Madden Sales Down Significantly This Year

[JaymeeAwesome]

Quote: Originally Posted by 24

I really think a Non Exclusive License will happen within the next 5 years. The NFL at the end of the day is all about making a profit. If this trend continues for Madden I think they will open it up for other companies to take a shot. I would love to see a Football game attempted by SECA. They've done wonders with baseball and their basketball series wasn't terrible. Would also enjoy seeing 2K enter the fold again. The more competition the better IMO. Madden would definitely step up their game if there were more people in the market. At the end of the day we want a great football game. One that does mostly everything right. I believe Madden could take that step if they really wanted to. They have all the resources available to them, they just need to execute properly.

The NFL only believes in exclusive deals. If not EA, it will be someone else. You have more control of your image with exclusivities, and that is the most important thing for the NFL. As long as EA can afford the exclusive deal, we will only see Madden.

[DLaren]

Count me among the many thousands who are sitting on the sidelines until next-gen Madden debuts.

I told myself I was "Done!" with this generation of football, but I buckled under the summer heat of the gridiron and bought NCAA'14 to scratch my football itch.

Turns-out NCAA'14 is a pretty good game of football; so unless I see something amazing in the next month I'll be canceling my pre-order for Madden & the PS4 (yelp, I pre-ordered a whole system for -one- game...come get me, America).

[DarkFudge]

The sad reality is ...everyone who is holding out for a the 'next gen' Madden football will most likely be unpleasantly surprised when their expectations of a richer, more dynamic, smarter playing, deeper thinking football simulation with a much more detailed physics engine is just the same game with only higher resolution textures and more close up cut screens.

Its just alot easier for EA to create the visual separation without really diving under the hood and harnessing the extra power to build a smarter, more realistic game play engine

we'll see...right?

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by RandyBass

All I know is a lot of money is going to be headed TTWO's way very shortly, and I mean a lot, as much as we've ever seen in the history of gaming. The NFL is likely aware of this, and are probably licking their chops. What it all leads to remains to be seen, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see the landscape change in the next few years.

TT has absolutely no interest nor are they in remotely in a position to make a new football game. Even if they were, at this point we wouldn't see it until 2015 at the earliest.

Quote: Originally Posted by DBMcGee3

Wow, seeing this headline makes me smile. Hopefully sales will decline enough for the NFL to reconsider giving EA an exclusive licensing deal. Death to monopolies!

Exclusive licensing is a staple of the NFL's business strategy. Unfortuntately it's not going anywhere. There is no monopoly here.

Quote: Originally Posted by Afrikan

and of course Mestevo tags along..lol. look, with BackBreaker there were little things that most didn't even notice that made it realistic (especially compared to Madden), from having to focus on a receiver if you wanted to be more accurate...to also having to focus as a receiver, to be able to hold on to a ball if you were collided with. It wasn't easy pulling these moves off, and it shouldn't be. looking the coverage away as a QB, or just going through your progressions. for their very first football game, let alone their very first videogame...imo they did a pretty damn good job....especially compared to a football series that is in its 25th edition. the main things that stood out about BackBreaker that weren't not realistic, stamina and no left handed QBs. and before some think I'm just hating on Madden or whatever, I actually like what they have done since Madden 12 (but my expectations were pretty low to start with)...sure there are things that still frustrate me about the game, but I'm having fun playing online like 4-5 times a night... (with most people quitting by halftime..lol)

I know you were big on that game, but there was nothing realistic about it. It was built for one purpose, to sell their tech. Making a realistic football game was not the focus or a goal. Awful, awful game. I am lukewarm on Madden 25, but to try to compare Backbreaker even to Madden is laughable, imo.

[RandyBass]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

TT has absolutely no interest nor are they in remotely in a position to make a new football game. Even if they were, at this point we wouldn't see it until 2015 at the earliest.

Absolutely no interest? Why wouldn't they have interest in getting one of the biggest sports licensing deals out there? Not sure where you pulled that one from. They've shown interest in the past, and I highly doubt that interest has wavered in any way. Last time I checked the NFL was still going strong.

And let's see, 2015... 2015... Hey, waddya know! That's a few years from now, just like I said!

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by Afrikan

but I guess I was just one of the few that didn't mind having more than one football game out...you know.. I would still be able to enjoy the fun aspects of Madden and still enjoy the sim (imo) aspects of BackBreaker. But it just seemed like others just felt like you can only like one series... Madden or nothing, and disregard that BackBreaker was a new and different football game....not giving the benefit of the doubt being their very first game ever.

The bolded parts are absolutely ridiculous. Did you really try to make that argument? Really?

People would have jumped on Backbreaker in no time, if it wasn't a terrible game and a terrible representation of football, that actually got worse post patch, and then was abandoned by the developer.

I know people have issues with EA, and they are clearly deserved, but the lengths people will go to, the things they will say is baffling

I mean really? It has nothing to do with only liking one series, if BB had made a game that was worth the DVD it was written on it might still be in production. Unfortunately it was created with being nothing more than a sales tool in mind.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by RandyBass

Absolutely no interest? Why wouldn't they have interest in getting one of the biggest sports licensing deals out there? Not sure where you pulled that one from. They've shown interest in the past, and I highly doubt that interest has wavered in any way. Last time I checked the NFL was still going strong. And let's see, 2015... 2015... Hey, waddya know! That's a few years from now, just like I said!

TT/2k has no interest, and not really the capability. It's that simple. If you want to believe in fairy tales, that's fine, but it's not happening. Or at least it's not even close to being on the radar.

[SamoanSteelerFromAus]

I played madden 25 on ps3 and i thought it was really unimpressive so these numbers don't surprise me.
There is still that bug in there where your coach automatically challenges calls and you always lose a timeout cause it never gets overturned. How can something like that pass testing? It happened to me in 12 and 13.
Everything else is pretty below average but im someone who values gameplay over anything, i couldnt care less about how much i wanna charge for a hamburger...

NCAA is a better game.