Madden NFL 25 News Post

Madden Sales Down Significantly This Year

10:33 AM - September 6, 2013 by RaychelSnr

It appears, on the surface at least, fans are no longer happy with the Madden status quo.

EA Sports reported sales of just over 1 million copies of Madden in its first week on store shelves. While EA was touting the success of Madden NFL 25, those sales numbers are down significantly from last year's number of 1.65 million in the same time span, a nearly 40% drop in sales.

The obvious culprit does seem to be many gamers are holding out for next-gen Madden, which makes a lot of sense. However, with incentive programs to upgrade to the next-gen game around and being touted by EA, it also does seem a large chunk of consumers simply are tired of Madden's current form and waiting for something new.

This puts even more pressure on the next-gen product to deliver a new and unique experience to the series, as fans are likely looking for that with the new game. However, for a year at least, it is likely the next-gen version of Madden will be a huge seller when the new consoles hit store shelves in mid to late November.

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Member Comments

# 21 mestevo @ 09/06/13 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atc43


	Oh lord.... Cant imagine what sales would have looked like without the season ticket offer...

The offer was limited to 100k and became Amazon's biggest ever sports pre-order ever. EA also reported the most revenue from ultimate team in a single day, it's not all doom and gloom. Roughly half my friends are waiting for next gen, a few of us picked up 25 now to tinker w/ an online franchise until then.

There's no realistic sign of this leading to anything really, it would be news if sales were not down.

# 22 Radja @ 09/06/13 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mva5580


	Agreed, pretty humorous to see people actually thinking that this matters. Now if Madden 2015 sales are down significantly on the PS4/Xbox One release, then it's something worth talking about. But this means absolutely nothing. People making something out of nothing, as usual.

you don't have to wait until the next gen to see if this drop is because of next gen or people are sick of.

wait until nba 2k14 and fifa 14 come out. if they are down also, it was next gen. if not, then people are sick of madden.

# 23 Duece @ 09/06/13 01:41 PM

Price drop coming?

# 24 Radja @ 09/06/13 01:47 PM

the thing i keep wondering is:

does the general public want a new console right now?

before you flame this, look up why 3d tv is failing.

# 25 KGkaos @ 09/06/13 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radja


	the thing i keep wondering is: does the general public want a new console right now? before you flame this, look up why 3d tv is failing.

Yes, of course the general public wants a new console. No question. 3D TV is failing because its not a real useful upgrade. It's too gimmicky.

# 26 kjcheezhead @ 09/06/13 01:53 PM

Not surprised. A few reasons for it...

1. The game isn't great. In many ways, particularly the defense, the game went backwards from 13 which itself was a buggy mess introducing IE and CCM.

2. Next gen is coming and people want a different experience after only playing current gen madden for several years now.

3. The exclusive license is still set to end after this year, people wanting it to end have more insentive to skip this year.

4. A lot of reviews have been scoring the game low. Gamespot gave it a six.

Personally, I love the timing. With the exclusive agreement set to expire, EA is settling and paying out $11 million to Robin Antonick and $27 million to gamers from the class action suit. The game already costs them $2 million to John Madden and $50 million to the NFL. Not to mention the Obannon, NCAA situation. Maybe, just maybe there is hope for new NFL video games in the future.

Source and interesting read: http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/05/tech...source=cnn_bin

# 27 ssx95351 @ 09/06/13 02:13 PM

Not surprising at all. Our league didn't switch to Madden 25 and only 3 of the 17 players in our league purchased Madden 25 for xbox 360. We're waiting for Madden 25 on PS4.

# 28 roadman @ 09/06/13 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjcheezhead


	Not surprised. A few reasons for it... 1. The game isn't great. In many ways, particularly the defense, the game went backwards from 13 which itself was a buggy mess introducing IE and CCM. 2. Next gen is coming and people want a different experience after only playing current gen madden for several years now. 3. The exclusive license is still set to end after this year, people wanting it to end have more insentive to skip this year. 4. A lot of reviews have been scoring the game low. Gamespot gave it a six. Personally, I love the timing. With the exclusive agreement set to expire, EA is settling and paying out $11 million to Robin Antonick and $27 million to gamers from the class action suit. The game already costs them $2 million to John Madden and $50 million to the NFL. Not to mention the Obannon, NCAA situation. Maybe, just maybe there is hope for new NFL video games in the future. Source and interesting read: http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/05/tech...source=cnn_bin

Agree with #2 and 4, but the article you put up states the higher metacritic score of 81 this year, so, not sure why you stated a lot of the reviews have been lower. You could alsos say a lot of the reviews have been higher, too.

I think the power of the holidays will help out. Heck, our son and his roomie in colleg have Madden 25 and they are popular with lines outside their door, with people claiming, "next game." People will start going home and telling mom and dad, I want Madden.

I will be interesting to see what happens with the liscense.

# 29 friscob @ 09/06/13 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadman


	I think the power of the holidays will help out. Heck, our son and his roomie in colleg have Madden 25 and they are popular with lines outside their door, with people claiming, "next game." People will start going home and telling mom and dad, I want Madden. I will be interesting to see what happens with the liscense.

Whether they're good or bad sports titles are always popular in the dorms. I was in school during some of the worst 360 versions of Madden and we would still play the crap out of them

# 30 kjcheezhead @ 09/06/13 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadman


	Agree with #2 and 4, but the article you put up states the higher metacritic score of 81 this year, so, not sure why you stated a lot of the reviews have been lower. You could alsos say a lot of the reviews have been higher, too. I think the power of the holidays will help out. Heck, our son and his roomie in colleg have Madden 25 and they are popular with lines outside their door, with people claiming, "next game." People will start going home and telling mom and dad, I want Madden. I will be interesting to see what happens with the liscense.

The article did score it 81. IGN did give it an 8.5. However, OS gave it 7.5, again Gamespot gave it a 6 and Kotaku simply asks "Should you play this game?" with NO in a huge red square. http://kotaku.com/madden-nfl-25-the-...iew-1207512756

Not sure why you would disagree with #3. It's no secret the exclusive is in its last year. Football fans that want variety do have more incentive to skip. This combined with another typical madden title might have kept $60 in a few gamers pockets.

One other factor. GTA V. If forced to choose, I think a lot of gamers are passing on Madden 25 for that title.

# 31 roadman @ 09/06/13 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjcheezhead


	The article did score it 81. IGN did give it an 8.5. However, OS gave it 7.5, again Gamespot gave it a 6 and Kotaku simply asks "Should you play this game?" with NO in a huge red square. http://kotaku.com/madden-nfl-25-the-...iew-1207512756 Not sure why you would disagree with #3. It's no secret the exclusive is in its last year. Football fans that want variety do have more incentive to skip. This combined with another typical madden title might have kept $60 in a few gamers pockets. One other factor. GTA V. If forced to choose, I think a lot of gamers are passing on Madden 25 for that title.

Had them swithched around. # 3 agreed, #4 disagreed.

Could be GTA. Asked my son, he said he doesn't want it. We'll see if others pick it up in his dorm and he comes crawling back.

# 32 SmashMan @ 09/06/13 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GiantBlue76


	It's amazing how people continuously make excuses for this game. I just don't understand it. There is always some reason OTHER than the quality that people WANT to believe leads to things like this.

Are people saying there are reasons OTHER than quality, or reasons in addition to quality?

# 33 ksolo12 @ 09/06/13 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radja


	you don't have to wait until the next gen to see if this drop is because of next gen or people are sick of. wait until nba 2k14 and fifa 14 come out. if they are down also, it was next gen. if not, then people are sick of madden.

Great point made here.....gonna be interesting to see the FIFA & 2K14 numbers.

# 34 Brooke2011 @ 09/06/13 03:19 PM

It will come down to next gen sales of madden. If those are lower than expected, then EA will up thier game to attract more sales.
The 2 games that are going to blow people's minds this year are next gen nba 2k and ea's live. The completion is going to push those two to give you the "best" game possible.

# 35 SWynn @ 09/06/13 03:21 PM

As someone who has bought every Madden incarnation for atleast the past five years, I know that I'll probably be passing on M25. I've been hearing far too much about glitches, bugs, features that don't work correctly, and features that have been removed for apparently no reason. Most of these things would almost certainly be gamebreakers for me as I play the game as a franchise/league simulator.

While M13 has some of these same problems, I'll continue to play that version or move back to 12 until the issues get ironed out.

Sorry if that was soapboxy but that's just my take on why I didn't buy it this year. Perhaps it's representative of some others who have not as well.

# 36 Bull_Dozer @ 09/06/13 03:26 PM

Good. People are fed up with the same ole, and tiny incremental changes each year. I haven't bought Madden 25 on current-gen. And unless next-gen gets stellar reviews, I won't buy that either.

# 37 SmashMan @ 09/06/13 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GiantBlue76


	Sounds more like OTHER to me. There is no other reason, period. Instead, there is always excuses. That is exactly what has contributed to the mess we got this generation. Everyone wants Madden to be great, so in order to convince themselves that it is better than it actually is, they will do everything they can to rationalize why they think it's a good game.

Madden is not great - don't know if I was coming off that way, so want to clear that point.

Madden hasn't been great for a while. Sales have been declining, but this is the year 650,000 people suddenly didn't buy it in its' initial week? You can't link all of those to any one reason, whatever it is.

Final quality is subjective (as everyone plays differently), but we can all agree Madden isn't where it should be. That's a factor.

Next-generation systems are coming out. That's a factor.

Next-gen Madden has the 'maybe it'll be better' hope, where potential buyers know what they're getting with current-gen. That's a factor.

Grand Theft Auto V. That's a factor.

I'm in no way discounting that the quality is driving away sales, I'm just arguing that it's not the only reason for the drop in Madden 25's first-week sales, which is what this story is about.

# 38 Artman22 @ 09/06/13 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mva5580


	Agreed, pretty humorous to see people actually thinking that this matters. Now if Madden 2015 sales are down significantly on the PS4/Xbox One release, then it's something worth talking about. But this means absolutely nothing. People making something out of nothing, as usual.

Well I actually skipped on madden this year because I got tired of the usual and still no penalties etc. All my friends did the same. Yes I'm getting the Xbox one, but if it's just graphical improvements I'm not buying either. I will no longer give away money to companies that aren't pushing to make great games..

# 39 opd897 @ 09/06/13 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art1bk


	Well I actually skipped on madden this year because I got tired of the usual and still no penalties etc. All my friends did the same. Yes I'm getting the Xbox one, but if it's just graphical improvements I'm not buying either. I will no longer give away money to companies that aren't pushing to make great games..

Agreed. I didn't buy Madden 25 because I'm tired of the same 'ole thing every year. Pretty much the same gameplay, no penalties and there is always something wrong with the game that has people, as well as myself in the past, screaming for a patch. Just tired of it plus Madden '13 really turned me off last year.

Having said that I have updated my Madden '12 rosters and am playing that. I've pre ordered a PS4 and will take a look at Madden 25 at that time but am not expecting to see anything that will have me buying it.

This is one consumer who is not just waiting around for the next-gen to buy and I suspect there are others like me.

# 40 xanmank @ 09/06/13 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by friscob


	Sunday Ticket definitely helped sell a lot of copies of games that instantly got put on Craigslist and Ebay b/c the people wanted nothing to do w/ the actual game

A guy at work doesnt even play video games period, but he bought the SE to get Sunday ticket and sold the game to me for $50. Cant beat that since I was gonna buy it anyway (skipped last years, so this was the year to buy)

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