EA Predicted to Announce Madden, NHL Sales Drops

bippy writes "Analyst PJ McNealy predicts that EA will announce Tuesday a 20 percent drop in sales for Madden and a 50 percent drop in sales for NHL 2005, partly due to the success of ESPN's low-price, high-content games. McNealy says this likely won't have a huge financial impact on the game developer, but it will affect them psychologically. I'm just surprised that ESPN's price cut worked. It seems that when Madden came out everyone was saying that the price cut wouldn't help ESPN or hurt EA."

Comments

Oh god no....

[SkyWalk423]

The Madden vs. ESPN fanboy war had just died down, the remnants taking refuge in the teenage spam havens of IGN boards and the like. Now comes word that the ESPN Games price cuts worked, and out come the fanboy trolls to take up the fight with renewed fervor. God help us.

Same Game

[Apreche]

Maybe some people decided they were tired of buying the same game over and over again every year. I mean seriously. NHL and Madden are great sports games. Probably the best sports games ever (discounting 10 yard fight and Ice Hockey for the NES). But NHL '99 is every bit just as good as NHL 2k4 or 2k5. If you don't have it yet, buy the newest one. But if you've already got an NHL game or a madden game, there is no reason to buy a newer one.

So maybe a few of the dummies who rebuy the game every year finally realized the dumbness and decied to spend less money and try a game that might actually be a little bit different.

Re:Same Game

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

I disagree. Perhaps you can't spot the differences between Madden 2004 and Madden 2005 but to someone who is a real fan of the sport, there are many.

Why must you call people "dummies"? Personally, I don't see much of a reason to buy expansion packs for the Sims but people do it and they enjoy them - so I say, good for them and let them have at it. Just because you can't see the differences in the games doesn't mean none exist.

I just don't understand the psychology behind being so irate over this subject that you feel the need to lash out at people and insult them over this pretty trivial issue.

Re:Same Game

[Squirrel Killer]

But if you've already got an NHL game or a madden game, there is no reason to buy a newer one. So maybe a few of the dummies who rebuy the game every year finally realized the dumbness and decied to spend less money and try a game that might actually be a little bit different.

At $50 a pop, I'm inclined to agree with you, I only bought two NHL games, NHLPA '93 (Genesis) and NHL '98 (PS), and there was a major engine change there (2d to 3d). I only bought one Madden, John Madden Football '92 (Genesis).

But at $20 a pop? Different story. I bought, not just ESPN NFL 2k5 and ESPN NHL 2k5, but also ESPN NBA 2k5, and I plan on buying ESPN MLB 2k5 when it comes out. If the price stays the same for the 2k6 line, I'll probably pick up another 2 or 3 (NFL, NHL, and if 2k5 is good, MLB). While the roster updates are a reason for Sega to kick out another version, the online component is what will get me to upgrade. It's not a new or different game I'm looking for, I'll just want to keep playing online, and the price makes that easy. Over the long haul with this price scheme, Sega's gonna get a lot more money out of me, although I'm just a fairly casual sports gamer (although don't ask about my full 162 game Triple Play '02 season).

Bugs

[Spankophile]

There's also the issue of the bugs in Madden that were causing people to "exploit" the stamina features in Online games.

I personally just think EA has taken their mindshare for granted. SegaSports gave them a run for the money, and now it seems ESPN has broken through.

The real reason the price cut worked

[antifoidulus]

Was because it was right at the high end of the "impulse buy" range. Most people will spend up to $20(one bill, well more than that with tax but people don't really think of that) on a whim, but when you start to get higher than that, many people will think twice about it, and probably go with madden because it's a $50 game, so it must be better than your $30 or $40 game...

Could Be The Economy Too

[blueZhift]

It could be that in a relatively weak economy with relatively high unemployment, that price matters more. This would difinitely give the ESPN line of games an edge. And, as some have already mentioned, $19.99 is at the sweet spot of the typical impulse buy. Now that we're entering the holiday shopping season, sales should go up for both EA and ESPN lines, but I'm guessing that grandparents will be preferentially buying the ESPN line of games for their spoiled grandkids!

Re:This Whole Thing Is Stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

I would argue that the PC is the niche market.