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

[adfletch71]

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]

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]

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by DaveDQ

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by bxgoods

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]

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...