Madden 11 Impressions

[Rodster]

Didn't Modern Warfare set records last year for sales?

Some games are doing pretty well, even though the overall industry numbers might be down.

MW2 isn't an annual release. Sure CoD is, but gamers know the difference between IW and Treyarch, and they certainly know the difference between another WWII shooter and one in a Modern day setting.

Annual sports releases are certainly going to be down due to the nature of the beast and the economy.

EA Sports could produce a football game that would give GTHobbes the wetest of dreams and it wouldn't matter. Football is football. You cannot change that one principal fact, so while they can do things like better blocking, player interaction, etc it's still football. People just aren't going to buy it year in and year out. Sure, you and I most likely are... but the huge gaming community is not. DSP, OS and whatever other sports gaming community you want to throw in are not the big money makers for Madden, NBA Live, etc. Sorry, it's just the simple facts.

For all the people who feel that NFL 2K5 is the greatest football game in the history of video sport (and I too liked the game), it didn't sell for s*** when compared to Madden.... AND THAT GAME RELEASED AT THE ECONOMY FRIENDLY PRICEPOINT OF $19.99 or however cheap it was, in a time when the economy was a non-issue.

GT sorry buddy, but you're not their target audience. Not then, not now .. not ever.

There fixed.

[GTHobbes]

EA is putting out a fun product to a mass audience and as has been discussed, they are not interested in catering to a niche group. They are going for mass appeal and for the most part the casual crowd probably doesn't know or care about suction blocking or any of the other on going issues with this series.

But since Madden's overall sales have gone down for 6 straight years now, can you really say that EA/Tiburon is succeeding with the casual crowd (or any crowd, for that matter)? The fact of the matter is, every year fewer and fewer people are picking up Tiburon's football games, despite the continued increase in console sales. There has to be a reason for that. In my opinion, it's not the casuals that they're losing; they're losing NFL fans that have supported their games for years, and those people aren't being replaced by casuals or anybody else.

[Wilk5280]

Less and less people are buying the product. I can agree with that.

How much money did they invest into development this year compared to last year? I don't know that answer to that. How much more money are they making off of digital downloads?

They may be selling less, but it doesn't necessarily mean they are making less.

[GTHobbes]

GT sorry buddy, but you're not their target audience. Not then, not now .. not ever.

But I should be. I'm as big an NFL fan as anybody, and I've got money to spend. I used to buy 2 or 3 football games a year back when Gameday, 2k, Quarterback Club and Madden were all on the market. And I'd gladly do it again.

[Rodster]

EA is putting out a fun product to a mass audience and as has been discussed, they are not interested in catering to a niche group. They are going for mass appeal and for the most part the casual crowd probably doesn't know or care about suction blocking or any of the other on going issues with this series.

But since Madden's overall sales have gone down for 6 straight years now, can you really say that EA/Tiburon is succeeding with the casual crowd (or any crowd, for that matter)? The fact of the matter is, every year fewer and fewer people are picking up Tiburon's football games, despite the continued increase in console sales. There has to be a reason for that. In my opinion, it's not the casuals that they're losing; they're losing NFL fans that have supported their games for years, and those people aren't being replaced by casuals or anybody else.

It's not really that bad. Sure the numbers show a decline but the game still sells millions of copies each year. Again the problem is there IS NO competition so Madden is competing against itself and that's how it's judge by the gamer. If the game looks and plays pretty close to the previous year gamers may skip a year or two. If there was competition Madden would be competing against another similar product to entice the potential buyer.

I still say Madden's worst enemy is Madden and the Exclusive contract with the NFL. They pay more for the rights and are now making less to keep it that way. If T2 or the BB guys were allowed to compete then it would probably cost EA less for the contract and if they sold the same amount of games would get a better return on their investment.

[Wilk5280]

GT sorry buddy, but you're not their target audience. Not then, not now .. not ever.

But I should be. I'm as big an NFL fan as anybody, and I've got money to spend. I used to buy 2 or 3 football games a year back when Gameday, 2k, Quarterback Club and Madden were all on the market. And I'd gladly do it again.

I don't argue that and I certainly don't disagree with it. I am the same way, but like scoop or somebody above mentioned. Once you come to the realization that it is what it is and accept that for what it is, you'll have a lot more fun playing the game.

Sure there is a bunch of stuff that I wish I did or didn't see in each game of Madden that I play. I'm just not going to lose sleep over it and just enjoy it for what it is.

When I played Atari football I let my imagination do ALL of the work. I'd pretend that I was playing a real nfl game and that was with 3 giant ass block characters for each team. Then when real sports came out, it was a little less strenuous on the imagination, but it still did the majority of the work for me.

That's where I think a lot of the issue come from today, honestly. These games look so close to the real thing that we don't really need to use our imaginations. The problem is, when everything is not perfect we don't call on our imaginations to overcome the shortcomings.

There are people out there that feel we shouldn't have to. I am more of the belief that we will never get there when playing a football videogame. These are 1's and 0's we're playing with and it's never going to be perfect and we will always need our imaginations to make the games more complete.

[Rodster]

When I played Atari football I let my imagination do ALL of the work. I'd pretend that I was playing a real nfl game and that was with 3 giant ass block characters for each team. Then when real sports came out, it was a little less strenuous on the imagination, but it still did the majority of the work for me.

That's where I think a lot of the issue come from today, honestly. These games look so close to the real thing that we don't really need to use our imaginations. The problem is, when everything is not perfect we don't call on our imaginations to overcome the shortcomings.

Bingo !

Which is why people had so much fun with Madden 93 and Tecmo Bowl. Hell I remember playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 4 which looks archaic today and I let my imagination take over and like you said it helped overlook the games shortcomings.

It's another reason i've gotten into games like Football Manager, I play it in text based mode and let my imagination take over.

[wco81]

Wasn't saying MW2 was an annual release, just that it set records as a sequel so a good game still drew big sales, despite the tough economy.

M11 isn't M10.5. I don't recall M10 being so horrible gameplay-wise online.

It's easy to roll up 400 yards of passing. In fact had a game where both of us had over 500 yards of offense, almost 600 yards in one case.

I don't know about the roster update making a difference, because the DBs react poorly most of the time to balls thrown up for grabs. Safties, instead of going for the ball thrown towards them just wait and the WR catches it short. A lot of times, the safties not whiff and move out of the vector of the pass allowing not only the completion but letting the WR run it to the house.

They've released games with such poor pass defense in the past and had to patch it. How do they let it go out the door like this?

[Aristo]

That's where I think a lot of the issue come from today, honestly. These games look so close to the real thing that we don't really need to use our imaginations. The problem is, when everything is not perfect we don't call on our imaginations to overcome the shortcomings.

There are people out there that feel we shouldn't have to. I am more of the belief that we will never get there when playing a football videogame. These are 1's and 0's we're playing with and it's never going to be perfect and we will always need our imaginations to make the games more complete.

Every time I see someone complain about the I failure, I just see a poorly animated representation of a player making a bad play. I don't care if it warping, DB's running in circles, or LB's jumping ten feet high. If, at the end of the game, my players have generally realistic stats, and the scores make sense, I'm happy.

The problem I am running into with Madden 11 is that the results are bad. Scoring is way too high. Rushing is either ridiculously easy or hard, and it seems impossible to balance the sliders for it. Too much feat or famine in the game, so it doesn't feel organic, if that makes sense.

I'm willing to give it another shot, since people seem to think this roster update has helped.

[MizzouRah]

I'm having fun.. just need to spend more time with it.. the bad thing is, NCAA is getting most, if not all of my free console gaming time right now.. and hockey comes out next week.

[sportdan30]

So, with the new roster update, there are those claiming that the defense is back in the game. Anyone else noticing this? I haven't played in almost a week, but I'm eager to try it out this evening.

[Wilk5280]

How long has the game been out? I guess maybe we figured everyone could pretty much form their own opinion or impressions by now.

[Danimal]

So, with the new roster update, there are those claiming that the defense is back in the game. Anyone else noticing this? I haven't played in almost a week, but I'm eager to try it out this evening.

Did you read any of the messages before yours?

[sportdan30]

So, with the new roster update, there are those claiming that the defense is back in the game. Anyone else noticing this? I haven't played in almost a week, but I'm eager to try it out this evening.

Did you read any of the messages before yours?

I'm working on very little sleep...will go back a page or two.

[GTHobbes]

The new weekly vgchartz sales numbers are out. Given Peter Moore's "sales are up across all platforms by 5%" comments, and the conflicting information given by vgchartz below, it will be interesting to see what the monthly NPD numbers show in another week or so.

In short, according to vgchartz, sales on the PS3 are up in comparison to last year, but sales on the 360, Wii, PS2 and PSP are all down pretty significantly. Either vgchartz is way off, or EA is putting some spin on the numbers that I can't follow. Here's the cumulative sales numbers from vgchartz after 3 weeks:

Madden 10 (360): 859,776
Madden 11 (360): 794,233
Net: (-65,543)

Madden 10 (PSP): 102,357
Madden 11 (PSP): 62,787
Net: (-39,570)

Madden 10 (Wii): 165,987
Madden 11 (Wii): 124,203
Net: (-41,784)

Madden 10 (PS2): 233,212
Madden 11 (PS2): 86,751
Net: (-146,461)

Madden 10 (PS3): 590,710
Madden 11 (PS3): 665,764
Net: (+75,054)

Total Net: (-218,304)

http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php ... 20NFL%2011

[GTHobbes]

Looking back at vgchartz, I guess Madden can at least take consolation in the fact that PS3 sales are up. For NCAA Football, sales are down for every platform, PS3 included.

http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php ... 20football

[Dave]

Just stop, VGChartz is not credible.

NPD for NCAA, via PastaPadre:

For the opening month of July NCAA Football 11 sold 368K copies on the 360 and 298.8K on the PS3. In total that represents a move up of 8% compared to NCAA Football 10.
The breakdown by console shows that sales on the PS3 rose and accounted for all of the growth. The PS3 version jumped 20% while the 360 version fell by 2

[JRod]

Just stop, VGChartz is not credible.

NPD for NCAA, via PastaPadre:

For the opening month of July NCAA Football 11 sold 368K copies on the 360 and 298.8K on the PS3. In total that represents a move up of 8% compared to NCAA Football 10.
The breakdown by console shows that sales on the PS3 rose and accounted for all of the growth. The PS3 version jumped 20% while the 360 version fell by 2

Pasta Padre is not more credible.

[Dave]

NPD sales aren't opinion, he's just the first link I could think of that had NPD sales compa for NCAA.

[GTHobbes]

NPD sales aren't opinion, he's just the first link I could think of that had NPD sales compa for NCAA.

The NPD info you posted from Pasta may have been true for the first month, but if you look at the subsequent weekly sales numbers through week 7, you'll see that the numbers for NCAA 11 have slowed such that 10's numbers are now higher than 11's across the board. NCAA 11 hasn't even made the top 30 for 2 weeks in a row now, according to vgchartz.

[Dave]

Believe what you want.

[GTHobbes]

Believe what you want.

Until I see some hard numbers otherwise, what choice do I have?

Nevermind.

[Danimal]

Believe what you want.

Until I see some hard numbers otherwise, what choice do I have?

Nevermind.

I guess my question is what does it matter?

Even if the sales are down a bit or up a bit it won't change anything. Madden the brand is still strong for EA regardless of how the game does.

[wco81]

Well one sign might be discounting, which Target has done for $50 this week.

That's beside all the preorder promotions they had.

Plus used game prices may be lower because of the online code thing.

Maybe they're counting sales of the iPhone and iPad versions but those prices are a fraction of the prices of the console products.

[GTHobbes]

Believe what you want.

Until I see some hard numbers otherwise, what choice do I have?

Nevermind.

I guess my question is what does it matter?

Even if the sales are down a bit or up a bit it won't change anything. Madden the brand is still strong for EA regardless of how the game does.

You're probably right, Dan. But with sales being down for the 6th year in a row, and with the 200,000+ unit drop in sales from last year, maybe, just maybe, somebody at EA will have the brains to step back and say, "You know what, this just isn't working." Then again, maybe they'll just think, "We can't seem to do anything to stem the tide with dropping sales, not even our pre-order discounts worked, so let's figure out some ways to add even more paid-DLC." I probably just answered my own question, but we'll have to wait and see how things actually shake out.