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Graph-Age: U.S. Madden NFL Sales (1994-2006)

S

Square2005

Banned
Excludes handheld sales:
madden9506mu0.png


Grand Total: 35,570,000
Does it deserve it?

EDIT: Now it's broken-down by console manufactorer.
 
Square2005 said:
Probably NBA Live.
Click to expand...

Sims tops Madden I believe and FIFA is WAYYY above NBA Live (worldwide)


BTW, here's this weeks analyst take on Madden

MADDEN NFL 07 EXPECTED TO DOMINATE RETAIL:
Electronic Art's Madden NFL 07 is scheduled to be released on August 22, 2006 (Maddenoliday) at retail locations worldwide. Per the NPD Group, the Madden Football franchise is the #2 video game property of all-time, generating more than $1.6 billion in revenues on nearly 38M units. According to NPD, from 1995-2005, Madden Football has annually accounted for more than 3.5% of total industry SW sales. During the 2006 football season (Aug 2005.-July 2006) the Madden franchise sold over 6.5M units totaling more than $290M at retail.

WE EXPECT MADDEN NFL 07 TO SELL 7M UNITS:
We anticipate the initial shipment near 4M+ units on seven platfor ms and estimate Madden NFL 07 will ship 6.9M to 7.1M (+7% Y/Y) units during FY07, generating nearly $300M in annual revenues to EA (10% of FY07). We view our projections as conser vative and think upside exists should PS3 and Wii hardware availability meet first par ty expectations. An additional 500k units shipped would contribute an incremental $0.03 to FY07 EPS. As the only professional NFL franchise on the market, Madden is set to dominate retail during the next couple of months.

KEY MADDEN NFL 07 HIGHLIGHTS/IMPROVEMENTS:
• Run to Daylight - Improved running game with new lead blocker control and distinct running back styles.

• Highlight Stick - New running back specific moves to elude or power-through opposing defenders.

• Mini-Camps - Activities like 40yd dash and bench press deter mine ability in Create-a-Player mode, and new this year are used throughout the season for improvement to skills, and to rehabilitate injuries.

• NFL Superstar Hall of Fame Mode - allows users create a player and follow them throughout their career from a specific positional perspective.
Click to expand...
 
kpop100 said:
Sales have gone way up since online play was introduced, and I doubt that is a coincidence.
Click to expand...

It has more to do with the market getting bigger than anything else
 
kpop100 said:
Sales have gone way up since online play was introduced, and I doubt that is a coincidence.
Click to expand...


It seems more like, when the ps2 came out, that's when football got out of the gaming ghetto.
 
I picked up Madden at a midnight opening at a local EB the other night and was ****ing SHOCKED to see about 150-200 people there from ages 12-40+. I thought there would be 20 people tops. Goddamn. People love their Madden.
 
Well I'm looking more at around 2004 when sales went from the 2 and 3 millions to in the 5s. I'm not saying that's all online play of course, but it does seem to coincide with it being on Live and the PS2 version being more boldly noted as having online play.
 
kpop100 said:
Well I'm looking more at around 2004 when sales went from the 2 and 3 millions to in the 5s. I'm not saying that's all online play of course, but it does seem to coincide with it being on Live and the PS2 version being more boldly noted as having online play.
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I dunno, it seems to follow the growth of the industry as a whole. I don't think you can attribute the success to any one feature.
 
With the exception of Madden 06 360, EA deserves every penny from those sales. Madden was always better than the competition, with the only game ever coming close to matching it being 2K5.
 
Does John Madden get a fixed some of money each year or does he get a percentage of sales? Maybe both?

This guy must have made mad millions off of this franchise...damn.
 
AlanHemberger said:
really? I thought the sims was the best selling game ever? craziness
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Sims is actually probably lower than Madden now that I think about the 12+ years of Madden. I know that Sims 2 sold 5M+ last fiscal year for EA and various other Sims titles sold over 2M. I believe it's probably in the mid-to-high 20M's at this point, but Madden's at 38M lifetime, about to jump to 45M by the end of this year :O :O
 
Square2005 said:
Excludes handheld sales:
madden9506mu0.png


Grand Total: 35,570,000
Does it deserve it?

EDIT: Now it's broken-down by console manufactorer.
Click to expand...

it's so evil how EA backstabbed Sega in the back in 99.
It was the Sega Genesis that boosted EA up early on after all.
 
didn't sega **** over EA by changing graphics chips at the last minute? didn't EA own a good deal of the prior chip sega was to use? i don't remember the whole story. someone could probably shed some light on the situation. if so, sega got what they deserved. if im imagining things then i apologize
 
NFL Exclusitivity didn't seem to help them that much, really.

I guess that means they saw it as a threat and that it would have hurt Madden sales. Especially before the next gen as the graphics would totally stomp EA's NFL game.
 
FrenchMovieTheme said:
didn't sega **** over EA by changing graphics chips at the last minute? didn't EA own a good deal of the prior chip sega was to use? i don't remember the whole story. someone could probably shed some light on the situation. if so, sega got what they deserved. if im imagining things then i apologize
Click to expand...
EA apparently backed a US-designed 3DFX Voodoo powered Dreamcast, but Japan chose the gruntier PowerVR Dreamcast we know today because 3DFX cocked up some paperwork something hardcore. SoJ did include the Windows CE-compatibility that the US chipset had into the PowerVR model, of course. EA got pissed off about that decision and said NO U! to Sega.
 
Mr. Pointy said:
EA apparently backed a US-designed 3DFX Voodoo powered Dreamcast, but Japan chose the gruntier PowerVR Dreamcast we know today because 3DFX cocked up some paperwork something hardcore. SoJ did include the Windows CE-compatibility that the US chipset had into the PowerVR model, of course. EA got pissed off about that decision and said NO U! to Sega.
Click to expand...

EA for a 3rd party, tries to dictate too much, like some big mafiosi trying to start a union to stir trouble so they can go on with their racket.. I don't aprove of their methods
 
gutter_trash said:
EA for a 3rd party, tries to dictate too much, like some big mafiosi trying to start a union to stir trouble so they can go on with their racket.. I don't aprove of their methods
Click to expand...
watch out for cars that might follow you down the street.
 
FrenchMovieTheme said:
NFL 2k5's graphics stomped Madden 2005's, madden still sold and madden 07 360 would stitll sell if NFL 2k7 were around
Click to expand...

Then why did they get exclusive rights to everything football related? It didn't help them that much, that's my point. It's quite possible that they would have sold less as 2K improved over the years and was at it's discount price.
 
i kind of wish EA hadn't gotten so big because it is hard for them to appeal to hardcore football players. they could pretty easily make a football game that cuts out all the cheesing and money plays and focuses on lots of extras that real football fans want (online franchise, more detailed franchise mode, etc) but i think a lot of time and money is spent on advertising, promotion, pr, and so on. it works in the sense that they make a crapload of money but i feel like there are some great football minds at tiburon possibly being held back by circumstance. oh well!
 
Then why did they get exclusive rights to everything football related? It didn't help them that much, that's my point. It's quite possible that they would have sold less as 2K improved over the years and was at it's discount price.
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it's possible but it wouldn't have happened for a while. keep in mind that although nfl 2k5 sold over a million copies, madden sold over 4 times that amount at over double the price. the thing people need to remember is that NFL 2k5 sold so well not because it was stealing fans from madden, but because madden fans were willing to give it a shot at $20 a pop (as well as buy madden). this could have convinced them to never buy madden again, but it seemed to me that madden kept a strong userbase regardless.
 
Funny, I had been recently talking about the Madden franchise with some friends. Some people have this notion that Madden was always the industry powerhouse it is today. I had maintained that Madden didn't truly become mega-franchise until the current generation (around 2001), but I wasn't sure of the actual sales numbers. Nice to know the numbers really do back me up.

The other thing I wonder is if the spike correlates with Tiburon getting their shit together and finally creating some decent gameplay that nearly anyone can appreciate, combined with the lifelike broadcast presentation. The emergence of analog control had to have really helped the franchise, but more realistic graphics certainly haven't hurt, either. As a whole, I felt the 16-bit and 32/64-bit iterations had clunky controls, at best, and most weren't anything special to look at. There were plenty of other products that offered notably better visuals (the original QB Club on the N64 -- sure, it sucked, but how cool was it to see your receiver actually catch the ball?) or more accessible gameplay (hello, Tecmo Super Bowl).
 
FrenchMovieTheme said:
it's possible but it wouldn't have happened for a while. keep in mind that although nfl 2k5 sold over a million copies, madden sold over 4 times that amount at over double the price. the thing people need to remember is that NFL 2k5 sold so well not because it was stealing fans from madden, but because madden fans were willing to give it a shot at $20 a pop (as well as buy madden). this could have convinced them to never buy madden again, but it seemed to me that madden kept a strong userbase regardless.
Click to expand...

I always thought that 2K5 going for $20 really freaked EA out. It didn't seem like anyone had any clue what was going on until the deal was done and reported. I perceived that as a somewhat sudden move by EA, but I could be way off there. For all I know the deal was the result of years of planning.

Either way, 2K5 had awesome graphics, and decent gameplay (which was a big upgrade from the absolutely horrendous gameplay the 2K series had prior), and the ESPN integration, all for 20 bucks. That easily made it one of the best deals ever.
 
DMczaf said:
Paul_tagliabue.jpg
Click to expand...

Does he own every single football league or something?

FrenchMovieTheme said:
this could have convinced them to never buy madden again, but it seemed to me that madden kept a strong userbase regardless.
Click to expand...

Well, we will never know because there was never a follow up game because they couldn't make one.

I mean, what's done is done and I'm not saying what should have happened or anything like that. I'm just questioning the decision to buy EVERY football license besides the CFL. I mean, didn't they also get arena football as well?

As far as making a more realistic game goes...I think it does come down to competition and giving gamers alternatives. For EA, it's probably not worth it to make another football sim to sell along with Madden. For a smaller dev, it will if they can sell a million or so (which is a pretty good sales number). Heck, if Tiberion guys were held down they could always split and make their own sim. But obviously that's not going to be an option for a long, long time.
 
Does he own every single football league or something?
Click to expand...

Well for the NFL, Paul's administration loved making the NFL license exclusive. It was just a surprise it took so long for this to get to videogames. I wish I could have Sunday Ticket on digital cable :(

And for the NCAA...they are just a bunch of crooked ****s who would sell their own daughters for another buck! "Hey guys, lets have 35 bowl games instead of a playoff system! Mo' money mo' problems!"
 
h1nch said:
I always thought that 2K5 going for $20 really freaked EA out. It didn't seem like anyone had any clue what was going on until the deal was done and reported. I perceived that as a somewhat sudden move by EA, but I could be way off there. For all I know the deal was the result of years of planning.
Click to expand...

I think this is fairly accurate. It was a pretty serious move by Sega/Take 2, or whoever the publisher was... and I think it opened some eyes at EA that it generated some impressive sales... granted, it was mostly price-related, but actually getting someone to use your product is the first step toward generating loyalty.

I frankly never really got a lot of joy out of 2K5, but it was the only football game I bought that year (played more of Madden 2004, however, due to my ongoing by one game every two years approach).

Ristamar said:
Funny, I had been recently talking about the Madden franchise with some friends. Some people have this notion that Madden was always the industry powerhouse it is today. I had maintained that Madden didn't truly become mega-franchise until the current generation (around 2001), but I wasn't sure of the actual sales numbers. Nice to know the numbers really do back me up.
Click to expand...

It really created the modern football game back in the Genesis days, and I think it really owned the market until the 32-bit era... I'm not sure it was always the best game, however. Definitely was for most years on the 16-bit consoles (although I blasphemously enjoyed Sega Sports NFL 95), but I think the whole 32-bit era was a little rough for football games in general... Madden improved, but I don't think it really came around until around Madden 2000.

It's been very solid since the second PS2 iteration (the first looked great and played fine, but I think 2002 (?) was a big improvement), with the last few years being particularly good.

Bottom line, I think when you look at its history on the whole... or at its most recent editions... it definitely has earned its status as the No. 1 football title.
 
Ristamar said:
Some people have this notion that Madden was always the industry powerhouse it is today. I had maintained that Madden didn't truly become mega-franchise until the current generation (around 2001)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how you define "mega-franchise" but all the way back to the first Madden I played ("John Madden Football") on the Amiga, it always seemed to be a notch above what everyone else made. That was back in 1991 I think. Probably the same version (or at least very similar) to the first Genessis version. It was the first game I remember that had 11 players per team all acting independently (yes...that was impressive at one time). It also was the first I remember that actually had the numbers of the players on their uniforms. I thought that was cool.

All through the 90's there were lots of other football games, but Madden was always the one you compared the others to. I actually liked the College version of "Sport Talk Football" (Bill Walsh?) better, but it felt exactly the same then as explaining why I liked 2k4/5 better more recently (i.e. Madden was king, everyone else was a challenger).

I recently played the Genesis version of Madden '94...I don't know how we played that game...it was terrible. It is funny, Tecmo bowl (even NES version) still holds up, but at the time I thought it was silly compared to Madden.

PS. Does anyone remember the *original* John Madden Football? It came out for the PC in '88 or so. Totally different game. Side to side view and you could make your own plays (that was the cool part). You would actually draw routes if I understood it correctly. Looked like it had *really* bad graphics (PC game from the '80s...what can you say). I always wanted it, but it was PC only and I was an Amiga player. That is the one I thought I was getting when I finally found Madden for the Amiga.
 
FrenchMovieTheme said:
it's possible but it wouldn't have happened for a while. keep in mind that although nfl 2k5 sold over a million copies, madden sold over 4 times that amount at over double the price. the thing people need to remember is that NFL 2k5 sold so well not because it was stealing fans from madden, but because madden fans were willing to give it a shot at $20 a pop (as well as buy madden). this could have convinced them to never buy madden again, but it seemed to me that madden kept a strong userbase regardless.
Click to expand...

FYI, NFL2K5 sold close to 3.1M copies. Do not forget that Madden was selling at $30 that Christmas as well. Some contend that NFL2K5 actually helped expand the football market by bringing in many non-sports gamers; NFL Football sold over 8 million copies that year!!! However, it's also apparent that the exclusive NFL license didn't help EA retain or convert those additional gamers to Madden.

BTW, some high level industry insiders believed that 2K was two to three years away from taking over Madden in terms of sales.
 
i had the original madden on pc back in the day. you could draw up plays, plus the playbooks were huge and you got a 8.5x12 booklet of them in the package that you could flip through to find what you needed. it was 1000000% better than anything on 8 bit consoles at the time even though i didnt have a joystick and had a shitty 4 color monitor. i actually played it in coach mode even though i was a little kid! crazy right?

but then one night i was playing it and my little brother came upstairs with a copy of the original joe montana for his new genesis. i literally never played that pc madden again.

the 32 bit era was brutual for football, we just didnt understand it at the time. those sprite based games will literally give you a headache if you play them now and the 3d ones are so primitive. i think the mass audience couldnt be captured until there was solid 3d capabilities on the ps2 and xbox.
 
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