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Madden 07 Earns $100 Million in First Week Sales
192939495969798999 writes "CNN reports that Madden 07 grossed over $100 million in the first week, helping to resurrect a sales slump for Electronic Arts. The article states that most people are waiting for the release of PS3 and/or Wii to make game purchases." From the article: "An industry turnaround isn't expected until next year, and EA officials predicted during its quarterly earnings report on August 1 that videogame sales for 2006 across the industry would be flat to down 5 percent."
I would not bother getting this game. Rumour has it there is a sequel coming out next year!
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The stereotype for /.ers is that they like video games but hate Football. Does this extend to video game representations of Football?
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
How does EA keep making money releasing the same game year after year?
It's a sports game (I admit that I've never been fond of sports games, just play the sport) so what are the huge changes from Madden 05 to Madden 06, and more importantly why do people keep buying the newer game? Slightly better textures? New player rosters? Would somebody please let me know, because I am at a loss.
To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion...
Resurrecting a sales slump? Sounds like Sony will be all over THAT action...
Compare this to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST opening weekend box office of 135,634,554.
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After having experienced the incomplete version of Madden 06 for the XBox 360, fans of the series were probably foaming at the mouth for a version of the game that didn't feel quite so rushed. Also, unlike Madden 06, this one is more likely to look and feel like a true next gen title.
8==8 Bones 8==8
I will start seeing Madden 07 in the bargin bins... it didn't get many good reviews.. But sales are good for it because this is the ONLY NFL game you have to pick from.
I think people see why getting an exclusive NFL license was well worth it. Football is a sport that just seems to be invented for consoles.
On a side note I've owned Madden almost every year since the Sega Genesis. The 360 version is the best one I've played hands-down. Gameplay is very realistic (need to focus on run to open up pass, defensive play calling most important I've ever seen), zoomed-in graphics are breathtaking, and the high-definition photos of each player are a great addition.
I love having a real-life ESPN ticker on the bottom. The UI itself is very smooth and intuitive. The mini games are a blast when you have a few friends over but don't want a longer competition between just 2 people.
I don't understand what is so popular about these Madden games. It seems that they just get rehashed every year with a few roster changes and people are all over them like there's something significantly new about them.
If you keep buying crappy recycled games, the industry will keep making them.
it's doing Madden-ingly well.
Lame cookie-cutter game makes record profit, thanks to its identical gameplay to its 235 previous outings, making sure that the "established fanbase" would not get confused. Sports-game licences. They're gold mines I tell you. All you need is a team of graphic artists that'll make sure that the hideously pixellated polygon-version of players look somewhat like the real guys. I'm assuming that they found out how to make the controls/gameplay balanced after all these years.
A movie ticket's price should not really exceed 10$, while Madden '07 retails at 59.99$. It's apples and oranges. For the sales to be comparable Madden would have to score 678,172,770$ in sales - a highly unlikely conjecture.
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Since EA locked up the NFL license with a 5 year exclusivity contract they have eliminated any competition. Its not hard to break sales records when the sheep only have one choice. Strategically you have to admit it was a good move for EA after getting their asses handed to them last year by Sega and Take Two, eliminate the comptetion then you dont have worry if your product is up to par or not. I fully expect the next five years to be similar to the Sega Genesis years of Madden same damn game different stats and price.
What I really hope happens is that Midway, Sega, Take Two and Nintendo step up and show that gameplay trumps licenses. Midway is already starting with Blitz: The League coming out this fall, a few years ago they were told to tone the violence and t&a down by the NFL. Now that they license is gone, I fully expect Blitz to be completely over the top and probably alot of fun. Something like Mutant League Football would be great and no license would be needed.
I'm mean really...why are people buying this every year? Just new players I assume. Talk about a ripe market for opensource gaming.
It's because '06 blew. Every magazine I read indicated that if you had 05, not to bother with 06. So now you've got all your rabid foaming at the mouth by every year's game crowd, combined with the more conservative skip a year or two crowd, all lined up to buy the game.
08 projection? Don't even bother making the game. Sell a box with last year's game in it again, then make waves in 09. That's what six figure salaries suits call "a three-year-plan".
You can get 15 minutes of fame, but you can go down in history for infamy.
A couple of people almost touched on this but I'm curious if anyone else thinks this means the PS3 is in trouble. Obviously the have sold more copies than there are XBox 360s (if my numbers are correct). How many of you would buy Madden 07 (assuming you would buy it all) for you PS2 only to buy a PS3 in a few months?
Those box office numbers (and, I assume, the Madden sales numbers) are revenue, not profit.
What was the cost of production of Madden '07?
What was the cost to make PotC-DMC?
Those would be interesting numbers to see.
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
One industry insider reports they would've "earned eleventy billion dollars if it hadn't been for widespread video game piracy and used game sales."
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
My favorite football game of all time was Techno Bowl for the NES. I think the reason I liked it was because it was less like football than any other football game I ever played. In single player mode the AI was a little lacking (ok a lot lacking), but it was a great two player game. In these modern football games I seem to do best when I just let the AI play the game for me because it's better than I am...
Hobby Robotics
On a similar note, I've been saying for years (mostly by talking to myself) that the Superbowl should be converted into a pay-per-view only event and that the NFL should charge $50 to watch it. People will bitch and moan about it at first, but football fans appear to be sheepish enough that they'll bend over in the end to watch it no matter what. Naturally, Superbowl parties will become more popular as individuals group together to spread the cost. I think the NFL could even throw in a few commercials and still get away with it.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
This is why. Doing nothing nets profit. Go out on a limb and try something new and you might fail. But oh boy oh boy, rehash last year and you're set.
"Reality continues to ruin my life" - Calvin and Hobbes
I got Madden 2k6 and hated the QB vision. It complicated an already complicated game, and was totally unnecessary. What they need to do is make other parts of the game more realistic, like the timing aspect of throwing balls, not add some unnecessary complexity with which direction the QB is looking. For example, you can basically throw to a player at any point in his route and he will grab for it, whereas in real football that is impossible. The other thing that is very annoying is that defensive backs covering wide receivers can go and block throws even with their backs to the ball. In 2007, QB vision is now an option to increase the accuracy. Great idea, it decreases complexity. It also adds more features to make the running game more unique. I would say 2k7 is a step above, but I'm going to be playing it in earnest this Labor day weekend to see how it really cuts the mustard.
Grand Theft Football?
McMahon's WWE Touchdown?
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I miss the old atari football game circa 1978 at the local pizza joint.
http://www.thelogbook.com/phosphor/1970s/f.htm
How is that a similar note, exactly?
Well, the parent post said: "I'm mean really...why are people buying this every year?"
So, I figured if they're buying Madden every year, they'd buy a Superbowl PPV package every year, which is something I've been saying for years (mostly by talking to myself).
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Ronaldo! Zidane! Beckham! Pelé! Stoichkov! Zico! Maradona! ...oh wait, you mean the WRONG kind of football.
Because there was only ever one good football game. Woot.
People don't wait till the next system to play games right now. They buy the next system to play the next games. EA's slump: A product of a stale market of games. I've never heard of anyone saying "This game sounds fun, but I'd rather not play any games for a year and wait till the PS3 comes out to play games".
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
Look, the stereotype of /. is that we are transhumanists. Nothing else matters.
What is this an antislash plant?
NFL licensing is prohibitively expensive. No licensing, no NFL player models, and no real time ESPN/NFL stats.
At best you're stuck with "alternate football league" games in open source.
Other than that, yes, you're right, football is never going to evolve, it's ripe for becoming an open source game market.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Best Buy in my area was offering a deal where if you purchased a Samsung TV + Xbox 360 + controller + Madden 07 you got $300 off. Since I was in the market for 3 out of the 4, I went ahead and bought them all, then turned around and traded Madden on CraigsList.
Thats it. Just wondering if some deals/specials like this drove the sales up slighty.
I was willing to give the 360 version a chance, and then found out that the game doesn't support co-op game play, so I can't sit at home and play this with my friends.
Not only is that functionality not in the 360 version (nor is Owner mode, audibles, and other features), but that co-op play was *removed* from the Xbox and PS2 versions as well. So, for my friend who likes to sit down and play on the same team with his son - too bad! I only play Madden with my friends on the same team - too bad for me!
Basically EA has said this game is no longer for people who play together. Its for those who play alone or who just want to use Xbox Live to trash-talk other players in an online game...
Pathetic.
No news story I've seen about this has mentioned that EA has an exclusive license to make NFL video games. I think that has a huge bearing on their numbers. If you want the latest rosters and stats, then you can choose from a wide variety of, um...Madden. That's it.
The fact is, Sega was making a better product and undercutting them on cost and EA saw the writing on the wall. I think the NFL did a terrible disservice to the fans by selling out to EA.
I...I'm attacking the darkness!
I've been a big fan of the Madden series for as long as it's been on the current gen systems. Madden 2002 was the first game I bought for Gamecube, even before I had the console. I only started getting the game every year because my roommate bought 2003 (mainly for updated rosters) and I found that they had introduced the best feature every: the ability to design custom formations and plays. I even started a website based around this specific feature. Say what you want about geeks and sports, custom playbooks offer more hacakbility than just about any RPG video game you'll find.
Sadly, this iteration blows hard. Tomorrow I'll be taking my copy back for a refund after experiencing lockups with the both the original disc I bought and a replacement. The lockups have only occurred for me when using custom playbooks, but without these the game is worthless to me.
I also think that EA has basically given up on improving core gameplay on current gen, and have gone into a see saw mode where they twiddle settings each year but don't really improve anything. In 2002 and 2003 passing was easy and big were made to the outside. In 2004 (thought by many to be the best version produced on current gen, and in my opinion the most balanced version overall) inside running was improved. 2005 and 2006 strengthened defense to the point that running became difficult and defensive backs super human at times. Now in 2007 it's back to big outside runs and deep passes, and a more arcade-like feel than the series has had since 2003.
Ironically, the visibility of my website led to me writing part of a Madden 2007 strategy guide for 1up.com that will be posted in a few days (I agreed to do this well before playing the game and experiencing the bugs, especially on Gamecube as I used a preview of the PC version for research). I think what I wrote is good, and applies pretty well to almost any version of Madden, but I in good conscience I would not have written it if I had known that the game would turn out like this.
The ultimate plays for Madden 2006