Weak Madden Sales Signaling Trouble for Game Industry

[tabulaRasa]

No competetion is a sure way to staleness.

[Feldman_oten]

This game is not as good game. Sorry. I dk why OP gave it a 9. NCAA dominates this in every way.

[Feldman_oten]

Also to the guy that mentioned Amazon and Walmart gave an incentive, that's not a good thing. Best buy gave an incentive too for a discounted game. They knew going in based on the sales the past two years they needed incentives to actually help sell it. I'm not gonna lie, i picked it up, and i've never completely felt ashamed of picking up a madden game, but i did once i entered franchise, and that i can never get an online franchise going b/c people don't play or pay attention.

[erickonasis]

Quote: Originally Posted by Feldman_oten

This game is not as good game. Sorry. I dk why OP gave it a 9. NCAA dominates this in every way.

Couldnt have said it better

[rooney8]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Madden started off sluggish last year and with the start of football and the holiday season it picked itself back up and made a small gain over Madden 9 by the time everything was accounted for. Continue to celebrate less sales if you want to. Business doesn't work that way if one year doesn't sell well, try to do something else the next year. It's all about budgets and the bottom line. Less sales and revenue this year, less budget next year for franchise mode and everything else that needs improving.

If a game sells badly and you cut investment you are pretty much giving up on that game. Not going to happen with Madden. My only fear is if it sells well it might reinforce the target the casual approach. If sales are bad they might decide the same as previous years that the game needs to be simplified further. Bad sales don't mean a better game but I think are more likely then good sales. Fifa and Nhl only turned there acts around after bad sales.
I think we all agree Madden11 is an arcade game targeted at casual players. Casuals don't line up at midnight for a game and very few buy it in the first couple of days so yes I would expect sales to rebound somewhat captain buzzkill.

[Dazraz]

I think these results further lean towards a future where sports games will be developed on a 2 year cycle.
The number of staff involved in developing a game seems to grow with so many specialized areas focusing on individual aspects of the game. Despite this the upgrades seem less each year compared to earlier gen systems.

I personally like Madden 11 but that said having such important features such as the Franchise mode completely left untouched is unforgivable. EA have made improvements largely in areas that do not require massive funding. The most obvious being the development of Ask Madden into gameflow. Even the much hyped NHL 11, outside of it's gameplay refinements, looks very similar to NHL 10. The menu system, Stanley Cup celebrations & commentary are all from last year.

Probably the biggest single factor of increased development costs over previous gen systems is the amount of money spent on providing online functionality within a title. No matter how good a game may be, unless it works flawlessly online, it won't get good ratings.

I also think we as gamers have a degree of responsibility. Nowadays there are so many blogs & forums whereby the gaming community can air their views of a game & as so often is the case it's the negative aspects that get talked about the most. This can often put off fringe buyers from shelling out the money for a new release. I think these communities can help developers in that they give them a live feedback of what people do & don't like about their titles but in addition they lay a weight of expectation on a game that is almost impossible to fulfil.

In fact so many ideas & theories are discussed in the lead up to a titles release that the game will never live up to the hype it has amassed. This goes some way to explaining why there is such a discrepancy between the ratings from the industry to the user on Madden 11.

An example of a game that was received with great acclaim on the back of lower expectations was the first version of UFC. However when it came to the sequel there was a feeling of disappointment because the expectations had become much higher.

If the current sales trend is repeated in other key titles, big guns like EA will likely make the decision to take longer to develop a title which in turn can have a number of significant improvements over it's predecessor.

I personally hope that games like Madden do continue to be released annually but in doing so I am realistic that 1 year to the next I am not going to see too many changes to a game.

One thing is for sure developers will not be willing to throw more money at game development at a time when no matter how good the game is sales levels may not improve to a justifiable level.

[rsherryjr]

Quote: Originally Posted by PRAY IV M3RCY

i laugh everytime i see a Madden commercial on tv. "NOW PLAY GAMES IN HALF THE TIME" seriously is this a joke, the biggest feature you have for me is being able to play my games in half the time? look the e3 showing was lame, the trailer was lame, gameflow looked lame(as a main feature). the lamest thing of all is having these reviewers rate the game so high.

This is funny! Especially when the average online game takes 10 minutes LONGER than it did last year. Besides, why would you want a great game to play in half the time?

I bought it, I admit it. I bought it for the online franchise because I was in leagues last year with friends and I will be again this year. But once MLB The Show's franchise gets better I will not be buying this game. MLB's franchise mode and gameplay was GREAT with the exception of not being able to do multiple seasons. Once that happens I will switch to playing that with friends all year around.

Also, the casual gamer doesnt buy a game annually. EA is figuring this out. It will take a little time.....but I remember well a time period before Madden, when everyone loved football just as much - but didn't buy football video games because they were so bad. We are entering that time period again, imo.

Finally, I dont see any sales figures that support Madden's bad sales reflecting the industry's problems. I saw several articles in the past that suggest a bad economy actually means good video games sales since people are working less and have more time to play.

[videlsports]

comp forced ea to raise the bar,, they thought that the exclusive agreement would solidfy and eliminate the comp from making games.. wrong 2k has survived, a sc ruling might force the nfl from renewing the agreement, they cancelled the college basketball series, and is it a surprise that ncaa is really good because the ncaa contract ends this year? NHL and Fight night was there best games. EA better hope the MMA sells.... I'll wait until competion comes back after 2013 for the NFL and 2011 for college football.