Madden NFL 13 Continues Historic Start

[mestevo]

MADDEN NFL 13 CONTINUES HISTORIC START; RECORD SELL-THROUGH
AND FAN ENGAGEMENT HIGHLIGHT WEEK ONE

Sell-Through Up 8% in First Seven Days for New Record on HD Console Generation

Madden NFL 13 Games Played and DAU at Their Highest Rates Ever Recorded

Electronic Arts Inc., (NASDAQ: EA) announced today that Madden NFL 13 continues its record-setting launch performance with new records for both sales and fan engagement through its first seven days at retail (Aug. 28-Sept. 3). Based on internal estimates, sell-through for Madden NFL 13 was up 8 percent year-over-year on HD platforms with more than 1.65M units sold in Week One to mark its best start ever on this console generation. Last week, EA announced that Madden NFL 13 had set a new Day One record on HD consoles as well.

Fans also continued to play Madden NFL 13 in record numbers. In the first week following retail launch, there was a 31 percent increase in the number of online games played year over year with more than 24M contests recorded. That’s the equivalent of a staggering 47,000 NFL regular seasons in just seven days, and, on Labor Day alone, an average of 3,000 Madden NFL 13 games were started every minute.

In addition, Daily Average User (DAU) rates on HD consoles have increased 14 percent over last year, shattering previous franchise records.

“We’re thrilled to see the great momentum continuing on Madden NFL 13,” said Andrew Wilson, Executive Vice President of EA SPORTS. “The overwhelming feedback is that this is the best Madden NFL game in a generation. Fans are competing in record numbers, and we expect that type of engagement to only grow with the start of the NFL regular season last night, as fans connect with their favorite teams and players through our game.”

“We have seen strong demand for Madden NFL 13 leading up to launch and through its first week on store shelves,” said Bob McKenzie, SVP of Merchandising, GameStop. “Critic reviews are strong and the buzz from the Madden fan base is more robust than I’ve ever seen. We’ve seen this consumer momentum sustain throughout week one and we expect it to continue into the fall and holiday season.”

Among the additional notable accomplishments for Madden NFL 13 in its first week at retail:

• There were more than 1.4M fans who connected online last week.
• There were more than 702K unique visitors to the enhanced Madden Ultimate Team mode. Fans opened more than 2.6M packs and competed in more than 2.2M challenges.
• There were more than 1.3M unique visitors to Madden NFL Facebook page and 450K Madden mentions on Twitter.

[Greencollarbaseball]

Well since they are funneling everybody to online CCM because offline is more broke, I am actually surprised its not higher.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bucky60]

Maybe they should wait until offline CC is actually fixed before trying to use any statistical analysis.

With the online franchise having improved so much this year, they may get legitimate more online activity. But to come out with that statement at this point and time is very disingenuous. It's basically marketing BS.

The real analysis should be done after offline CC is fixed.

[Obnoxious]

I created an online CCM but realized how stupid it was disconnecting against the CPU. Deleted it. I'm sure I'm not the only one but I'm positive they counted me towards the 1.4m anyways.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Obnoxious

I created an online CCM but realized how stupid it was disconnecting against the CPU. Deleted it. I'm sure I'm not the only one but I'm positive they counted me towards the 1.4m anyways.

Waiting for my disconnect.

Left the house for 45 minutes, came back and picked up where I left off.

A save feature would be nice.

[mestevo]

I had problems during a single play session while EA's servers were clearly having trouble on launch week, and is why i have my offline CCM w/ the Browns (1-4 as their QB, so painful) to go along with my online CCMs.

In a year people will still be complaining about disconnects that happened to them week 1 though I am sure... or complaining about disconnects they only read about.

Did the official Madden twitter ever tell people to play online? That's the only source of information that I'd expect would come close to noticeably influencing people to move online from offline in significant quantities. Looman mentioning it to his 9k followers certainly wouldn't have moved the needle much, nor would discussions here.

[EmmdotFrisk]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Waiting for my disconnect. Left the house for 45 minutes, came back and picked up where I left off. A save feature would be nice.

I would agree. I'm definitely a fan of how the show handled in game saves.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

Looman mentioning it to his 9k followers certainly wouldn't have moved the needle much, nor would discussions here.

How many followers does he actually have? I know I don't follow him. The lead designer says don't play offline and that's not going to have a significant impact? His Xk followers, all the gaming sites, and all the friends of these people and all the friends of friends. Plus all those that give up on offline because it's broken.The numbers would go beyond the tweet followers.

Wait for offline CC to get fixed, then do some statistical analysis. Don't do it when offline is broken.