Madden NFL 2005, NHL 2005, and NBA Live 2005 now just $29.95 apiece; NCAA Football 2005 will be $39.95.
A new salvo was fired in the sports-game price war today as Electronic Arts announced drastic price reductions in almost all its flagship EA Sports franchises. Effective immediately, all console versions of Madden NFL 2005 and NHL 2005 will now retail for just $29.95, which is $20 less than the original prices. NBA Live 2005 and NCAA Football 2005 will be discounted by $10, so the games will now sell for $29.95 and $39.95, respectively. All four games are rated "E" for Everyone.
Frank Gibeau, EA’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, naturally had great things to say about the price drop. “People who buy sports games late in the season tend to be more casual players. Our pricing strategy will be a big draw during the holidays and will attract new players to EA Sports.”
As most industry watchers are aware, EA Sports' price drops are a direct response to ESPN Videogames' aggressive pricing strategy announced earlier this year. Copublished by Take-Two Interactive and Sega, all of the most recent crop of games bearing the ESPN name--ESPN NFL 2K5, ESPN NBA 2K5, ESPN College Hoops 2K5, and ESPN NHL 2K5--only cost $19.99. While the pricing strategy was initially, and publicly, scoffed at by EA executives, subsequent analyst reports and sales information have apparently prompted the company to take a different tack.
For more on all four newly discounted EA Sports games, read GameSpot's full reviews of: Madden NFL 2005, NHL 2005, NBA Live 2005, and NCAA Football 2005.
I wouldn't exactly call this "taping a ham sandwich to their games" but maybe a turkey sandwich possibly. I waited till TRU sale before I bought any EA titles, glad I did because NHL is garbage. I read another thread and hope they honor my 3 for 2 request for my free third game. Also I may have to give my other coupon to someone else just to get my free game. That really sux. Peace
Sega's games are still $10 cheaper and a better value. EA can knock on my door and make a sales pitch when its games that compete with Sega are $20 new or are FAR superior to Sega's offerings, which isn't the case with pro football, hockey or pro basketball.
And to borrow from Jackdiggity's line of thinking, EA should give a $40 rebate to anyone who is stupid enough to buy NHL 2005 for $30. I'm playing NHL 2005 for a review now, and it's not pretty.
NASCAR 2005, on the other hand, is worth every penny of $50, in my opinion.
Take care,
PK
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pk500 wrote:Sega's games are still $10 cheaper and a better value. EA can knock on my door and make a sales pitch when its games that compete with Sega are $20 new or are FAR superior to Sega's offerings, which isn't the case with pro football, hockey or pro basketball.
And to borrow from Jackdiggity's line of thinking, EA should give a $40 rebate to anyone who is stupid enough to buy NHL 2005 for $30. I'm playing NHL 2005 for a review now, and it's not pretty.
NASCAR 2005, on the other hand, is worth every penny of $50, in my opinion.
Take care,
PK
NHL 2005 is probably the worst sports game this year IMHO. SEGA is three for four and EA is three for six this year. Not only are the Sega sports games close or superior in quality to the EA games, they are much less expensive too.
I'm a fan of EA's games this year, and prefer Madden & NBA Live over the ESPN/Sega competition (ESPN Hockey rules on the ice, however)...
"Sounds like they're throwing in the towel. They're signaling to consumers, retailers and the NFL that they are no longer selling a premium product." - Jeff Brown, EA VP of Corporate Communications
Said in response to ESPN's pricing strategy. Hypocrite?[/b]
Sport73
"Can't we all just get along? I'll turn this car around RIGHT now!"
If anything I am happy to see Sega took it to EA and I think if they can get them to drop the price, then perhaps they (EA) will step up the quality of their games next year. But one things for sure, there is a full fledge competition now and both companies will hopefully make even better titles that are actually tested and polished before release.
Oh yeah Where The F is College Hoops, screw Halo 2
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I seriously doubt Sega has put more than a tiny dent in EA's bottom line... Madden has sold the majority of it's total volume at full price, and the other games were at full price for a significant amount of time. What *has* happened is that EA has had to change its endgame a bit, because no one is going to break down and buy Madden at $50 if they waited this long on it. As backwards as it sounds, now EA can go and try to get *Sega's* customers to try *their* game. Case in point: I'm a more-than-satisfied ESPN NBA fan, but I was at Fry's last week agonizing on whether I should buy Live. I decided not to, $40 was too steep for another hoops game. Had it been $30 then I probably would have bought it.
"Whatever, I don't know why you even play yourself to that degree,
you laugh at me?" - Del
I seriously doubt Sega has put more than a tiny dent in EA's bottom line... Madden has sold the majority of it's total volume at full price, and the other games were at full price for a significant amount of time. What *has* happened is that EA has had to change its endgame a bit, because no one is going to break down and buy Madden at $50 if they waited this long on it. As backwards as it sounds, now EA can go and try to get *Sega's* customers to try *their* game.
That theory would make sense if they did that every year, or even one year in the past. This happens to be the year when ESPN is stikcing with Madden in sales and it is only on 2 consoles. ESPN Hockey is blowing away NHL 2005. When it is all said and done the ESPN NBA and Live sales will be pretty close, still waiting on the Oct NPD's. Do you not see a trend here? ESPN Football (last years version) was down to $19.99 just a few months after release and it only sold 400,000 total. Madden 2004 was $49.99 at EBgames and Gamestop up until Madden 2005 hit (the 2004 version - see below- is still higher then ESPN's game this year). Why is this year anything special. Why in a great year like the 2004 series where they sold over 5 million did they not go after the Sega customers and the kill? Could it be because the "so called experts" have already speculated otherwise, and claim the price drop is taking affect on EA's sales are right? Call me crazy but EA has never been one to drop the price of a game if they did not have to. So yea I agree you reply is backwards, to the actual reason EA did this.
Many stores have Madden 2004 selling new for $29.99. Bet those *Sega Customers* are lining up in droves.
Just thought I would throw out the obvious, Captain.
bdoughty wrote:Backwards, incorrect, illogical - feel free to add
That theory would make sense if they did that every year. ESPN Football was down to $19.99 just a few months after release.
It was not anywhere close to $19.99 at this stage of the game. I bought mine fairly late last in the football season last year at Wal-Mart and it was full price. I doubt I have the receipt but I'll see if I can't figure it out from my Quicken.
bdoughty wrote:Madden 2004 was $49.99 at EBgames and Gamestop up until Madden 2005 hit (the 2004 version - see below- is still higher then ESPN's game this year). Why is this year anything special. Why in a great year like the 2004 series where they sold over 5 million did they not go after the Sega customers? Could it be because the "so called experts" have already speculated otherwise, and claim the price drop is taking affect on EA's sales.
ESPN got more sales from day one this time... as I said, it affects their endgame strategy more than anything. So many people impulse bought ESPN NFL that they may not get money from the wait and see crowd. Everybody who wanted Madden went out and got it, and didn't care about ESPN. Do you really think their sales of Madden were affected one iota? There are already numbers all over saying this year's copy was the biggest seller by far.
It's still full price here... maybe the more people in your town, the harder the sell?
bdoughty wrote:But I know you are never wrong and I apologize for disagreeing with you in advance. Just thought I would throw out the obvious.
You should put that in your sig, it will keep you from typing it over and over again...
"Whatever, I don't know why you even play yourself to that degree,
you laugh at me?" - Del
It's good for consumers and obviously, EA can afford to do it.
Nobody minds since it's EA the colussus which Take Two is going after.
Long-term, it would be great for consumers if they kept prices down.
However, it would kill smaller developers and discourage 2nd or 3rd tier players from entering the market. Or making them exit.
But current generation will inevitably move towards value pricing. There is an interview with the EA CFO on Gamespot where he noted that the PS2 and Xbox have not reached mass market pricing yet because they are at $149. Historically, that's true. But it could also be that this generation established a new benchmark for mass market pricing (instead of $99, it's $149).
A year or two from now, games for these current boxes will probably top out at $40 and often be less. The next gen games will still of course debut at $50 and stay that way for a couple of years.
It was not anywhere close to $19.99 at this stage of the game. I bought mine fairly late last in the football season last year at Wal-Mart and it was full price. I doubt I have the receipt but I'll see if I can't figure it out from my Quicken.
It was a few months after release. I am pretty sure it was Dec or January as I was working part time at Gamestop. You can probably imagine I spent most of my time trying to convience Madden loyalists to at least play ESPN on the kiosk.
You should put that in your sig, it will keep you from typing it over and over again...
I would but it would be a waste of perfectly good HTML and bandwith since it shows up on every post. I will just save it for everytime you are wrong.
bdoughty wrote:I would but it would be a waste of perfectly good HTML and bandwith since it shows up on every post. I will just save it for everytime you are wrong.
bdoughty wrote:I would but it would be a waste of perfectly good HTML and bandwith since it shows up on every post. I will just save it for everytime you are wrong.
CTRL C & CTRL V...your new best friends.
I am more of a highlight/right-click/copy right-click/paste kind of guy.
I am positive that a week before release ESPN 2k4 was 39.99 or 29.99, greater than the expected price of ESPN 2k5. I remember one or two posts at OS asking how a game a year older could be cheaper than a brand new game. Only trying to straighten things up between Kaz and BDitty.
FloridaGators wrote:I am positive that a week before release ESPN 2k4 was 39.99 or 29.99, greater than the expected price of ESPN 2k5. I remember one or two posts at OS asking how a game a year older could be cheaper than a brand new game. Only trying to straighten things up between Kaz and BDitty.
No we're in agreement that ESPN 2K4 definitely did drop in price, it's just a matter of when. Actually, all I said was that ESPN full price at this time last year, which I'm fairly certain is true. I can clearly visualize picking Warren Sapp's grill out of the cabinet, and it was much closer to Christmas than now. It wasn't Christmas though, so I know I bought it before December 25.
"Whatever, I don't know why you even play yourself to that degree,
you laugh at me?" - Del
