OS Myths Case File #1: EA Football

[RaychelSnr]

Quote: Originally Posted by stewaat

If they are such huge football fans why don't they have the intricacies (sp?) of the game included? Games like 2K basketball series have these awesome little touches which are non-existent in EA football games. Actually just have them start with huge gameplay issues (i.e. the battle in the trenches...which isn't there in EA football games).

I said these questions are valid one's to ask. The problem is that they do get so much wrong, but most likely they aren't trying to create a perfect sim. That's why Madden and NCAA are never going to make a lot of people happy because they are being developed for a much more casual audience. And the little things is something I have been screaming about for a couple of years now, doing that would create a much more immersive experience. EA claims they have done this for this year, I guess we'll find out if they are blowing smoke again or not

[RogueHominid]

Passion and competence are not coextensive concepts, unfortunately.

[muggins]

NCAA may not be the madden engine from the year before, but they definitely both shared the same debilitating difficulties last year.

[Stumbleweed]

Thanks for the answer. I actually did think about worldwide figures as well, but I thought that the futbol vote would've been split between Winning Eleven and FIFA, leaving Madden's insane amounts of cross-platform sales in the US to reign supreme. Guess not -- the more you know.

[RaychelSnr]

Quote: Originally Posted by Stumbleweed

Thanks for the answer. I actually did think about worldwide figures as well, but I thought that the futbol vote would've been split between Winning Eleven and FIFA, leaving Madden's insane amounts of cross-platform sales in the US to reign supreme. Guess not -- the more you know.

According to sales figures, Pro Evolution sold 3.8M to FIFAs 5.7M. Madden barely trailed FIFA but, when rounded, the figure came in at 5.7M as well. So the difference isn't too huge for sure and if sales hadn't of slipped, Madden would still be easily #1

[spankdatazz22]

Can the title be changed to "Don't pick on Madden/NCAA"

MythBuster Case #1: NCAA uses a recycled Madden engine each year. - I think this is phrased incorrectly. Most people recognize the similarities between the titles and can come to the conclusion that many of the positives/negatives for the two titles are the same because they share the same base. But I don't think most people say NCAA is nothing but the previous year's version of Madden. I could be wrong, but I never thought that was the general perception. I think there's far more similarities between Madden/NCAA '08 than there was with say, Madden '04 (Michael Vick) & NCAA '04.

MythBuster Case #2: The man on the cover of Madden indicates the focus of the game each year. - Isn't it mostly truth? Especially the past 4-5 yrs? It's funny because you're saying the cover athlete didn't directly correlate with the new "feature" for that year, but in a way you're critiquing Tiburon's success at implementing whatever feature. I think it's easy to see what their intent was. You're trying to make a strictly literal connection with the year's feature and the cover athlete, but it's going to be hard to do because in part Tiburon hasn't done a good job implementing the feature for that year. Most of the features of the past 4-5yrs aren't really relevant today (vision cone, highlight stick, defensive enhancements people want undone (too many interceptions, DBs/LBs reacting to balls unrealistically, weapons, etc. Most of the features aren't significant features for Madden going forward, or it can be argued they shouldn't be). This year I think will be different though; I'm pretty sure the focus will be on presentation. I don't think Brett Favre will tie into any big feature

MythBuster Case #3: The EA Tiburon developers do not watch or care about football. - I'm sure they watch football as we all do. But there's a reason the game is in the state it's in, and it's not because gamers are making them go in the wrong direction/make bad choices. We're going on 4yrs into next gen and the football titles are still arguably lagging behind the current gen titles - which we were complaining about back then. Nobody's saying the game has to be a strict sim. But there are many fundamental football areas the game is really lacking.

MythBuster Case #4: EA is happy because Madden still sells millions of copies each year. - I'm sure EA would always want to sell more. But I guess you were trying to get at EA being "content" on what Madden currently is quality-wise. Hard to say. But I think they're making a mistake not improving the game from a football fundamentals standpoint, and seemingly reaching more towards making Madden more appealing to casual fans.

[mercalnd]

Quote: Originally Posted by MMChrisS

According to sales figures, Pro Evolution sold 3.8M to FIFAs 5.7M. Madden barely trailed FIFA but, when rounded, the figure came in at 5.7M as well. So the difference isn't too huge for sure and if sales hadn't of slipped, Madden would still be easily #1

Let's not forget that those sales figures (they're the ones listed in the top 100 in sales for the year thread) only included North America and Europe. I haven't seen the worldwide figures anywhere but I can only guess that when you factor in the rest of the world, FIFA's sales lead increases dramatically. FIFA has been the best selling sports game by a wide margin for quite a while.

[BlyGilmore]

Quote: Originally Posted by MMChrisS

According to sales figures, Pro Evolution sold 3.8M to FIFAs 5.7M. Madden barely trailed FIFA but, when rounded, the figure came in at 5.7M as well. So the difference isn't too huge for sure and if sales hadn't of slipped, Madden would still be easily #1

Yep. Madden actually sold less versions in 2008 than it did in 2007 so that accounts for the difference. And this year they're going to be heading into the year with an automatic sales drop (the few hundred thousand folks who bought the PC version).