To EA and Madden Consumers, Madden Is a Success

[Radja]

why the games sales figures are so hard to find is really stupid. what is the big secret of it all for game companies to hide the numbers? i can see hiding low numbers, but if the game sells a ton, tell everyone.

however, simple unit sales do not tell the whole picture. some games move a lot copies when they start marking them down. examples could be one game who sold the majority of their units at $60.00 but the other sold the majority of theirs at $40.00. obviously, one company made more money. they may have sold the same amount of units overall, the price point for the consumer was different.

[Skyboxer]

I wouldn't call a game that I've probably owned a total of 1 month combined with all years this gen, a success. For the most part this gen madden has not had a soul at all. No clear direction of where the game wanted to go.

No excitement yet for the next version
+ No confidence in Madden getting a set direction and going with it
+ A wait and see approach instead of 1st day buy

= no success for this gamer.

I miss my Madden. Hopefully we'll be surprised this year.

I have no idea what the main stream gamers feel about it. Just saying how I feel.

[1WEiRDguy]

fellas, im in no way supporting madden, but if you spend $1 to make something and someone buys it for $2, then you are in the green...so dollars wise, they are winning...im sure the budget for that game hasnt grown since coming to next gen (that is my biased opinion with no facts to support), so they can keep spening a couple of million to develop it while raking in tens of millions...then with the addition of all that crap, i meant "boosts" noobs seem to buy online, they will continue to make more money...

[WakeUp]

Every year you get the same taglines from them about wanting to be the best, yet they contradict themselves every year when they advertise themselves as being the best. I don't listen to their doublespeak. I look at the games they put out there. It makes me laugh how every year people fall for the same thing. Just read the posts of hope from yesterday's blog. The same people, posting the same hope just like they do every year. It's sad like watching a dying kid on his death bed rooting for his favorite team that also happens to be the worst team in the league. When will you people WAKE UP and learn?

I don't care what they've sold. Their numbers have zero to do with what matters to us gamers. There has been NO innovation, and no "evolution", because last I checked evolution means moving forward not backward and I'll be damned if this gen's Madden isn't the posterchild for going backwards. You're fooling yourself if you even attempt to argue that when we can compare so many better football games that came out last generation.

Then they hire total shills with no game making background and that tells you even more how silly this all is. Who do these guys think they're kidding besides their loyal shill audience? This game is going nowhere just as it's gone nowhere all generation. Football gaming is dead. The licenses provided the coffin, then EA's staff of 3rd string QB's provided the nails with garbage performance after garbage performance. All these ******* icons and **** on the screen? It's clownery. At least in real football they bench you or cut you when you suck, but with EA they just promote you, pay you more money, put you out in the communities to gain and maintain the support of the regular shills, build up false hopes, put out a mediocre game, then tell you "wait til next year". You can't believe a word those guys say because it's all soaked in marketing hype, lack of self awareness, and a general delusion about the enormity of abilities that they clearly don't have the talent to live up to.

I'm going to just keep playing the oldies. Old Madden's, Tecmo Super Bowl's. Back then they didn't release trainwrecks and make excuses and over hype it. They did what they said they were going to do and the games were great for their time. The only way to fix Madden is to get rid of Tiburon and show them the directions to the unemployment office, then put them all on a blacklist to ensure none of their staff ever heads a design group again.

[jyoung]

Quote:

To EA, Madden Is a Success

I agree with this.

But I think Madden consumers are getting a raw deal this gen. Madden this generation is not living up to any standard you can think of.

It's worse than the older PS2 Maddens. Worse than 2K5 and 2K8 Football. Worse than EA's other football franchise (NCAA 11). Worse than the other EA sports franchises (NHL 11, FIFA 11). And worse than the industry's best franchises (NBA 2K, MLB The Show).

But of course, sales are the only standard that matter to EA.

EA wins; consumers lose.

[aholbert32]

"I'm gonna play the oldies" always cracks me up. Really? You prefer Tecmo Super Bowl over Madden 11? Really?

I love Tecmo Super Bowl. I love some of the old Madden's but come on. For all the things you complain about Madden, the older games had none of them. Tecmo had 8 plays per team. 8 plays! That game was fun as hell back in the day but today it pales in comparison.

The problem is back in the day we gave games a pass because they were fun. People ignored Tecmo Super Bowl's issues because it was fun. We dont give current games that kind of pass. We expect them to be supersims and get upset when they have flaws.

I have a ton of issues with Madden 11 (Special Teams sucks, Broken Gameplanning, Penalties like offsides and PI still broken) and many of these have been issues for years. The reason I'm able to ignore it is because I'm willing to give it the same pass I gave games like Tecmo in the past.

I dont know how anyone could enjoy Tecmo today but hate Madden unless they were holding them to a different standard.

[khaliib]

Well, the one thing write-ups like this do is stir great discussion and/or debate.

The trap is see pertaining to Madden in many replies is that the debate of quality/progress is kept in the "Sports" genre bubble. It's debated off of other football (wait, there is no other football) or sports titles as to how good it is.

Well if we want to really analyze a game, it has to be compared to all games made for these systems, not just a specific genre. Doing so will really reveal where a game stands.

With that, comparing Madden to other games, you can see that it is far behind were some of these other games are at. Is there a complete game out there, no, but no other developer has Exclusive Rights to a major brand, that shut out the opportunity for others.

When you look at 1st person shooters and see the level of graphic detail that has progressed with these games, why does Madden not come close with all the resources it has?

-Even Racing Sims have raised the level of detail to new levels
-That;s why we bought these consoles. For the graphic details we know these systems can run.

What "WOW" injection has Madden brought to the table since the 360/PS3 came out?
-Many of the features now being included are knock-offs from older games years before.

If it is based off of financial numbers, then one could argue/debate success or failure because those type of dollars are beyond what most of us will ever make in our liftime. So such high figures are always seen as a good thing.

Also, financial numbers for Madden will always be skewed because it is based off of how many bought the product, but does not subtract those dollars back out from those who returned the product..

True success using this method should be based off of those who bought the game and still retains it until the next release.

I'm trying to think of one innovatibe thing that Madden has done that has changed football gaming.
I can't, so it's hard for me to agree with this writer and say it's a success.

[statum71]

Quote: Originally Posted by ManiacMatt1782

Statum, I would like to see real offensive line logic, and reading the holes actually mattering. not let me get lucky in a a certain animation that lets me break a 4 man gang tackle that I have absolutely no control of. I could care less about presentation, until fundamental football is done right.

My man.....

I never said gameplay couldn't use improvement too. I just spoke for myself.

I'm sorry but miss-timed commentary, half empty stadiums in an AFC Title game, no halftime or post game reports, no sideline reporting, no stat banners, repetitve commentary and on and on....

These things kill the experience MORE for myself. Not saying by any means that people bigger on gameplay don't have a beef too. EA is big enough to have resourses to improve in all areas. We shouldn't have to pick one.