Weak Madden Sales Signaling Trouble for Game Industry

[PantherBeast_OS]

Honestly the economy has alot to do with game sales been down. But truthfully EA needs to do some more things to improve gameplay. The D really needs to be redone and the D Playbooks need to be overhauled. The Pass rush protection needs to be tuned some. The run blocking is good now. But the main thing Ian and company really need to focus on more then anything is franchise mode offline and online together and make it much better then it was back in the ps2 days. Franchise mode is the main thing people are asking for them to work on this coming year aside from tuning other things like the oline and D. But if Ian and company can give us a franchise mode next year that would blow our minds away. Then I think they would see sales increase big time.

[Bull_Dozer]

Not surprising. I didn't buy madden 11, and I won't buy another madden until franchise mode is completely redone.

[ghettoqball]

Did anybody not see this coming? Maybe EA will get it going next year and give us a quality product.

[rawcorp]

EA wants to get these casual gamers, while alienating all the hardcore gamers who count for most of their repeat sales every year.

[Vikes1]

I think it was last year that some "Expert" claimed that possibly the reason for Madden's fairly disappointing early sales were do to "Buyers fatigue". At the time...and maybe now too, it maybe makes sense.

Just kinda winging it here but...maybe for many gamers, Madden has become just good old Madden. Maybe that's where the buyers fatigue comes in. Could be that many gamers are just now looking for something different...and well, new to them.

Again just throwing stuff out there... You still see many Madden gamers still hoping that the game can return to it's former glory. Six years into the current consoles. To my knowledge, I know of no other current PS3/360 game that people are hoping for that. Seem kinda telling that when six years later, many are still looking backward? While other games, including sports games from EA, are being applauded for their current gen efforts, by moving forward...not backward. Seems to me anyway, the reason for possibly stagnant Madden sales could be found in that somewhere.

[raz77]

I don't see it as trouble for the industry. Your Red dead redemptions, your just cause 2s, your uncharted 2s, in other words your games that are actually good will continue to sell well.

[OpusX910]

I dont think the economy has anything at all to do with this.....$60 is not much at all, especially if you only buy a game or two a year. This has to do with the game being very stale and buyers getting sick of it. I decided to buy Madden this year and put it on eBay the same day I bought it. First time i've bought Madden in like 5 years and its almost identical to the last Madden I bought, how does a game not progress at all in that time span?

If any sports franchise wants to do well, all they have to do is look at what NHL or MLB Show has done. MLB's gameplay is so good that I dont even know how they make a better game every year, but they do. Madden just seems to....well, not care.

I actually am hoping that M12 sucks too so maybe EA decides not to renew their license agreement ( i think it expires in 2012 ) and 2K can begin making a quality pro football series again.

[Bash]

Good, I didn't buy this years game because they still haven't ****ing updated the half assed online franchise. Until they do I'm not buying madden.