Madden Sales Down 18% Y-o-Y in October

[Rashad19]

Quote: Originally Posted by Legend Killer

I think one of the down falls of the Marketing Department is they seem to make the madden team add stuff into the game they think fans would love to have. But they failed at that. Another example of how the Marketing has failed EA in the last few years on madden is Josh Looman. When they brought Josh Looman in the Madden Department. Josh main focus was at first was going to be the franchise mode. But that quickly failed when they changed Josh job from working completely on franchise mode to working on this MUT stuff. I understand some people enjoy MUT and all. But that is not what Josh was brought in for. Josh was one of the leading guys who worked on HC 09 and made it's franchise mode on HC 09 a big success. That is why he was brought in. To work on Madden franchise mode. But yet the Marketing Department change that around quickly and made him work on something like MUT that is completely worthless in my eyes. I felt we as fans was lied to by EA on the reason Josh was brought into madden in the first place. His job was to work on Franchise mode and to make it much better. Now 2 years later and franchise mode is still the same. I really hope that madden crew does something big franchise mode this year. Atleast that would be a good step in the right direction for the madden serias for 2011 coming up.

I have wondered about this same thing myself. I thought Josh's primary focus of joining the team was too revamp the franchise mode similar that of Head Coach. How he ended up in charge of MUT is beyond me. Classic case of management not utilizing talent properly. I have no idea what this team's vision is right now.

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by dcsoldier

i doubt that casual fans make up majority of madden fanbase.......casual fans don't comeback every year to buy the same game over and over again. 2k proved this with this year's game......go after the core of the fanbase and not the outer layers of fans that don't commit to buying the title each year. the truth is that only a hardcore fan will comeback and buy a sports title each time it comes out.

Agreed. By definition, a casual fan is not that serious about the game. But I think casual has come to equal arcade, pick-up-and-play-type gamer.

[shavane]

The sales are down because even though it is much improved its still basically the same game as the last 5-7 years. There hasn't really been any groundbreaking changes to the graphics, gameplay, momentum, or anything so its basically a roster update every year. They need to use a new true next gen engine that showcases true speed, weight, and momentum. I give a game like backbreaker credit because even though their game was downright horrible the interactions on the field are alot closer to where next gen gaming should be.

If NBA2k11 is any indication of the direction sports games should go imagine what 2k11 would look like today. Madden needs to stop being so complacent and move outside its comfort zone. I play Madden everyday but I'm always feeling that the game could be so much better by now. I truly hope that the NFL liscense is open to all developers in 2013 so that we have more options to choose from and at the same time push everyone to make better football games.

[rooney8]

Quote: Originally Posted by MMSChris

After analyzing the data and receiving word from a few trusted analysts this is definitely a Monthly drop from last October of 18%. This means after Madden sales started out on a rush, they have plummeted as the product has stayed on store shelves. The real test will be the Christmas shopping season. Roughly 30% of Madden's sales come from Christmas-time sales. If sales are still down substantially in November and then December, things could get ugly for EA. As it is right now though, this is a sharp drop worth watching. Edited the original article to reflect these clarifications.

These figures are mostly affected by Madden10's strange sales. Sales this year were up August and September but that's against some very bad Madden10 sales. Now it's being compared to Madden10 sales that were unusually strong for the Christmas months.
Whether it finishes slightly up or slightly down they are terrible sales. Without Elite NBA 2K11 sold 1.15 million units in October, 60 percent more than last October's combined sales for NBA 2K10 and NBA Live 10." So they took Elites sales and increased their own also. This is what Madden probably had in mind when they signed the exclusive deal. In 2004 over 9m copies of Madden05 and Nfl25k were sold on just Ps2 and Xbox. Then EA made a huge investment to get the exclusive deal but instead of increased sales they have actually decreased which is an incrediblle feat. I guarentee EA would have been projecting 13m+ sales of Madden in 2010 back when they signed the exclusive deal.
As for people hoping they will now start listening to fans on places such as OS I don't think so. I have heard them say that hardcore gamers make up around 10% of gamers and we are just more vocal than any other group. Unless that view changes they will continue to cater to what they think is the bigger market. Here's what EA CEO said about Medal of Honor getting a fairly average Metacritic score:

Quote: Originally Posted by John Riccitiello

"First off, the game is rated mid-70s, almost 20 ratings rated 90 or above," Riccitiello said. "So as an observation, mid-70s is generally perceived to be pretty good. I think, ultimately, what happened there and pretty much as we'd expected, the game appeals really well to a mass market, your average gamer." "There is a small minority of folks, sometimes well represented by core gamer reviewers or game magazine reviewers, where best I can tell there's been 80 or 90 hours a week playing first-person shooters," he continued. "They are very core to that segment, and some of them didn't like the title. I don't know who spends 80 or 90 hours a week playing a first-person shooter, but if they do, they probably have very very very specific tastes.

Medal of Honor has a metacritc score of 75 and sold just over 1m in October. Call of Duty Black Ops has a metacritic score of 88 and sold around 5.6m copies in North America and the United Kingdom on release day.
If EA don't realise the masses, hardcore gamers and critics all want close to the same thing they will continue to get steam rolled by companies who do.

[dcsoldier]

a lot of it is word of mouth......if i tell you that a movie sucks don't go see it, you will at least have that thought in the back of your head and even possibly not go see the movie...difference is though that a movie is 10 bucks to go see and a game is 65. that being said, people sometimes go on sites such as this one and read the reviews prior to making a game purchase. 2k11came out the gates like a beast and everyone said its one of the best sports games ever. having reviews like that will not make you think twice about going to your local best buy or gamestop and making the purchase. on the other hand, i think madden had a review of 5.5/10 which is laughable......so folks decided to not buy and maybe buy when the game drops in price.

[grunt]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nunyerbiz

I don't think it's reasonable to compare NBA2K11 selling well and Madden not selling well and draw any conclusions about "sim vs casual". I just don't see the connection. NBA is seeing a large sales increase because they made a major leap in the gameplay. They improved the foundation, but they didn't completely change directions. It wasn't like NBA was an arcade game and they suddenly went "hardcore sim" and the money started falling from the sky. NHL 11 is, by most accounts, the most realistic / sim friendly title to date yet the sales are dissapointing. The 2K folks made major improvements in what used to be a complete joke of a basketball AI system and added some good marketing touches (Jordan)... that's basically it. The game had a weakness, a weakness that effected anybody who played it, and they vastly improved it. The improved AI benefitted everybody. I'm a casual hoops gamer, and I got bored pretty quickly with being able to shoot 70% and drive to the hoop with my eyes closed regardless of difficulty settings when I played NBA2K9/10. They just were not great games. When the 2K11 reviews hit and word of mouth spread that they took the 3 or 4 star games from 2K9/2K10 and pushed them closer to 5 star territory, sales followed. Madden hasn't had any such "major leap" since who-knows-when... the PS2 days? Madden is behind the 8-ball with the foundation, but that has nothing to do with catering to a certain fanbase or needing to change the direction of the franchise. You make a sports game with that solid foundation and it's not terribly difficult to give gamers an experience that varies from casual to sim just based on sliders. If you are constantly recycling the same lackluster foundation for three straight years then both casual and hardcore gamers are going to take notice and spend their dollars elsewhere.

The last major leap for Madden was between the transition between PS1 and PS2. I remember Madden series was one of the main reason I purchased a PS2. I would go in bestbuy a play a couple of games and it was an definite jump from the PS1. I was a hardcore dreamcast/NFL2k head but Madden did step their game up.

Now 10 years later we think of Madden 04, 05 as being great games.

[tribefanisu2003]

I agree with those who are praising NBA 2K11. You can tell in that product just how much effort and focus went into the details of that game, and because of all that, it has quickly become my second favorite sports title ever, behind only MLB 09: The Show (I haven't played '10, so I don't know if it's better than '09 drastically or not). While playing it, there have been so many more instances of me saying "woah, that's a very nice touch" than me saying "wait, why did that guy move so awkwardly".

2K11 and the Show series are just so much more complete games than Madden has been in years. Not to say Madden is an awful game - it's not. It's just not anywhere close to up to par when compared with these other games. I'm really not into the NBA at all anymore, but I just love 2K11. That's being said even though I've only played 4 games of association: the rest of the time has been spent in the Jordan Challenge and the early stages of My Player. Association / Franchise is always my favorite mode in a sports game, so I really can't wait to dive into that. Point is, even with having hardly touched that mode, there's no question in my mind that it's been the best $60 I've spent on a sports title in quite some time.

I agree with those that are hoping EA interprets this correctly (losing their core audience), but have little faith that will be the case. They haven't exactly had a shining record of management lately.

[JayD]

If you import the same exact crappy franchise mode from the previous year with little to no changes it will hurt the lasting appeal of Madden which in return will hurt sales down the line. Crate a deep franchise mode and maybe you'll have consumers buying the game after a few months of it's release and the consumers who already had the game would hold on to it longer rather than trading it in for a different game.