[Only1LT]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

At one point it was estimated that one in three households in the United States had a Sony PlayStation2 console, and the console sold just over 155 million units worldwide lifetime. Comparatively speaking, the sales of the the XBOX 360 and PS3 _combined_ barely top that, and Madden also ships on two fewer platforms now given the discontinuing of the Nintendo console and PC releases. Gaming is a bigger industry, yes, but the biggest advances commercially absolutely haven't been in the console space with the exception of the biggest blockbusters (Call of Duty, etc.). Mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad, along with the unique Nintendo Wii motion-controlled console, introduced a huge pool of people from brand-new demographics into the universe of potential video game buyers beyond traditional console and PC gamers. There's any number of reasons to explain how Madden sells compared to ten years ago beyond Madden itself, above are just a couple.

That is fair. A little off though as well.

The number of PS3s sold is around 87mil worldwide. The number of 360s sold is just under that. Basically the same. The Wii sold 110mil IIRC. I'm not saying that there aren't people with both, but that's still an increase over the PS2 era numbers even if you added in the Gamecube and Xbox sales. Granted, given how much the industry has grown, the console space hasn't really grown as much as the mobile industry, I will not argue with you there, but it has grown.

So if, at worst, the console space has seen zero growth, but has just stagnated, that still does not paint a favorable picture for how a company that had a target audience of 14mil customers lost about 60% of it, when the industry experienced exponential growth in some sectors, it had no competition (more on that later), and it is based on one of the most popular and recognizable brands in this country (the NFL).

Again, compared to most AAA titles, Madden sells pretty well (ie a success), but to stop there and not look at all the other factors that surround this title, you aren't really understanding how unsuccessful they have actually been.