Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Game Sales Up As Madden Leads Charge

Posted by simoniker on from the hut-hut-hut dept.

Thanks to Reuters for their report that last month's video game sales rose 4 percent from August 2002, due in significant part to EA's Madden NFL 2004, which "...sold 1.45 million units on the PS2 and 310,000 units on the Xbox in the month, generating sales of more than $86 million. Sales of Madden for GameCube were negligible." There were new figures on hardware sales, too, as "PS2 sold 291,000 units in August to bring its installed base in the United States to 18.8 million, while... Xbox sold 144,000 units to rise to 5.8 million and... GameCube sold 100,000 units to 4.5 million." Analysts suggested that PS2 sales "continue to lag behind expectations" (1 million short of the 9.5 million hoped), and predicted that Nintendo will "...introduce their own bundle or price cut by the end of September" (scanned early-October print ads for a major US retailer have the GameCube at $99.)

9 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. GameCube Owners & Sports by Mr+Syd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This seems to suggest that GC owners are not sports fans (or not football fans, anyways) - 7% of PS2 owners bought Madden , 5% of XBox owners, but 0% (???) of GC owners... Come to think of it, I own a GC (and N64) and I have never bought a sports title...

    --
    Que voy a hacerle yo
    Si me gusta el whisky sin soda
    1. Re:GameCube Owners & Sports by Textbook+Error · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Although these figures are just for North America, American/Canadian sports games (hockey, basketball, American football, nascar, etc) always sell badly outside of North America.

      Everywhere else the "global" sports like F1 or soccer tend to do a lot better (e.g., soccer games like Championship Manager sell by the truckload everywhere but the US).

      I think this goes some way to explaining the Xbox's lacklustre sales in the other two big video game territories (Europe and Asia: just behind the GC in Europe, behind just about everything in Asia). Different cultures prefer different things, and the Xbox is very much a product of the US (the PS2 did well everywhere because it was out there first, and had an installed base of existing Playstation owners to sell into).

      --

      Nae bother
    2. Re:GameCube Owners & Sports by Scyber · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well I own a PS2 and a GC. I bought the PS2 version due to the Online capabilities that are abset in the GC version.

  2. wow... by ff_cid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No wonder Sega didn't put ESPN on the Gamcube. I'd expect to see quite a few EA sports games dropped from Gamcube next year too.

  3. Re:Negligible! by bildstorm · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ahh... Yeah. Because race has everything to do with aggressive music.

    Reality is that the GameCube tends to be bought by people with children. Most people don't want their children to listen to aggressive music or to play violent games. Having worked in videogame sales, I know the difference between the platforms. Proportionally there are far fewer violent games for the GameCube than for PS2 and Xbox.

    I love it when cowards call me racist, particularly when they don't know my skin colour, ethnicity, where I've lived, and what I do now. LOL!

    --
    The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
  4. XBOX Live by PaleGreen · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd like to see how many XBOX owners passed on Madden due to its lack of Live support. I'm sure the folks at Sega (ESPN Football) aren't complaining!

  5. Gamecube version victim of Multiple console owners by Dormous · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think I know the reason that the gamecube sales are so low for Madden. For the first time, people own multiple consoles. I, for example, own both a PS2 and a GameCube. If I was going to buy Madden 2004, which console do you think I would buy it for, PS2 or GC? PS2 of course. Why? Online play. All the online game review sites have said that the PS2 version is the best because it is the only one that offers online play, even the Xbox one doesn't offer that (Which is why PS2 sales of madden are almost 5 times that of the Xbox). Another Example: Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. 2 Versions, GC & PS2. I bought PS2. Why? All the reviews said the GC version was flawed. What have I bought For GC. Nintendo titles. F-Zero GX, Super Smash Bros., Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine. The only non-Nintendo title I have for GC is Rogue Squadron 2. Why, because all the other titles are BETTER on the other platforms, and Nintendo's in house titles kick butt on their own. Sorry, didn't mean to rant. Just saw something obvious and thought I'd point it out. Dormous Listening @ the door of IT.

  6. The only choices in 2004 on GameCube by MORTAR_COMBAT! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Are NHL 2003 from EA, and NHL Hitz Pro. Sega 2K4 (aka ESPN Hockey) is not releasing on the GameCube. The September issue of Game Insider had a column by column comparison of the 4 hockey games for 2004 (it includes the XBox only game from Microsoft, NHL Rivals).

    If Sega 2K4 (aka ESPN Hockey) was coming to the Cube there would be debate -- but it is NOT. It is a decision between EA and Midway, and it's a pretty damned easy decision there. EA looks to have put in a whole lot of work to make 2004 a really good game, and the previews have been pretty good so far.

    And if you are scoring 17 goals vs. the Wings in NHL 2003, maybe you should turn up the difficulty a notch? There are 4 difficulty levels, and within each you can give goalie advantages and skater advantages to either team.

    --
    MORTAR COMBAT!
  7. These aren't exact by M3wThr33 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm betting these are NPD TRSTS reports, pretty much the only source of USA sales data. However, that's not too good, because each company needs to report to them. Heck WAL-MART DOESN'T PARTICIPATE, so all of you buying at Wal-Mart aren't adding to any tracking numbers, and would it be too bold to say a large portion of Cubes would be bought there?