NCAA Football Over The Years

[majesty95]

I saw Pasta Padre post about the decline in sales numbers and a subsequent post on here about it. I thought I would take a look back at NCAAfrom a sales perspective since it transformed from Bill Walsh CollegeFootball to NCAA Football 98. I'll also look at what we most likely can expect going forward.

Here are the global sales numbers for every year since NCAAFootball 98:

98 - 700k
99 - 1.06M
2000 - 950k
2001 - 700k
2002 - 1.57M
2003 - 2.16M
2004 - 2.25M
2005 - 2.53M
06 - 2.81M
07 - 3.32M
08 - 1.92M
09 - 2.10M
10 - 2.48M
11 - 2.06M
12 - 1.69M
13 - 750k (currently)

I think we can all agree that the time period of NCAA 2005-07 wasthe greatest era in the franchise's history. Most people (myselfincluded) believe 06 was the greatest version ever made. That got meto thinking about what has caused the drop off and what will cause arebound?

From 2002 though 07, we saw an increase in sales every year. Then there was a drastic decrease in 08.

Part of the decline was probably because of the economy. We werejust getting into what turned out to be a recession and people wereclearly being more frugal with their hard earned cash. The other partwas likely the debut on next gen.

NCAA 07 debuted on the 360 and, while it received decent to goodreviews, there was a notable drop off from the high level of reviewsthat its predecessor on the PS2/Xbox had been receiving. Those reviewsdeclined all the way through NCAA 09. Finally, NCAA 10 received a slightbump but it was still nowhere near where they had been on last gen.

Since NCAA 10 we have seen a large mixture of reviews (good andbad) but nothing that has returned the series to the form it saw inthe mid-2000's. Not coincidentally, we have also seen a consistentdrop in sales numbers every year since NCAA 10 as well.

So why is that?

I believe the single biggest thing holding back NCAA has been thegame engine. The build that the current game is based off of wasbuilt in 07/08 when the game debuted on next gen. Almost anyprogrammer will tell you that when the 360 and PS3 debuted, they werea nightmare to program for.

That initial build of NCAA Next Gen was crafted by engineers thatstill did not have a good grasp of the next gen systems. The gameengine they built was limited because of their inexperienceprogramming for those systems. So, we got a stripped down version ofthe NCAA we were accustomed to.

While game developers have become more skilled at programming for thetwo systems (360 programming was made infinitely more user friendlythanks to new developer tools), there is still not a complete graspof how to make everything work exactly how they want it to(especially on the PS3). This is being made even worse (I believe) bytrying to make everything work on a game engine that was strippeddown and lacked functionality to begin with (due to the complexity ofprogramming).

So, where do we go from here?

I think the answer is finally, the new Infinity engine that will bedebuting with Madden 13. We are finally getting a new game enginebuilt with the new tools that have come along and by engineers thatnow have 6-7 years of experience with the current generation ofconsoles.

Beginning with Madden 13 (and most likely carrying over to NCAA14), I believe we will finally begin to see the true potential ofboth the systems the game are being played on and the gamesthemselves. Hopefully, that will bring a new wave of features andimprovements and we will finally see the reviews return to the levelsthey were at in the mid-2000's.

EA is hoping they will see a return in the sales numbers as well.

So, with all of the doom and gloom that has been posted, I hope this breathes a slight bit of hope and optimism back into the forums. I have not been terribly excited about the direction the game has taken over the past few years. However, I truly believe the guys at EA and Tiburon are committed to finally getting both of these franchises back on track.

Hopefully, we begin to realize that commitment at the end of this month when Madden 13 debuts.

[dingleberryfinn]

any video game that has a shelf life of one year should be sold at a lesser price than regular video games.

[majesty95]

Quote: Originally Posted by dingleberryfinn

any video game that has a shelf life of one year should be sold at a lesser price than regular video games.

So all sports video games, all Call of Duty games, etc should all have a lower price point? And games like Leisure Suit Larry that had only one iteration and got horrible reviews should be priced higher?

[dingleberryfinn]

Quote: Originally Posted by majesty95

So all sports video games, all Call of Duty games, etc should all have a lower price point? And games like Leisure Suit Larry that had only one iteration and got horrible reviews should be priced higher?

Good point, just sports games. Even if it's only ten dollars less, at least that's somethin'.

[Joobieo]

I know several of my friends wont buy the games year in and year out because they are casual sport gamers and don't really see the point in just buying "updated rosters" as they see it.

[cptnclutch28]

Quote: Originally Posted by dingleberryfinn

Good point, just sports games. Even if it's only ten dollars less, at least that's somethin'.

That makes no sense at all. We all pay our prices we are willing to pay whether getting money off by trading in games and using promotions (amazon and others) to get to a price we are comfortable with paying.

That being said I have to agree with you majestic I believe they are finally starting to make a move forward with this game engine. Only time will tell of course but it seems that this new engine is going to be a good base. My only thing is what's going to happen when we go to the next gen? Are we going to be forced to suffer through 6-8 years of bad game engines before they get something that works properly? Just curious what your thoughts may be on that

[woodsmall12]

My fears are the same as cptclutch ... if we believe that we are on the cusp of discovering what is actually behind the curtain and on our way to greener pastures, then what happens when we go to next gen again? More lackluster efforts and frustration?

Just seems like its taken so long to get here, if we are indeed there ... still love the game but utilize and manage your resources more effectively and according to what the fans want, and you honestly cant go wrong IMO

[Blue]

Quote: Originally Posted by woodsmall12

My fears are the same as cptclutch ... if we believe that we are on the cusp of discovering what is actually behind the curtain and on our way to greener pastures, then what happens when we go to next gen again? More lackluster efforts and frustration? Just seems like its taken so long to get here, if we are indeed there ... still love the game but utilize and manage your resources more effectively and according to what the fans want, and you honestly cant go wrong IMO

Based on rumors lets say Xbox 720 and the PS4 hit stores by Black Friday 2013, NCAA 14, like 06, won't make it to the new systems and Madden 14, like 06, does. Only few developers know how the next gen is, in terms of making the games. In the first post it said developers would agree 360 developing was a huge learning curve, it may not be that way for the forthcoming generation. The new engine could be easily upgraded over a few installments and we could see amazing gaming for years to come. Or not and all long time sports gamers will be wishing NCAA 14, like 06, was on 720, and then we endure another several years of declining review ratings.

Now I was too young to pay attention when 360 was rumored and then released, so I have no knowledge of the rumors and innovations that preceded the release of 360, But so far I have seen some pretty good signs the next generation will be great. Ea adding in game face creation on the web for Madden 13, and what about Black Ops 2 having Live Streaming of games (as soon as I heard this I was thinking of the movie Gamer). Those may not be big deals to you guys but to me these examples are music to my ears, there are more examples but those are the only coming to mind right now.
It's still to early to tell, but I always have high hopes