To EA and Madden Consumers, Madden Is a Success

[bigsmallwood]

Madden has only been a success in the form of sales this gen and even that has slowed down dramatically because consumers have realized they have been playing the same game year after year. Nice article, but EA needs to step up the talent/product to a level that is respectable to all who play the game.

[kjcheezhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rocky

Maybe not Tecmo, but there is still a fairly large contigent of people that play Last Gen Madden/NFL2K5 and I can see why. Last gen Madden's fluidity, animations, feature set, and controls are arguably better than it's newer counterpart. In fact, you can make the argument that last gen is better in every aspect besides graphics and playbooks.

Exactly. I'm one of those people that still plays Madden 09 on ps2. I'm not gonna try and say Tecmo was the deeper game, but last gen madden has deeper franchise, superstar modes, better mingame drills, a play editor, custom playbooks and some small in game enhancements like individual bump and run. Overall, it is a deeper game that current gen and because of that I can't consider the new games a success.

[MAzing87]

St Chaos, I couldn't have said it any better myself. I am very interested to read all of the other posts but dont have the time to do so at the moment, but I really don't understand what real points this article is making.

It's quite clear that gamers love the NFL, love the teams and players. That seems to come first for many. And with EA being the only company to put out NFL games, the strong marketing push which included the NFL players in your commercials going door to door giving out copies of Madden, why wouldn't there be any kind of success? I love the NFL myself but I love the game of football, which means if there is a football videogame that simply works and is close to simulating the actual game of football, whether it's Jamaal Charles in the backfield or Cedric Moolafa (fake name), I'm all for it.

Madden is also successful because many gamers have no choice and simply succumb to buying it, since its a fact that they can't get any other NFL licensed game. Madden isn't perfect but I and many others don't want it to be. I don't want the game revolutionized. I just want the basic fundamentals of the game to be sound, with excellent physics, intelligent yet instinctive ai, and a deep franchise/career mode.

[The GIGGAS]

I really think the winners with the exclusive deal was EA. When the deal happened, there was a legitimate competitor in 2k. The fans of 2k lost out quite obviously, since that game ceased to exist. I feel consumers as a whole also lost, because it's either use an old game in ESPN NFL 2k5 that is not up-to-date, or play the newest Madden, which certainly hasn't been up to critical standards, from critics or from consumers.

I can talk about how disappointing how we haven't had a lot of post NFL games from 2k, but it's understandable from a financial standpoint. Backbreaker has a lot of interesting technical breakthroughs, but there's not much else in the game other than that.

I do think Ian has some good ideas for the game, but I'm a huge proponent of allowing competition. We'll just have to see on this regard.

[carvis.russell]

I love how Mr. Cummings uses a counterclaim with a nice thesis statement but I hate now none of this even matters. I wish he said a good game opposed to a successful game. There is a big difference. Listen to your fans that anticipate the game every year with hopes of you guys not screwing up like the previous years. We all know that this game is not even CLOSE to real football. To be blunt, it just sucks. I don't want to hear any thing about sales. Until I hear the fans saying the game is truly a pleasure to play...I do not want to hear a thing about your little profit gaining and non-people pleasing intentions. You have good ps2 game play by the way but as for Xbox 360 and ps3...it's just bad. You might as well just tranfer NCAA's gameplay over to Madden. It least that game seems "more" realistic.

[JerseySuave4]

the only people that consider Madden a success is EA, because they are the only ones that can make an NFL game so they will always sell because of the Shield and people wanting an NFL game, and casual Madden Tournament type players who like unrealistic gameplay. But the majority of consumers are tired of paying for minor updates and mediocre games.

[tabulaRasa]

Stock holders want increases revenue by each year, I don´t think EA can reach as many new consumers as 2 NFL products would. The drving force in sales to me is the NFL, the real game, people want a taste of it, with one product there isn´t much to choose from. If NFL licensed to more companies, people would by more NFL games, and would also secure the innovation by competetion to get more future sales of NFL products.

[tabulaRasa]

buy not by. Increased not increases