Weak Madden Sales Signaling Trouble for Game Industry

[bkrich83]

According to VGCHARTZ.

Week 1 Madden 11 Sales.

Xbox360 - 542,803
PS3- 445,648

Last years #'s for week 1.

Week 1 Madden 10 Sales.

Xbox 360- 575,624
PS3- 363,256

Slightly down on the Xbox, and significantly up on the PS3. Overall #'s are up. Not sure how the sales are poor. Over a million copies first week.

[ZoneBlitz]

What Madden sales are telling the gaming industry is that we want better games. Madden in particular has morphed into a videogame that uses football as a mere premise or context - and not much else. There is no depth and EA has provided a textbook example of why competition in football gaming is sorely needed.

[bms715]

Quote: Originally Posted by ZoneBlitz

What Madden sales are telling the gaming industry is that we want better games. Madden in particular has morphed into a videogame that uses football as a mere premise or context - and not much else. There is no depth and EA has provided a textbook example of why competition in football gaming is sorely needed.

Exactly...If I was gonna get excited about any news regarding the upcoming football games, it would be that the exclusivity agreement is GOING AWAY...because it's gonna take a lot more than a year to fix Madden

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by bms715

Exactly...If I was gonna get excited about any news regarding the upcoming football games, it would be that the exclusivity agreement is GOING AWAY...because it's gonna take a lot more than a year to fix Madden

That's between the NFL and EA.

[Phixius]

This doesn't surprise me at all. EA has alienated their fan base in favor of a broader audience using a more easier and casual friendly approach when they already had a good one to begin with. EA got complacent and it came back and hurt them.

I don't think this has nothing to do with the game industry because they are games that have much better success in sales than Madden. It's just Madden series in general. Halo Reach has over a million pre-orders.

[bigal093]

Quote: Originally Posted by rooney8

This is what I want to hear as I am hoping it changes EA's approach to the game but as the article says this has been happening every year with the game and it's just lead to getting more and more arcade. I think Peter Moore needs to swallow his pride and admit the targeting casuals was a mistake. Cost them more loyal hardcore fans then it gained casuals.

i disagree. i think it has worked. i hate it, i do but it has worked. Madden 08 was the most ridiculous excuse for a football game. madden 99 had more realistic gameplay. it was TERRIBLE not to mention that there were tons of glitches online. and sales have gone down from there.

madden has definately improved since then and the numbers went down. madden hasn't gotten more "casual" since then. not particularly. i think their problem is not having a well rounded game. they have catered to the n00bs and online buffs, which sometimes overlap. what they haven't done is add replay value. instead they stripped down their two offline modes to the core. supposedly they are reworking them bigtime for 12, but i'll believe it when i see it. i don't know what the issue is but i don't think it is that they aren't pleasing hardcore fans, even though we at OS would like the believe that is. i know way more people who just want to play a football game with their friends than hardcore madden players.

[haze56]

Madden 08 was the most fun I've had playing a next gen football game until NCAA Football 11. Madden 09 was awful, Madden 10 was average, and I didn't even bother buying Madden 11 because tons of people have said it's a step down from Madden 10.

Like me a lot of people did not buy Madden 11 because they felt like it had not improved enough to worth buying. I'm a firm believer in making a game every 2 years because it's too hard to make a huge improvement in one year and still have a good game. Games like Halo and Call of Duty take 2 or more years to send out a new game and they really spend time working out bugs and glitches. Madden has a chance to be a good game, but they seem to rush these games out and just seem to half *** them. It's as if I'm making a chocolate chip cookie and I'm making a new one every year. I make tons of them and get feedback from the buyers. They tell me to add and subtract different ingredients from the batter, but instead I make the chocolate chips bigger and call it a new cookie.

[kingcrumb]

I have ask about in game saves and AI that can run the ball for over 12 years. I had to trade Madden 11 in I was able to average over 60 points and I lost. This is the worst Madden IMO in years. Where do they come up with this stuff?