EA Sports: No More NCAA or Tiger Woods?

[CraigSca]

Based on this post at the Dubious Quality Blog: Dubious Quality: Electronic Arts: The Guttening And I'll just highlight the following from EA: "Electronic Arts has a core slate of games label and sports franchises that we will iterate on a either annual or bi-annual basis. And I think you know what those major titles are -- all of them are selling or have sold in their most recent edition 2 million units or more. After that, we’ve got The Sims and Hasbro, and frankly anything that doesn’t measure up to looking like it can pencil out to be in very high profit contributor and high unit seller got cut from our title slate from this point going forward. So it is really, in a way, if you could array our title slate up knowing what we did about what we would have otherwise brought to market, we cut the bottom third of it." And this is Bill Harris' quote: "In other words, if it doesn't move two million units, EA doesn't want it anymore. EA's plan going forward is to ship games that sell 2M+ units and otherwise focus on mobile platforms and "social gaming." Knowing that NCAA sold nowhere near 2 million units, at least on NPD data - does that mean NCAA and Tiger Woods Golf are soon to put out to pasture?

[CraigSca]

I'll dola my own post here - I added spacing to made this dang thing readable, but for some reason it's one long paragraph. My apologies.

[CraigSca]

double dola - forgive the "provacativeness" of the title - I'd add a "?" to it, but I have no idea how.

[MJ4H]

If it means someone else will wind up making a college football game, I hope so.

[CraigSca]

Interestingly, unless the agreement has been extended, NCAA 11 would have been the last game under the exclusive contract between EA and the Collegiate Licensing Company.

[MJ4H]

frankly, ea sports can go fuck itself as far as im concerned

[Logan]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

double dola - forgive the "provacativeness" of the title - I'd add a "?" to it, but I have no idea how.

Click to edit the first post, then hit go advanced. You'll be able to edit the title.

And considering the NCAA fanbase around here, I think it's pretty damn imperative that you do just that.

[CraigSca]

Ta dah!

[bhlloy]

k now give 2k sports the NCAA BB license back... thxbye

[MJ4H]

And football.

[Groundhog]

Potentially the best news ever.

[SirFozzie]

Nope, not going to happen:

From the call:

Electronic Arts has a core slate of games label and sports franchises that we will iterate on a either annual or bi-annual basis. And I think you know what those major titles are -- all of them are selling or have sold in their most recent edition 2 million units or more. After that, we’ve got The Sims and Hasbro, and frankly anything that doesn’t measure up to looking like it can pencil out to be in very high profit contributor and high unit seller got cut from our title slate from this point going forward.


(Hat tip to Bill Harris at DubiousQuality.blogspot.com) Basically, the Rock Bands and the Sports games may be all that's left.

[MJ4H]

That is basically what was in the OP. How does that dispute the OP?

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Nope, not going to happen:

From the call:

Electronic Arts has a core slate of games label and sports franchises that we will iterate on a either annual or bi-annual basis. And I think you know what those major titles are -- all of them are selling or have sold in their most recent edition 2 million units or more. After that, we’ve got The Sims and Hasbro, and frankly anything that doesn’t measure up to looking like it can pencil out to be in very high profit contributor and high unit seller got cut from our title slate from this point going forward.


(Hat tip to Bill Harris at DubiousQuality.blogspot.com) Basically, the Rock Bands and the Sports games may be all that's left.

NCAA 10 sold just over a million across all platforms.

[Shkspr]

I think both franchises are safe for now. When EA talks about "sales" of units, they're really talking about shipping numbers. I also suspect they're talking about the 2 million being across all platforms. Tiger's been cranking out lots of DLC bling and has sellthrough of at least 1.5M. That likely means shipping in excess of 2M. NCAAF isn't quite as strong (1.1+M sellthrough), but you've got to think they could cheap out at this point, marry prior art assets with Madden's engine, and crank out at least one more lackluster sequel to carry through to the next contract while still providing a good enough ROI. FIFA Manager and the NBA will get the ax, I'd bet.

Putting that aside, though, how anyone can put any more into this year's focus than on last year's innovation is beyond me. They'll retrench, the people let go will disperse to new homes, they'll make new games for their new homes, and EA will use the money saved from this retrenchment to buy the new homes and snatch up their IP once it looks profitable. At that point we'll start hearing about EA's renewed commitment to small independent developers and restoring dynamic new IP to the marketplace. It's cheaper than keeping everybody on the payroll during early development, right?

[RainMaker]

I think both will survive.

The problem with them cutting out NCAA is that it opens the door for another football game on the market. If 2K puts together a great college football game, does that hurt Madden sales? Madden is a pile of shit but a lot of people buy it because they love football and there are no options.

I personally would love to see them leave NCAA open for another company to step in.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

NCAAF isn't quite as strong (1.1+M sellthrough), but you've got to think they could cheap out at this point, marry prior art assets with Madden's engine, and crank out at least one more lackluster sequel to carry through to the next contract while still providing a good enough ROI.

This.

Plus the fact that the NCAA franchise also serves an R&D platform for Madden. The costs of making NCAA are reduced significantly due to the shared assets & resources with Madden.

I'm not saying the NCAA franchise is guaranteed to not get cut or cut back to every other year, but there are good reasons to think it might survive.

[Galaril]

I stopped buying the NCAA games and Madden like 2003. They get no sympathy.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Ironic that the year they make the best sports lineup that they have in 5-7 years is the same year that the games they were playing with their finances finally caught up with them and could not be concealed any more. EA will continue to exist, but it's going to be a significantly smaller version of EA.

One of the worst decisions EA made was to focus on the Wii. Huge disaster there.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/11/ea...n-anticipated/

[MJ4H]

Probably making crappy games was a worse decision.

[CraigSca]

But they've had some games that have received good reviews that have done poorly on the Wii. I'm just not sure the Wii is the target audience.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

One of the worst decisions EA made was to focus on the Wii. Huge disaster there.

Interesting statement. As a Wii owner, I have clearly felt that their Wii games were an afterthought, clearly ported from the "real versions" on the 360/PS3. I certainly never got the impression they were 'focusing' their attention on making good Wii games at all.

[MJ4H]

Sorry, I just despise EA for taking exclusive licenses and killing all competition and then continuing to put out a crappy football game. The things they've done on the Wii as a difference from the other versions were mostly insulting to the users (moving away from realism--the lol goalfests of fifa 10 for example, turning madden into a mini-game party??--though I did like the new graphical style) and in my opinion the games were already inferior to their competition (nfl2k5 >>> madden 05, PES >>>> FIFA). It just irks me. I have no sympathy for them.

Their other games, like Boom Blox, especially Bash Party are severely underpromoted. Bleh, they've made plenty of mistakes and bad decisions. Developing for the Wii isn't a bad idea, it is just one that is easy to mess up.

[Calis]

Developing on the Wii wasn't a mistake, their direction with doing so was. You can't use the same mindset.

Overall I don't think they've been focusing on it much apart from shitting out games on it. What's their examples of good games on the Wii? (I really don't know) I know Dead Space is mentioned, and Boom Blox is the obvious one. Dead Space is a pretty tough sell on there and not surprising, Boom Blox should have sold more, that was their bad. Good games selling terribly is nothing new on any console though.

Their sports ports were an absolute joke and I don't believe they focused on that at all, or if they did they have a lot more problems than can be solved. Tiger was the one exception this year which I thought was fantastic and actually looked like they tried. Maybe that didn't sell either.

That said I don't really know what caters to the Wii audience that isn't nostalgia at this point. It is an odd system.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Calis

Developing on the Wii wasn't a mistake, their direction with doing so was. You can't use the same mindset.

Overall I don't think they've been focusing on it much apart from shitting out games on it.

Is anyone surprised that was how EA 'focused' on the Wii? Anyone expecting anything other than ports was out of their mind. We knew it was going to be little more than an enhanced version of the PS2 games, hence the reason failure was a given. Doesn't help that the Wii is mostly a 1st party game system.

[MJ4H]

No, not surprising coming from a company that makes terrible decisions and bad games.

[Balldog]

God I hope they drop NCAA and 2K can somehow pick it up.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by Balldog

God I hope they drop NCAA and 2K can somehow pick it up.

+1000

[Kodos]

Of course, 2k's college game was no great shakes back in the day.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Probably making crappy games was a worse decision.

EA can make excuses all day, but it really comes down to this. There is just too much information out there about games and consumers are just too smart. Good games sell, bad ones don't. EA took the path of making bad games and spending their money on marketing. They should have spent their money on making great games and letting the buzz do the marketing for them.

The also chose to spend their money on exclusive licenses because they weren't able to compete with other companies.

They get what they deserve. The market finally caught up to them.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Of course, 2k's college game was no great shakes back in the day.

Yep, the last couple were really no better than what EA is putting out now. On top of that we have no idea what kind of product 2K would be making since I seriously doubt the same development team that made their previous football games is still sitting around. Their sports games also aren't what they used to be. Seems a whole lot like a combination of EA is evil and grass is greener.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Ironic that the year they make the best sports lineup that they have in 5-7 years is the same year that the games they were playing with their finances finally caught up with them and could not be concealed any more. EA will continue to exist, but it's going to be a significantly smaller version of EA.

One of the worst decisions EA made was to focus on the Wii. Huge disaster there.

EA says Wii software performance weaker than anticipated

I think 2005 was a strong year for them. This year's lineup might be better than the last few, but that's like saying your last shit was the best smelling. Outside of NHL, there isn't much. FIFA is fun, but not really soccer. NCAA and Madden are terrible. NBA Live is still way behind 2K, and their college hoops game is laughably bad.

They just don't make good games even during "up' years.

[Big Fo]

(in response to the fiver or so users discussing the performance of EA's Wii games)

EA Wii games released in 2009 that were heavily marketed and got favorable reviews:

Tiger Woods 10
EA Sports Active

EA Wii games released in 2009 that sold well:

Tiger Woods 10
EA Sports Active

The second Boom Blox game not selling well is a shame, I enjoyed that one. As MJ4H said it was kind of sent to die. Many of the (few) people who knew about the Dead Space game were turned off once they found out it was a different genre (rail shooter and not third-person action/shooter). I've never bothered with the EA Sports games on Wii outside of Tiger but from what I've read they're not so good.

[Balldog]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Yep, the last couple were really no better than what EA is putting out now. On top of that we have no idea what kind of product 2K would be making since I seriously doubt the same development team that made their previous football games is still sitting around. Their sports games also aren't what they used to be. Seems a whole lot like a combination of EA is evil and grass is greener.

They only released one, it sucked but if they took All-Pro Football and built off that I have a hard time imagining it would suck as bad as that one. APF does a lot of things so much better than NCAA Football its not even funny.

[bob]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

The second Boom Blox game not selling well is a shame, I enjoyed that one.

I'm not sure how well the first one did, but i assume it did reasonably well enough to ensure they did a sequel - problem was that the sequel came out a year later. I'm not sure if this was the type of game that could support a yearly release. How many people that had the first one also bought the second one (I know i didn't).

[Sun Tzu]

The NFL 2k series was average at best. It's retarded how many people revere that game as the best ever. The bugs in those games squashed any bugs in today's Madden games. The game played different, which was nice, but that didn't make up for all the other crap that came along with it.

What I'd really like to see is SCEA try to put out a Football game. Whether it be NCAA or NFL I don't really care. If they can make it half as immersive as "The Show" then they'll have people swooning.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Sun Tzu

The NFL 2k series was average at best. It's retarded how many people revere that game as the best ever. The bugs in those games squashed any bugs in today's Madden games. The game played different, which was nice, but that didn't make up for all the other crap that came along with it.

What I'd really like to see is SCEA try to put out a Football game. Whether it be NCAA or NFL I don't really care. If they can make it half as immersive as "The Show" then they'll have people swooning.

You'd be in the minority in that opinion. 2K5 might have had a few bugs, but I don't think they reach the bugs we see in today's games. Remember that they were working without the ability to patch. The game had features that EA still hasn't been able to implement 5 years later.

To call it average is ludicruous. Especiallly when the game was sold for $20.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

You'd be in the minority in that opinion. 2K5 might have had a few bugs, but I don't think they reach the bugs we see in today's games. Remember that they were working without the ability to patch. The game had features that EA still hasn't been able to implement 5 years later.

To call it average is ludicruous. Especiallly when the game was sold for $20.

I'd argue that you're in the vocal minority.

I completely agree with Sun Tzu. There's a lot of nostalgia and anti-EA speak involved when talking about 2k sports.

[RainMaker]

Look at the OS boards as well as other sports gaming boards during that time. 2K5 made it much farther in a recent vote of best sports game ever and the reviews at the time widely considered it the best football game ever. NFL 2K5 was "The Show" for football.

There is nostalgia but that rings true with any great game. I don't see anti-EA speak, but anti-crappy game speak.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Look at the OS boards as well as other sports gaming boards during that time. 2K5 made it much farther in a recent vote of best sports game ever and the reviews at the time widely considered it the best football game ever. NFL 2K5 was "The Show" for football.

There is nostalgia but that rings true with any great game. I don't see anti-EA speak, but anti-crappy game speak.

Reread the thread. There's anti-EA talk all through it.

You yourself give passing credit to NHL, whichis considered one of the best sports game ever made. Fifa you dismiss as not being soccer. You claim NCAA and Madden suck and while they have their flaws, both are pretty solid games. Even NBA live, by most accounts, closed the gap between it and NBA 2K10 this year.

If you want to talk about crap, lets look at MLB 2k anything. Their NHL game is inferior to EA's and their NBA game really didn't improve this year.

Yet somehow people think 2K sports is this incredible game developing studio that is guaranteed to make a game that blows madden away if they just got the chance.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Reread the thread. There's anti-EA talk all through it.

You yourself give passing credit to NHL, whichis considered one of the best sports game ever made. Fifa you dismiss as not being soccer. You claim NCAA and Madden suck and while they have their flaws, both are pretty solid games. Even NBA live, by most accounts, closed the gap between it and NBA 2K10 this year.

If you want to talk about crap, lets look at MLB 2k anything. Their NHL game is inferior to EA's and their NBA game really didn't improve this year.

Yet somehow people think 2K sports is this incredible game developing studio that is guaranteed to make a game that blows madden away if they just got the chance.

The thread was about why EA is not having success. I don't know why you'd expect a thread about the failure of a company to be positive. If this thread was about 2K's failures in business, we could definitely bring up their atrocious baseball game or how they have fallen way behind in hockey.

I didn't give passing credit to NHL. It's a great gameI didn't dismiss FIFA either. It's a great game and a ton of fun. Just saying that it's not exactly a soccer sim. To call Madden and NCAA solid games is laughable. They sold more games 5 years ago when they had competition. That should tell you how far that series has fallen. Compare that game to what NHL is to hockey or The Show is to baseball. And while they have made strides in basketball, they are still well behind 2K (especially after this last patch). College Hoops 2K was also considered one of the best sports games out there until they lost the license. EA's version of college basketball is really bad.

The thread was about why EA has been doing so poorly. I said that outside of a couple games, their quality of games is shit. That's not anti-EA, it's just reality.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Reread the thread. There's anti-EA talk all through it.

You yourself give passing credit to NHL, whichis considered one of the best sports game ever made. Fifa you dismiss as not being soccer. You claim NCAA and Madden suck and while they have their flaws, both are pretty solid games. Even NBA live, by most accounts, closed the gap between it and NBA 2K10 this year.

If you want to talk about crap, lets look at MLB 2k anything. Their NHL game is inferior to EA's and their NBA game really didn't improve this year.

Yet somehow people think 2K sports is this incredible game developing studio that is guaranteed to make a game that blows madden away if they just got the chance.

I agree with most of your points, but you are crazy if you think NBA 2k10 isn't a significant improvement over 09. I haven't played Live so I can't compare them, but 2k10 is a much better game than 2k9.

[Warhammer]

I have been shocked that EA has not pushed Bash Party. That game rocks. My 5 year old got it for his birthday, and he didn't want to touch any of his other gifts for nearly a week. A week or so after his birthday, he came up to me and said, "I love you daddy for getting me Boom Blox 2. It's the best!" For a 5 year old to remember something like that means it has made an impact.