Madden NFL 13 Continues Historic Start

[mestevo]

MADDEN NFL 13 CONTINUES HISTORIC START; RECORD SELL-THROUGH
AND FAN ENGAGEMENT HIGHLIGHT WEEK ONE

Sell-Through Up 8% in First Seven Days for New Record on HD Console Generation

Madden NFL 13 Games Played and DAU at Their Highest Rates Ever Recorded

Electronic Arts Inc., (NASDAQ: EA) announced today that Madden NFL 13 continues its record-setting launch performance with new records for both sales and fan engagement through its first seven days at retail (Aug. 28-Sept. 3). Based on internal estimates, sell-through for Madden NFL 13 was up 8 percent year-over-year on HD platforms with more than 1.65M units sold in Week One to mark its best start ever on this console generation. Last week, EA announced that Madden NFL 13 had set a new Day One record on HD consoles as well.

Fans also continued to play Madden NFL 13 in record numbers. In the first week following retail launch, there was a 31 percent increase in the number of online games played year over year with more than 24M contests recorded. That’s the equivalent of a staggering 47,000 NFL regular seasons in just seven days, and, on Labor Day alone, an average of 3,000 Madden NFL 13 games were started every minute.

In addition, Daily Average User (DAU) rates on HD consoles have increased 14 percent over last year, shattering previous franchise records.

“We’re thrilled to see the great momentum continuing on Madden NFL 13,” said Andrew Wilson, Executive Vice President of EA SPORTS. “The overwhelming feedback is that this is the best Madden NFL game in a generation. Fans are competing in record numbers, and we expect that type of engagement to only grow with the start of the NFL regular season last night, as fans connect with their favorite teams and players through our game.”

“We have seen strong demand for Madden NFL 13 leading up to launch and through its first week on store shelves,” said Bob McKenzie, SVP of Merchandising, GameStop. “Critic reviews are strong and the buzz from the Madden fan base is more robust than I’ve ever seen. We’ve seen this consumer momentum sustain throughout week one and we expect it to continue into the fall and holiday season.”

Among the additional notable accomplishments for Madden NFL 13 in its first week at retail:

• There were more than 1.4M fans who connected online last week.
• There were more than 702K unique visitors to the enhanced Madden Ultimate Team mode. Fans opened more than 2.6M packs and competed in more than 2.2M challenges.
• There were more than 1.3M unique visitors to Madden NFL Facebook page and 450K Madden mentions on Twitter.

[Greencollarbaseball]

Well since they are funneling everybody to online CCM because offline is more broke, I am actually surprised its not higher.


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[bucky60]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

Maybe they should wait until offline CC is actually fixed before trying to use any statistical analysis.

With the online franchise having improved so much this year, they may get legitimate more online activity. But to come out with that statement at this point and time is very disingenuous. It's basically marketing BS.

The real analysis should be done after offline CC is fixed.

[Obnoxious]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

I created an online CCM but realized how stupid it was disconnecting against the CPU. Deleted it. I'm sure I'm not the only one but I'm positive they counted me towards the 1.4m anyways.

[roadman]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

I created an online CCM but realized how stupid it was disconnecting against the CPU. Deleted it. I'm sure I'm not the only one but I'm positive they counted me towards the 1.4m anyways.

Waiting for my disconnect.

Left the house for 45 minutes, came back and picked up where I left off.

A save feature would be nice.

[mestevo]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

I had problems during a single play session while EA's servers were clearly having trouble on launch week, and is why i have my offline CCM w/ the Browns (1-4 as their QB, so painful) to go along with my online CCMs.

In a year people will still be complaining about disconnects that happened to them week 1 though I am sure... or complaining about disconnects they only read about.

Did the official Madden twitter ever tell people to play online? That's the only source of information that I'd expect would come close to noticeably influencing people to move online from offline in significant quantities. Looman mentioning it to his 9k followers certainly wouldn't have moved the needle much, nor would discussions here.

[EmmdotFrisk]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

Waiting for my disconnect.

Left the house for 45 minutes, came back and picked up where I left off.

A save feature would be nice.

I would agree. I'm definitely a fan of how the show handled in game saves.

[bucky60]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

Looman mentioning it to his 9k followers certainly wouldn't have moved the needle much, nor would discussions here.

How many followers does he actually have? I know I don't follow him. The lead designer says don't play offline and that's not going to have a significant impact? His Xk followers, all the gaming sites, and all the friends of these people and all the friends of friends. Plus all those that give up on offline because it's broken.The numbers would go beyond the tweet followers.

Wait for offline CC to get fixed, then do some statistical analysis. Don't do it when offline is broken.

[Jimi XIII]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

I'm definitely one of those people playing online CCM solely because it works and offline doesn't. I hope they don't take too much pride in the online numbers and start not worrying about offline play. I only even have a Live account because I wanted to play the demo. I'm not likely keeping a Live account after this month.

But I'm starting to assume EA and the consoles have some sort of agreement or incentive with online play. From EA requiring active online accounts to having online CCM work but not offline even though it's supposed to be running from the same source would lead me to believe there's some incentive EA is getting.

[mestevo]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

How many followers does he actually have? I know I don't follow him. The lead designer says don't play offline and that's not going to have a significant impact? His Xk followers, all the gaming sites, and all the friends of these people and all the friends of friends. Plus all those that give up on offline because it's broken.The numbers would go beyond the tweet followers.

Wait for offline CC to get fixed, then do some statistical analysis. Don't do it when offline is broken.

As of right now, 9,855 followers. It would take some awfully creative math to move the needle on the 1,400,000 people connected online based on any statement he made. Think OS is big? The CCM impressions thread... one of the more popular on the front page (well, it's a sticky)... a little more than 200 people have submitted CCM impressions during the busiest time of the year for this section of the forum.

I'd love to see anything not (intentionally?) vague to back up that thought though.

[cuttingteeth]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

What about us 89m people mentioning bugs and glitches and lack of features? We don't get any love?

[Greencollarbaseball]

As of right now, 9,855 followers. It would take some awfully creative math to move the needle on the 1,400,000 people connected online based on any statement he made. Think OS is big? The CCM impressions thread... one of the more popular on the front page (well, it's a sticky)... a little more than 200 people have submitted CCM impressions during the busiest time of the year for this section of the forum.

I'd love to see anything not (intentionally?) vague to back up that thought though.

I was actually referring to the 24 million games played, not the 1.4 million logins


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[mestevo]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

I was actually referring to the 24 million games played, not the 1.4 million logins


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Would be interesting to see a breakdown of what those 24 million are. Player v player, play now, Online CCM, MUT or if it's possible offline CCM but w/ an active internet connection are included. The latter sounds unlikely, but pretty sure they collect that info too.

[wheelman990]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

My question is does Madden connect online everytime you are logged in, or is this truly online games only?

[mestevo]

Re: Madden sells 1.65m, 1.4m connect online, 700k MUT

My question is does Madden connect online everytime you are logged in, or is this truly online games only?

I am pretty sure it does, but the release is pretty explicit about saying it is for online contests. That probably includes Player vs CPU Online CCM, but that wording would seem to exclude offline CCM that still phoned home.