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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."
Good question. I can't speak for every other non-stereotypical ./ user, but I would imagine that playing Madden would actually create or increase interest in football. The knock on a lot of sports is that "they're more fun to play than they are to watch" (*cough* baseball *cough* *cough*), but in my opinion, actively directing the action in a sports title can sometimes have the effect of turning you into an overnight sports fan.
I had this happen to me. After playing Madden for a few months, I knew the rosters, strengths, and weaknesses of most of the major pro teams. I knew about nickel defenses, running plays, and out patterns. I learned when it was best to do one thing strategically over another, and that information did wonders for me as an armchair quarterback.
Basically, the game turned me into a more knowledgeable football fan, and helped to increase my enjoyment watching the sport on television ten-fold.
This happenned for me too. I hated football until a friend got me to play Madden a few times. Once I knew the names of the plays being run on tv, not to mention the players and coaches running them, the game developed a whole new dimension for me.
Track and chart data from your bike computer.
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.