Here’s an honest question: Does anybody care about Madden anymore?
No, seriously. I know that Madden 12 sold five million copies or so. But do you know anybody who owns a copy? Do you even know anybody who is going to buy a copy?
Although I loathe the NFL as a corporate entity and also loathe EA’s use of the franchise as a club against its competitors, I’m not trying to hate on Madden here. The game itself is still quite fun, and I don’t even like watching televised football. It’s not my favorite kind of game but it’s still a solid, fun experience.
But at the same time, I picked up a copy of Madden NFL 12 to write this article from a yard sale, still in the wrapper, for five bucks.
The series has actually been on a slide lately, in terms of sales. Madden NFL 12 moved less than six million copies total, which is not great for a franchise that three years ago was edging eight million. In fact the franchise has been losing a million in sales or so every year since Madden 10 came out.
Part of that is the dents and dings of a gaming industry suffering the end of a console cycle. Not even Madden can survive gamer apathy.
But part of me wonders if solely gamer apathy is to blame, or if people just get sick of buying essentially the same game over and over, every year. EA has been making noises about free-to-play being “the future”; Madden seems inevitably headed in that direction. I can’t help but wonder if that will kill the franchise: It might put just what EA’s doing to the series in sharp relief.
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Well, as a Lions fan I’ll probably end up buying this once it gets down to $20 or so just to use as memorabilia.
True, I’m sure sales in Michigan will be high this year.
@ Dan Seltz
I think you mean gun murders.
If I were in charge of EA I’d move to doing a 2 year release cycle of madden, focusing on major feature additions. Every year i’d provide downloadable roster updates. I’d pay $5 for a roster update, though they’d probably charge 20.
Actually, this could probably work for most sports games.
I’ve always wondered about this. Why, if we have so many games that take place in an open world, or need to be updated constantly, can’t we just buy the open world or the basic mechanics and then buy the games for them for cheaper?
The problem with that is it is a great idea that won’t make EA much money. If Madden 12 sold about 5 million copies, and EA started offering roster updates for 10 bucks, 30 million people would have to buy the update for EA to make the same amount of money. It’s why some of their sports games (I know basketball does it for sure) have rosters that do update for free throughout the year, but as soon as the new year of the game comes out, they stop offering roster updates for the old one.
@steiner:
That’s a valid point. I’d like to see (or, if I were in charge I’d do) a market survey breaking down the sales each year. Of those who buy Madden 13, how many bought Madden 12, how many bought a Madden game before, and how many are new customers.
Let’s assume that Madden 13 also sells 5 million copies, for 10 million over 2 years. If the game was released every other year, it could hyped more because it actually has new whizbang awesome features, and people could have that craving for a new fresh copy of the game. I’d bet that would sell more than 10million, plus the money from the off year roster update.
Then again one would think EA would be smart enough to have done that already, and the numbers say to keep shipping every year. Who knows. Economics is full of assumptions which make everyone look the part (of an ass).
Madden is pretty much the only video game I play at this point (a little Tiger Woods and some BF3).
I love Madden and will continue to buy it each year
The reason for it has nothing to do with the whole industry. It has to do with EA sitting on their asses putting out the EXACT same game over and over because they have absolutely NO competition. They are the ones with apathy. The only reason for a new Madden game is the updated rosters
That’s actually a valid point. Though they’re not exactly the same game, EA’s monopoly on sports franchises is abysmal. Because they don’t have to compete with anyone in order to sell 5 million units (or upwards), they probably don’t see the need to innovate or build upon their trusted formulas.
Haven’t bought a console game in years, so I’m not the one to ask.
But if I had a current console and were looking to buy a game, this would probably be on the list. Could be because of the nostalgia of earlier games. But the thing I always found with madden: If you find a version you like, play it for YEARS until you get bored with it before you upgrade. There’s almost no reason to buy one every year.
That’s an interesting perspective. Thanks!
Otherwise known as the “Street Fighter II Method”
It’ll probably do around 5 million again, so somebody likes this franchise, it’s pretty much the Fast and Furious franchise of the video game industry, someone still buys it, you just don’t know who.
I’m actually planning on picking this up. I’ve never bought a Madden game before, but I feel like this year is actually a step in the right direction. And I’m not from Detroit.
I do have to admit that I’m a sucker for EA’s NHL games. Buy them every year.
I’m thinking about getting this years. It actually looks pretty damn good.
Actually I”m picking it up this year … the last one I bought was Madden 10 so it’s been a while. I like their NCAA game better, but I gots an itch I wanna scratch this year.
What’s Madden 13 run, $50? Selling 5 million of them will keep everyone at EA in cocaine and trips to the Bunny Ranch for more than a little while.
I havent bought a Madden in over 6 years…. this game actually looks and feels different. I’m trading in some shitty war games (shout out to Dan) and buying this one.
How so? I’m just not seeing a difference. Again, not ragging on the game: Madden 12 was good. Just… not seeing much of a change and I’d appreciate your perspective.
sports games are like the television show Real World. same shit every year, and yet people still tune in. WHY?!
I still have my Madden 08 that I use when I want to play. Will soon likely snag a cheap copy of Madden 11 when they went with automatic play calling to speed game times up. Don’t care too much about accurate rosters and do this for every sport type out there. Except hockey. That’s my weakness.
I have faithfully bought Madden every year since Madden 2004, although I’m not sure I can justify it: maybe I’m an idiot. I guess it’s because I’m a big NFL fan, and I hate having outdated rosters or feeling like I have an inferior version.
Truth be told, it feels like Madden gets a little worse every year. It probably peaked with Madden 05, and has been steadily deteriorating since. And why has it been getting worse? Because of the people who complain about the roster update. EA feels obligated to try to offer some new feature every year to appease the thousands of people who say they won’t pay $50 for the same game with updated rosters, and inevitably this new feature ends up just making the game a little less fun, or a little more unplayable. I don’t blame the complainers, I blame EA for trying to keep this cash cow alive when clearly the sales numbers indicate that people are getting hip to their hustle. But hey, who wouldn’t take advantage of the chance to print money?
So yet again, I will purchase my Madden this year, play it obsessively for a month so that my beloved Raiders can finally win a Super Bowl in my lifetime (albeit only a virtual one), and then ignore the game for 11 months until I repeat the cycle for Madden 14. I’m clearly a very smart person.
John Riccitiello and Andrew Wilson both just read this and rubbed one out at their desks.
Actually, man, I average about a month on games that I give a thorough playthrough, so I can’t denigrate your intelligence.
I have Fifa ’11 and never care about getting the newest version. It’s the same game with slightly different rosters.
The newer fifa’s are much better then 11. You should really grab a used one. There is a huge difference in graphics alone.
In my experience, which may just be my region, Madden is very popular with Black males.
Usually I always by FIFA and then get NHL used but I haven’t honestly played Madden since the Sega Genesis days. Now I am a Xbox 360 man. No one that I know even plays Madden anymore.
No we dont…. Give me my NFL2K back (sadface)