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

[FlyingFinn]

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

Why are people compare Madden with NBA 2k so much? Do y'all actually look at sale numbers before you talk?
NBA2K11 has sold. 53 million to date on in 6 weeks on 360
Madden 11 sold. 6 mill in its first week on 360.
Why do y'all get the opinion NBA 2k is selling so much better than Madden? It ain't.
Sim games aren't selling better than Madden either, the only game EA reps will try to mimic is FIFA, that's the only sports game now that is making a lot of money besides Madden.

The thing is NBA 2k sales have increased roughly 400% in the last 2 years while Madden's sales are declining. That is the real story as people are trying to blame the economy for Madden's decline but with another sports title gaining so many customers, it is hard to believe that claim.


Oh and as for what Madden needs... some one early said it best: Quit giving us what you think we want and give us what we want. One example is their beyond broadcast presentation. We don't want that. We want what we see every Sunday on TV. If we didn't like what we saw on Sundays, it would show in the ratings and the networks would have changed to accommodate.

[Flamehead]

Re: Cowan and Company Confirms Suspicions: Madden Sales Down 18% from last year

I think EA will misinterpret this data. Sales are down because of the oversimplified high offense approach, and lack of realism...not because it's too complicated.

They'll try to make the only gameplay option one-button, and then wonder why sales are down again. The way to simplify the game is to make good AI so the user doesn't have to hot-route and audible to get the game to play well.

Or , alternatively, maybe they'll do what they should and start over. The reason sales are down isn't because new people aren't picking up Madden, it's because the faithful aren't. It's the only NFL game out there, if it's fun people will learn to play it. This year's game just felt unfinished to me because of the commentary. Maybe if we can get some more polish, that'll help.

If they try to cast a wider net, they'll fail.

Great post Ryan, I couldn't agree more. The bread and butter Madden consumer has clamored for more sim on this generation consoles for years with all kinds of requests and ideas that have been ignored, while Tiburon implements ideas nobody asked for because it sounded good in a planning meeting focused on making it "accessible".

I never believed adding Peter Moore to the mix was a good idea and I believe this latest news is but one example of how his involvement has done more harm than good, not only financially, but via reputation as well.

[adfletch71]

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

madden doesn't represent the NFL at all, all they have is the logos and names of the players. What the community wants is a simulation game, madden have yet too give us that after 5 years on next gen. Majority of gamers aren't youngsters, we are adults that grew up with atari..etc.

We know what simulation football is, back in the glory days of 2000s. Stop catering too the casual crowd EA, and give us gamers a simulation football experience. If not, I hope your sales continue too decline, because honestly, u don't deserve the license if u keep ignoring the majority of the community.

[TreFacTor]

Re: Cowan and Company Confirms Suspicions: Madden Sales Down 18% from last year

I have read a overwhelming number of times in this thread that the economy is bad and that can be attributed to low Madden sales. I can't really see this as a reputable explanation. There are games that have sold record breaking numbers in the time of the recession. Quite simply, if Madden was the best it could be, skipped the gimmicks and didn't try to nickel and dime it's customers, there is absolutely no reason it couldn't set sales records on it's own. Look at the demographic of the video gamer in general. Aside from the Wii, the demographic of those who own a 360 and PS3 are of legal drinking age with some type of disposable income. Whether that means being able to buy 1 game a month or more, Madden simply isn't reaching that demographic, and I would contend it is because of the gimmicks over improvements as the reason why.

You may not want to, but madden has to be compared sales wise with all other titles that sell well or poorly. While games like COD, RDR, ODST etc sell well, madden has sold only as expected or worse. Is that really enough for EA...about the same amount of people bought the game as last year? Is that really what you want to hear after you put out simpler, quicker, deeper? Whatever numbers are used the decline in sales can be directly attributed to hardcore fans skipping buying the game this year. If the numbers stay the same, the game will have sold about a million less than last year (my estimate only).

What will next years gimmick be? Will it turn even more fans away? I think the main issue is denial. You can't possibly begin to fix the issues with the game or the loss of sales until the problems are identified and fixed. We can ask for whatever we as hardcore want, but are these the same issues identified by Ea as areas of concern. If not, Madden 12 may very well follow the usual pattern of 3 new gimmicks, 1 changed or missing feature, a new cover athlete (Mike Vick is my prediction, making history as MVP, comeback player of the year, and repeat Ea cover athlete) and wash and repeat of all the past problems with a fresh coat of paint.

[PhillsPhan26]

I one of the 18%, I did not buy Madden this cause for the simple fact that players do not look real while running. Almost every other sports game player animation look realistic except Madden.

"Even with disappointments for NHL 11"? Thats fine and dandy but I can play NHL year round, year after year.

[DaveDQ]

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

It's not the economy. It's not any of the other external excuses that some may claim.

Madden football has run on the fuel of an exclusive license that claims the sole rights to produce an NFL game on these consoles. That alone is their guarantee for a purchase. It's a big party on release day, but the honeymoon is over very quickly.

The game has no soul. We know this. Right now we tolerate Madden because that's all there is. Nothing in the game shouts ingenuity or uniqueness. Nothing reaches out to the sports gamer and lights a fire. That's why so many compare it to NBA 2K. You look at a franchise like 2K basketball and you say, "Damn, I'd like to get my hands on that." With Madden, you look at it and think, "It has the NFL."

The game has no soul. It rides on the strong brand of the National Football League and counts on that to deliver.

[FlyingFinn]

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

The game has no soul. We know this. Right now we tolerate Madden because that's all there is. Nothing in the game shouts ingenuity or uniqueness. Nothing reaches out to the sports gamer and lights a fire. That's why so many compare it to NBA 2K. You look at a franchise like 2K basketball and you say, "Damn, I'd like to get my hands on that." With Madden, you look at it and think, "It has the NFL."

The game has no soul. It rides on the strong brand of the National Football League and counts on that to deliver.

I am not even a basketball fan but I bought NBA 2k11 based on some strong word of mouth reviews and it has been the game I have played the most in the last month. The level of immersion is that high...

[rawcorp]

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

Why are people compare Madden with NBA 2k so much? Do y'all actually look at sale numbers before you talk?
NBA2K11 has sold. 53 million to date on in 6 weeks on 360
Madden 11 sold. 6 mill in its first week on 360.
Why do y'all get the opinion NBA 2k is selling so much better than Madden? It ain't.
Sim games aren't selling better than Madden either, the only game EA reps will try to mimic is FIFA, that's the only sports game now that is making a lot of money besides Madden.

The NBA is a smaller product than the NFL. The NFL is the #1 most popular sport. The NBA is ranked #3. There are more NFL fans than NBA fans. Madden series has been around way longer than NBA 2K series. Madden should sell more copies.

But the point is Madden's sales keep declining every year, while NBA 2k keeps increasing because NBA 2K is actually a quality product.

[rawcorp]

I hope it drops to 100% so that EA will finally listen to us and improve the Madden series.

[pietasterp]

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

I think another point worth mentioning is that a game doesn't necessarily have to be more complicated or difficult to play in order to be more "sim". I mean, you don't have to have 80 different button combo presses to make your linebacker drop into coverage off of a blitz look. You can accomplish the same by making the CPU AI smarter and bundling common actions into simple commands. Of course, you can leave in the manual, control-everything-down-to-a-shoelace type controls, but as a standard default the game should know to do things like send a receiver in motion and then jog him back to his spot on long passing formations/plays so you can see if the opponent is playing man vs zone, or creeping LB's up to the line of scrimmage slowly on blitz looks, etc. I mean, some of that stuff is in the game, but I feel like I have to know too many commands to get my team to do things that I want them to do.

In that sense, I think I'm a good example of what they should be shooting for: I'm not a very skilled joystick jockey, but I want an absolutely realistic "sim" game (without taking out manual control options that you can start using if you get more advanced). You can be totally sim but still not alienate casual gamers; I don't think those two things are mutually exclusive. And I hate to say it, but the entire package, right down to the STILL awesome halftime/full time highlights and weekly clips from games around the league, has never been done better than NFL2k5...

[Demoncrom]

Madden has been a just ok game for at least 5 years. Very few people I know care to play the game past the initial release month. The concepts within have begun to stale. Sad fact is - this is exactly what happens when there is no competition in the market. People want fresh and exciting and MAdden is not much of either. Don't get me wrong - this year game has it's fine points, but the problem is we can only compare it to the lackluster NFL games that EA has produced over the years.

[BlingBling19]

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

Madden just isn't all that fun anymore. It seems to be the same game every single year with perhaps a tiny change here or there. The strides other sports titles are making make madden look like a joke.

[KingV2k3]

They lost me (so far, anyway) b/c the focus has been "new" features rather than sim gameplay and prefected sim stat engine / franchise mode...

They need (IMHO) to factor in the human vs. CPU offline franchise player as well as the other target demos for this title...

[DJDReW3102]

this game is unimpressive because there are no new features or attractions to keep things fresh or whatnot. A stale game = stale sales.

[Knight165]

This is not an "I told you so" ....but this certainly makes me think back to the thread that had to do with EA stock(perhaps?)...and their bottom line. I remember the talk surrounding the license and it's effects on what Madden actually went from to what I knew it was coming to and that was a cash cow into somewhat of an albatross. You can focus on sales numbers all you want, but the NFL in it's own greed(although I wonder how much the giant EA pushed the NFL into an exclusive)....really screwed EA in "forcing" them(it was one or the other...EA or T2) to buy this license for an obscene amount of money. EA was losing money on it's bottom line(not from Madden itself...but the clear Madden money allowed them to lose money in other areas and absorb that loss...once the license gobbled that money up...the wiggle room for EA dried up) and it was a direct result of that yearly nut. They(EA) actually did a "good" job of hiding that money from it's prospectus pages...as I tried in vain to find those monies on the debit side to no avail.(I actually considered EA a good investment at one time!)
Truth be told...it's not one thing that's making this happen...it's a cumulative thing IMO.
Some, the license fee(and driving this title to be "the flagship" year after year....where instead of steady little improvements, the devs were forced to come up with the next big thing...and the suits breathing down their necks the whole time)...some bad economy....some poor choices in design and yes....some apathy from the user base.
I'm truly interested to see what happens when this and the baseball licenses are up. Will anyone feel forced to bit the bullet again or will the respective leagues see that their immense greed with the exclusive license(as opposed to a fee for any company willing to jump in the ring)?
Should be interesting.

M.K.
Knight165