EA Still Owns the NFL License Exclusively

[bcruise]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blzer

To me, an abusable bug is not the same or worse in severity as an unavoidable one (the bynum thing). A bug like that certainly breaks multiplayer play completely (unless between two friends who agree to not use it), but for single player it's a choice of whether to break the game with it or not. I don't recall there being a choice on Elite's bugs.

[23]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

Was Live 10 the one that introduced the DNA stuff, and the mode where you could play any game on the schedule with the players DNA from that day? I loved that version, then they seemed to abandon all the things that made that version of Live appealing and I simply never went back. I can't imagine a time i the near future where I even think of buying an EA NBA game.

Technically DNA was introduced in Live 2009 but yeah the play any game from that day and try to determine the outcome yourself started with Live 10.. IMO it was much better than NBA Today that 2k has.

Quote: Originally Posted by Big FN Deal

I don't necessarily disagree with this line of thought but the key part you failed to mention is that those NBA game fans had a direct video game alternative. In this exclusive market fans can be disgruntled with EA all they want, it doesn't change the fact that they have no other direct NFL video game choice.

There was Sony's basketball game, 2k, Live, Inside Drive, etc...

EA screwed that series for years on end. Multiple 3 year plans that got cancelled every year, player movement was never right, and the best game they made was Live 10 when Mike Wang came over from 2k, until he left because they handed the control to a hockey guy.

Microsoft abandoned their Inside Drive series after 2004
Sony abandoned their series after 2009 (bad game, bad sales for the time, but people loved their Inside the Life [think my player] mode) and so 2k adapted that starting with the combine as a digital DL with Derrick Rose back in 2k10.

EA made the move to put the hockey guy on when they couldn't get consistent sales, and while Live 10 was their highest rated and best of the series they didn't like the sales numbers.

I saw and played elite before everyone, before the demo and all along with a a couple of other OSers at Venice Beach, and I while I knew people would bash it because they hid so much, I didnt realize it would be that bad.

That was until that demo came out and it was full of bugs (which I never saw in the final version I played but it was still a very bad game)

Since they couldnt appreciate Live 10s sales they were about to lose money in just releasing that Elite and decided to cancel and got rid of the team.


Bottom line though is that again, until people stop buying this game... it'll be a yearly tradition to bash them and complain but keep playing it and doing it all over again.

Im not advocating this, its just a point that I see the passion football fans have and see you guys are screaming for fixes and if not that an alternative, but im saying its probably going to take a radical rejection from the community to make it happen at this rate.

[Valdarez]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

Because it's a fun game. Could be much better with competition but I still enjoy it a lot, especially on the PS4

Fun, much like beauty, is definitely in the eye of the beholder. I personally can only enjoy Madden on single player seasons/franchise, and that's for a limited time, with a strong imagination, and forgoing of the laws of physics. With the movement such as it is, I can't imagine playing online. I'd be surprised if the games online boil down to real football mechanics, and that's just not fun to me.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blzer

Yes now I remember that one. Ughh. That was unexcusable. Bug? Absolutely. Game breaking enough to halt release? Absolutely not.

09 was a terrible game in a long line of terrible Madden releases but it wasn't "broken".

[Valdarez]

Quote: Originally Posted by kjcheezhead

Sales have been flat. Madden 13 was hyped by pointing to 1.6 million in first week sales, but that was actually down from 1.9 for Madden 11. http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Madden_NFL Madden 25 sales were down to 1 million in the first week. 600,000 less than 13. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...ts-first-week/ You can point to declining ps2 sales, the transition to new systems last year, etc. It may have contributed but sales are clearly down. I've also pointed out nba 2k actually outsold madden on the new systems. Having a basketball game outsell a football game on any console is telling in my opinion.

How is the game selling year over year? I put together this chart on Madden sales several years ago. At that time, EASports was claiming sales were down because of the recession.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by 23

IMO it was much better than NBA Today that 2k has. .

It really was. When NBA today first hit, I was expecting it to be much like the Live version. Disappointing implementation of that game mode, in what I believe to be an otherwise outstanding game.

[Valdarez]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

In fact, most game critics think that Madden is actually a good game. Not the best sports game on the market, but good and competent. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a game that is merely good.

I was about to say this is wrong, but you are right CMHooe. I tend to read reviews from GiantBomb and GameSpot who constantly pan the game. However, a quick read of Metacritic shows it gets roughly an 80 overall year after year, which is the review equivalent of a good game. Now, if you look at the user scores they are WAY below that (usually 5 to 6). So there's definitely a disconnect between users and critics.

[Valdarez]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

Based on my limited experience with Madden 2006 which I did not buy on the XBOX 360 - it was a subpar game on account of poor commentary and presentation, 30 frame-per-second refresh rate, lack of depth in game mechanics, blocky-looking players, average gameplay, and lack of depth in gameplay modes, but it was not fundamentally broken and non-functional.

I'm not sure what you mean by refresh rate, but Madden NEVER had a 30 fps rendering rate on any title released last generation (XBox360 / PS3). It's why the game looked so choppy. Last I heard was average rate was 21 fps with an occasional 24 fps burst, depending on the situation.