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Games Entertainment

EA Predicted to Announce Madden, NHL Sales Drops 42

Posted by Zonk from the oooooooh-hanging'-tough dept.
bippy writes "Analyst PJ McNealy predicts that EA will announce Tuesday a 20 percent drop in sales for Madden and a 50 percent drop in sales for NHL 2005, partly due to the success of ESPN's low-price, high-content games. McNealy says this likely won't have a huge financial impact on the game developer, but it will affect them psychologically. I'm just surprised that ESPN's price cut worked. It seems that when Madden came out everyone was saying that the price cut wouldn't help ESPN or hurt EA."
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EA Predicted to Announce Madden, NHL Sales Drops More

EA Predicted to Announce Madden, NHL Sales Drops

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  • NHL: duh! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MORTAR_COMBAT! ( 589963 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @11:33AM (#10565678)
    There's no NHL season this year. I've bought the EA NHL game for years... but not this year. Why? Not because I bought a different game, but because I'm just not interested in playing a hockey video game when there's no hockey season.
    • I am way with you... I can't belive the audacity of EA even trying to release NHL 2005 this year, considering that everyone knew there would be no 2005 season years ago. On the other hand. If those who bought it, plugged it in and saw a black screen showing the words "We're not playing, so neither are you." That might have been a pretty funny joke. Down 50%... Any one who thought anything different needs to get a clue. Sorry for the rant, I am going through Hockey withdrawl.
    • I dunno, I would have thought that hockey fans might be playing *more* hockey videogames, to make up for the fact that they couldn't watch any actual games.

      But yeah, buying a new version of the game, guess that doesn't make any sense.

  • Oh god no.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SkyWalk423 ( 661752 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @11:35AM (#10565704) Homepage Journal
    The Madden vs. ESPN fanboy war had just died down, the remnants taking refuge in the teenage spam havens of IGN boards and the like. Now comes word that the ESPN Games price cuts worked, and out come the fanboy trolls to take up the fight with renewed fervor. God help us.

  • Same Game (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Apreche ( 239272 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @11:39AM (#10565752) Homepage Journal
    Maybe some people decided they were tired of buying the same game over and over again every year. I mean seriously. NHL and Madden are great sports games. Probably the best sports games ever (discounting 10 yard fight and Ice Hockey for the NES). But NHL '99 is every bit just as good as NHL 2k4 or 2k5. If you don't have it yet, buy the newest one. But if you've already got an NHL game or a madden game, there is no reason to buy a newer one.

    So maybe a few of the dummies who rebuy the game every year finally realized the dumbness and decied to spend less money and try a game that might actually be a little bit different.
    • And how many people that played in the '99 season also played last season? How many changed teams? How many went from being spare-asses to being premiere players? Things change, and five years is a fucking eternity in today's hockey climate. In five years time the Dallas Stars have gone from being Cup champions to missing the playoffs.

      The people I know that play sports games generally buy the new one every 2-3 years.

    • Re:Same Game (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Squirrel Killer ( 23450 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @12:41PM (#10566530)
      But if you've already got an NHL game or a madden game, there is no reason to buy a newer one. So maybe a few of the dummies who rebuy the game every year finally realized the dumbness and decied to spend less money and try a game that might actually be a little bit different.
      At $50 a pop, I'm inclined to agree with you, I only bought two NHL games, NHLPA '93 (Genesis) and NHL '98 (PS), and there was a major engine change there (2d to 3d). I only bought one Madden, John Madden Football '92 (Genesis).

      But at $20 a pop? Different story. I bought, not just ESPN NFL 2k5 and ESPN NHL 2k5, but also ESPN NBA 2k5, and I plan on buying ESPN MLB 2k5 when it comes out. If the price stays the same for the 2k6 line, I'll probably pick up another 2 or 3 (NFL, NHL, and if 2k5 is good, MLB). While the roster updates are a reason for Sega to kick out another version, the online component is what will get me to upgrade. It's not a new or different game I'm looking for, I'll just want to keep playing online, and the price makes that easy. Over the long haul with this price scheme, Sega's gonna get a lot more money out of me, although I'm just a fairly casual sports gamer (although don't ask about my full 162 game Triple Play '02 season).

      • At $50 a pop, I'm inclined to agree with you, I only bought two NHL games,

        I purchased '93-'95 for the SNES. '94 introduced five players, so it was worth the purchase. '95 wasn't that big of an improvement. I later purchased '96 used for $10. I also purchased NHL'9-something for GameGear so I could play on the road. I own one copy of Madden I got for $2, for the Game Cube. I'm a much bigger hockey fan than soccer. I own FIFA '99 for MSWin. I loved the game. My sister loved the game. We played agai

      • But at $20 a pop? Different story. I bought, not just ESPN NFL 2k5 and ESPN NHL 2k5, but also ESPN NBA 2k5, and I plan on buying ESPN MLB 2k5 when it comes out. If the price stays the same for the 2k6 line, I'll probably pick up another 2 or 3 (NFL, NHL, and if 2k5 is good, MLB). Why spend $60 on three sets of roster updates?

        Seriously, if you buy into the 'just a roster update' hype, then spend your cash on some other excellent new game out there.
        • You quote me, but you obviously didn't read me. :)
          ...the online component is what will get me to upgrade.
          No one's going to be playing NFL2k5 next year, so if I want to play in an online league, I'll need to drop the coin. At $20, I'll do it. At $50, I get my money.
    • Maybe some people decided they were tired of buying the same game over and over again every year.

      Just like people are tired of going to Red Sox games year after year. It always just one baseball game after another. And you always know how it ends.

    • Maybe some people decided they were tired of buying the same game over and over again every year. I mean seriously. NHL and Madden are great sports games. Probably the best sports games ever

      Overall, maybe. For their time they are average. They don't break new ground with graphics or content like some old NES games did when they had to make up for not having a licence.

      (discounting 10 yard fight and Ice Hockey for the NES).

      I'd take Blades of Steel and Tecmo bowl but ok. :)

      But NHL '99 is every b
  • But it did hurt EA. Oh, the author meant:
    would ! (help ESPN || hurt EA)

  • Could we get the title right? (Score:3, Informative)

    by benpharr ( 163979 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @11:41AM (#10565782) Homepage
    Come on guys, could we get it right? It's EA that will be announcing that their games are losing sales. ESPN is the one causing the loss in sales.

  • Demo (Score:2)

    by elid ( 672471 )
    How am I supposed to try and maybe buy Madden 2005 if EA decided not to release a demo for it this year?
    • Head to your local Gamestop or Software etc. Plenty of used copies there for people who bought it, and, are sick of the franchise. Lots of people I know bought ESPN after playing, or, hearing about Madden's lack of innovation for another year. I am sure ESPN will fall into that trap soon, but, at least they have new stuff this year, plus its only 19.99.

  • Bugs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Spankophile ( 78098 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @11:57AM (#10565977) Homepage
    There's also the issue of the bugs in Madden that were causing people to "exploit" the stamina features in Online games.

    I personally just think EA has taken their mindshare for granted. SegaSports gave them a run for the money, and now it seems ESPN has broken through.

    • Re:Bugs (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Not sure if you knew this, but Sega Sports is ESPN Videogames.

  • The real reason the price cut worked (Score:5, Insightful)

    by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @12:23PM (#10566310) Homepage Journal
    Was because it was right at the high end of the "impulse buy" range. Most people will spend up to $20(one bill, well more than that with tax but people don't really think of that) on a whim, but when you start to get higher than that, many people will think twice about it, and probably go with madden because it's a $50 game, so it must be better than your $30 or $40 game...

  • EA (Score:1)

    by nelsonal ( 549144 )
    From August sales data and EA's own admission this was one of the better years for Madden from launch to August. It hit 1 million sales faster than last year, and was selling even more units than ESPN Football through August. Unless September was a total disaster this analyst missed the boat.
  • a price point has been identified? Is anyone at Madden listening? Hello? Oh, people haven't mentioned it but ESPN football is NOT available for the PC.

  • Could Be The Economy Too (Score:4, Insightful)

    by blueZhift ( 652272 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @03:38PM (#10568427) Homepage Journal
    It could be that in a relatively weak economy with relatively high unemployment, that price matters more. This would difinitely give the ESPN line of games an edge. And, as some have already mentioned, $19.99 is at the sweet spot of the typical impulse buy. Now that we're entering the holiday shopping season, sales should go up for both EA and ESPN lines, but I'm guessing that grandparents will be preferentially buying the ESPN line of games for their spoiled grandkids!
  • Some EA reps were recruiting in my area not too long ago, and the head of research (his name escapes me, but he was really cool guy) gave a speech. He explained to us that for sports games, they try to get the bulk of their revenues in the bag during the first 6 weeks of the respective sport's season. In NHL 2005's case, he explained that EA was already expecting that 2005 would not do well because nobody was psyched for the season with the strike, and hence nobody would be psyched to buy the game. Espec
  • Check this writeup [thestreet.com] on the earning report that was at 5pm EST today.

    Significant excerpt (emphasis mine):

    "Despite disappointing the Street, EA officials touted the company's success in the quarter. The company's Madden NFL 2005 title has posted double-digit growth in units and revenue over last year despite competition from ESPN NFL 2K5, which is co-published by Sega and Take-Two Interactive, said company CFO Warren Jenson."

  • In case anyone didn't notice, hockey fans aren't doing anything to support the NHL because there's no season. I'm sure that if you go back and look at sales figures for MLB and NHL games the last time they were on strike/locked out, you'd see a drop in sales for that year, too.
  • First, Madden 2005 is still a huge seller. A small hit was expected due to ESPN's great offering at a low price, and it happened.

    I expected a big hit in NHL 2005, for two reasons: the lockout, and the fact that ESPN's hockey keeps improving more than EA's does. I haven't seen this year's offering yet, but I and lots of other people keep saying every year, "man, EA NHL sucks. Next year I am switching." And the $20 price point made it a perfect time to do it.

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