Weak Madden Sales Signaling Trouble for Game Industry

[mrforensics]

I totally agree and before the game comes out you hear from them, then once the game is release their no where to be found. Every year they take things from the game and add stuff that shouldn't be added. It will be Madden 2015 and still can't get it right

Quote: Originally Posted by wsu_gb23

I just never seem to get a good, positive vibe out of the EA producers (Ian, Phil, etc.) they always seem to be down and never that high on the game before it comes out. I wish they would just swallow their pride and start over. This was done with Triple Play baseball, and it turned into MVP baseball with tons of success.

[mrprice33]

Quote: Originally Posted by 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.

That's a wonderful post. Personally I think if they really blew out franchise, online franchise, and presentation they'd do much better (sales wise) next year. It's unfortunate because with sliders this is one of the best on the field football games I've played, and will be even better once they patch up a couple of things, but it is very disappointing to see how little was done to franchise.

I've been kind of saying since ncaa came out that these games are on 2 year development cycles, just unofficially so. It will most likely take them 2 years to implement any feature now, as the dev cost (in time and money) is far too great.

For example, let's say ea brought back the radio show from 2005. They'd be maligned for it, because this is now the hd video era, and video should be the focus of the franchise presentation. How long would it take to do enough fmv to last 30 years worth of franchise presentation? That would take forever.

I'm of the opinion that the excitement will come back when ea can manage to replicate the experience of following a season on tv on madden.

Time will tell if sales are actually down, but they've got to show us something next year. I was fortunate to have $50 in credit at Amazon which meant I got the game for 10 bucks, and I don't know if I would have bought it otherwise (and a lot of people on here would call me a hardcore ea apologist). If next year brings us the same franchise without a tremendous leap forward in gameplay (like a true physics engine), I'm probably taking next year off.




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[PhillyJim76]

Madden will always do well, because it is Madden. That is the problem. I am as guilty as anyone, although my copy was purchased for me as a birthday gift, but look how many people buy Madden out of habit. That's the problem, and we are all culpable!

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by rooney8

Sorry if it didn't come across as such but was just a joke at how most are celebrating Madden selling badly and you correctly pointing out how M10 recovered after a slow start. I agree bad sales doesn't mean more investment but definately neither do good sales. Going by Fifa and Nhl low sales are often the kick in the pants needed. However Madden is a different kettle of fish as they already made their biggest investment with the exclusive license. I don't know bad sales will lead to a more sim game but I just think it is more likely to lead to a change with the license, Ea's approach, just something.

You might try using the winking smiley or the laughing smiley next time instead of the grumpy smiley. Hard to tell the way people feel on a messageboard. (just a suggestion)

Tibouran tried a different approach this year and the jury is still out on how that will all shake out. On OS, we know most of the folks didn't purchase or don't appreciate 11, but worldwide, we don't know what the take is, yet. You can take a look at recent history and ask if declining/bad sales have lead to more sim games for Madden. However, there was a post recently by Adembroski that went through the history of Madden 06-09, and then since Ian and Phil took over. It really made me think and put a different perspective on where the series is going. Unfortunately, it's not going quickly enough for a lot of people.

I want an authenticated NFL game as much as the next person does.

[LucianoJJ]

This bad news could lead to a number of things happening.

1) EA may decide to dump Madden, and reinvent the NFL game they way they are looking to with NBA Elite succeeding NBA Live. We might finally get a real Next Gen game, but I don't like throwing Madden under the bus. (Sorry) EA can always say, Madden's retired, he's old, but this is going to burn long time fans.

2) New releases might finally drop in price to $49.99. Great.

3) EA will probably get rid of Riccitello, their head honcho, or Peter Moore, the figurehead at EA Sports.

4) This I hope won't happen but, what if EA decides to dump NCAA Football and use all the best talent from that team to rework Madden/NFL Football? If they can justify killing off NCAA Basketball and NASCAR, NCAA Football could be sacrificed.

In the end, it's the economy, stupid, as Bill Clinton said. A weak economy is painful, but it also exposes the people who do business poorly. Eventually next gen is going to fizzle out, never having lived up to the hype, and we'll either have better games on mobile devices, or we will find something else to do with our time and money.

[Exonerated]

Quote: Originally Posted by PhillyJim76

Madden will always do well, because it is Madden. That is the problem. I am as guilty as anyone, although my copy was purchased for me as a birthday gift, but look how many people buy Madden out of habit. That's the problem, and we are all culpable!

The problem is with the game, not the consumers.

I'd rather have fun with Madden and hope for a better game, than sacrifice my own enjoyment to make an unheard stand.

[Lerxt]

Quote: Originally Posted by Exonerated

The problem is with the game, not the consumers. I'd rather have fun with Madden and hope for a better game, than sacrifice my own enjoyment to make an unheard stand.

Aren't poor sales figures being heard? Granted, Madden may sell as well in the long run, but the initial numbers are down. I bet you EA well aware of the sales figures.

[rooney8]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

You might try using the winking smiley or the laughing smiley next time instead of the grumpy smiley. Hard to tell the way people feel on a messageboard. (just a suggestion)

Yeah my mistake.

Quote: Originally Posted by marktg30

It has a little to do with it. Gaming has weathered the recession better than ANYTHING else... Besides maybe pron and cigarettes.

Madden 05 sales on Ps2 and Xbox = 6m
Fifa 05 sale on Ps2 and Xbox = 4.5m

Madden 10 sales on Ps3 and 360 = 4.5m
Fifa 10 sales on Ps3 and 360 =6m

The economy has affected everything but people are still willing to pay for quality. $60 is still pretty cheap if you get 100+hours from the game and Madden just doesn't offer that. Not to me at least.