA's stock flat since the 08 crash while everyone else has seen at least modest stock gains. That's as much an indictment on Riccitiello as anything else. But don't forget that total sales were up 17% for EA in October, so the company as a whole isn't doing too bad.

[LiquorLogic]

Re: Madden Sales Down 18% from last year

One more nugget from the Cowen and Company piece is that Madden sales are in fact down 18% year over year.


An 18% drop was far more than I ever expected; that's nearly a 1/5 cut in top-line revenue from one of EA's biggest franchises.

That's incredibly bad news.


This is easily a referendum on the direction of the series.


There is definitely increasing pressure on the Madden team to perform, and if there isn't at least somewhat of a change to try to make Madden more marketable to a wider audience for next year then I'll be somewhat shocked.

This is definitely not good news for gamers who have liked the direction of Madden for the past couple of years.

Do you think we'll see some big changes in the direction for Madden NFL 12?

I thinks it's great news for gamers period; providing that EA is willing to spend the money necessary to build Madden from the ground up. If they do, that will benefit all gamers because the quality will be superior to what we have now.

The license fee is what hinders Madden's development. It's so expensive that the suits aren't willing to increase the budget for development. Maybe now, they realize that they have to.

Who knows if we'll see any significant changes; historically we haven't, but with sales dropping as they are, EA may feel the need for an overhaul.

Even if Madden 12 isn't a significant change, the fact that Madden's sales are down 50% from five years ago means they're less likely to renew the license when it expires.

[dcsoldier]

Also on your John Riccitiello point, I'd like to know how he's surviving with EA's stock flat since the 08 crash while everyone else has seen at least modest stock gains. That's as much an indictment on Riccitiello as anything else. But don't forget that total sales were up 17% for EA in October, so the company as a whole isn't doing too bad.

thats because they released medal of honor and a couple of other titles not worth mentioning.