July 09 Sales Numbers
by 
The NCAA Football series has shown minimal growth on the 360 even as the user base has increased over the last couple years, though on the PS3 side it has been showing marginal improvement. Either way it hasn’t been an encouraging pattern as it almost seems as though sales of a college football game have peaked with them presenting very little interest to anyone outside of that group that already gets it. Certainly the total number of sales has declined as the PS2 has dropped off more than the 360 and PS3 are picking up on a yearly basis.
Last year NCAA Football 09 sold 397,600 for the 360 and 242,500 for the PS3 in the first month. Compared to 08 that was practically an identical number for the 360 while the PS3 got boost of 86,000 units.
NCAA Football 10 came in with a lack of hype and excitement but an interesting pre-release tactic offering up the Teambuilder website and ability to create teams and import them to the game. I was curious how that could affect the sales with the thinking that people who put time into creating teams would certainly end up purchasing the game. But would that have an affect and draw in people who may have not otherwise bought it?
NPD has released the official first month sales for NCAA 10. The game sold 376,500 for the 360 and 237,400 for the PS3. That represents a drop for both and a total loss of 26,200. That is a really bad sign for NCAA that it is actually slipping despite the user bases increasing. The only other yearly game that has shown that same trend is the MLB 2K franchise. So it is clear that something big needs to be done to turn things around, probably in the mold of what Madden has done from 09 to 10.
Also of note is the continuing disappointing sales of Fight Night Round 4. The game barely slipped in the top 10 with the 360 selling 116,400 in July and did not chart with the PS3. Contrary to some of the comments that had been made on my previous article regarding the first month’s sales for the game, it was sure to be heavily frontloaded and that has proven to be the case. Bad buzz likely had a big affect on why it came out of the gate selling weaker than anticipated along with the competition from UFC 2009 Undisputed.
August 13, 2009 at 11:03 pm
I think what is happening is that people are tired of roster updates and don't have the money to keep paying for the same game year in and year out. Madden is the exception because it's one of the few games that has MASS appeal. NCAA needs to reduce their price at least so that people will considered it more.
Mo Diddley the voice of reason!
August 13, 2009 at 11:04 pm
This doesn't surprise me that much. The hype of Teambuilder was great, but the news about incomplete rosters and other patch-necessary game content was devastating. I guess it simply shows (me anyway) that when there's no competition, you shouldn't expect much.
I was disappointed with this release, but because I rented it first, they didn't get my sales money this time.
And you're right… A serious overhaul is needed, not only to save the title from extinction, but to boost EA's revenue expectations. Otherwise, we can expect this game to be a full-blown DLC game next year.
August 13, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Fight Night messed up by coming out after UFC. If they would have came out ahead they would have picked up some of the money spent on UFC. The naked truth is that people don't have the money to buy 2 games that are virtually the same. It happened again with NCAA vs Madden. Except that people will prefer to pass on NCAA to get Madden instead of vise versa. EA probably should employ a better system in relating the games to each other besides just the college draft transfer. They really need to integrate those 2 games together and bundle them up as a package deal for a reduced cost such as they did with Head Coach and Madden last year.
Mo Diddley has spoken!
August 13, 2009 at 11:14 pm
The bundle option might go over, but I doubt people will want to pay over $100 for two football games that are basically the same game.
Make it one game, with a college mode, and a pro mode. It cuts down on dev team staff, integrates the games so they play and progress together, and EA could still charge a premium, say $75 or so.
August 14, 2009 at 12:04 am
The problem with that is the 360 doesn't have enough memory space to pull that off but the PS3 does. If EA were to rebuild the game from the ground up for the PS3 instead of just porting the 360 version then Madden would be way better. They could still keep the 360 version but the PS3 version would be like 5 times better! Of course that's just wishful thinking because God forbid EA spends the money to do that! Lol
August 14, 2009 at 2:21 am
okay here's the problem in a nut shell. Not every games is deserving of the $60 price tag, but the gaming industry has abused their position on this for far to long. Fight Night was all hype and never delivered. Aside from a few new innovations they did nothing more than sprinkle a few pretty pixels to dazzle us into believe the game was so amazing when it's a complete mess. FNR4 dev team deserves a beat down for this impostor of a boxing sim.
August 13, 2009 at 11:11 pm
The people have spoken.
A crappy game with crappy sales. How surprising.
August 13, 2009 at 11:13 pm
$400 game systems (yeah the xbox is included as over $400 when you add up all of the cost) plus $65 games =rent money/car note. The games cost too much. What's worse is the resale value. Madden hits shelves tomorrow and will sell a few million for $55-65 bucks yet come next year you would be lucky to sell it for more than $10 bucks!
Mo Diddley the voice of the people!
August 13, 2009 at 11:37 pm
well yeah next year.. i mean who wants madden 10 next year when 11 comings out shortly..
August 14, 2009 at 2:24 am
yeah thats the retailers you have a grip with there. they've been screwing customers for a good while. PEOPLE STOP TRADING YOUR GAMES IN…. sell them on ebay or something, thats better than giving cash away to these retailers.
August 13, 2009 at 11:15 pm
EA is dropping the ball literally with the NCAA Football series.o.0
August 13, 2009 at 11:25 pm
It's time for a 2 year cycle with DLC in between. They keep rushing these games year in and year out and it definitely shows. I also think there will not be a huge drop-off in sales either when you consider that people may actually buy a Madden game at full price a year latter to get the DLC for the upcoming season. I personally would pay $15-25 bucks for the following year's DLC.
Mo Diddley the people's champ!
August 13, 2009 at 11:28 pm
It won't happen. They make more money off the yearly sales. A scenario where they take off a year and sell double the next is not possible, and the DLC would not nearly make up that money that would be lost from not releasing.
August 13, 2009 at 11:28 pm
It won't happen. They make more money off the yearly sales. A scenario where they take off a year and sell double the next is not plausible, and the DLC would not nearly make up that money that would be lost from not releasing.
August 13, 2009 at 11:38 pm
It's not about what you sell now it's about what you sell later. Sure Madden is hot but soon their licensing agreement will come to past and they will have a full blown competition. If they can produce a high quality product year in and year out then it's not a problem but we all know that is not the case. I have a feeling that somebody is going to jump on a physics based engine and release a NFL game once that licensing agreement is over.
Mo Diddley has spoken!
August 14, 2009 at 12:21 am
I'm thinking that waiting for EA to give up the license is being overly optimistic, especially now that they've apparently stepped it up & put out a good game this year. Madden sales will make up for the loss in NCAA sales, probably by a large margin. I'm actually not sure that wasn't in the plans all along.
August 14, 2009 at 12:18 am
I'm no business man, but I disagree with you, Brian. I think most people would pay the $15-20 (whichever is necessary, lower would generate more downloads, though) to get the updates. I'm pretty sure that EA doesn't make any more than that per unit anyway once you consider packaging, distribution & retail profit. Minus Microsoft/Sony's download fee, I'm pretty sure they'd come out with what they make now if not even better.
I'm sure some real research needs to be done, but this seems to make a LOT of sense. The side effect of this is that not only you keep profits about the same, but the marketing blitz for the succeeding game will be intense and I doubt you see a dip in sales like from NCAA 09 to 10.
August 13, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Where are all the people that were saying that Fight Night would have more lasting power then UFC now?
August 13, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Boxing is a dying sport we know this already. MMA is the next big thing but in reality Fight Night was and is a much better game than UFC. UFC had 2 things going for it 1) It released it's game during a down time in the sports calendar year & right before Fight Night 2) It's a fast growing sport
EA did an excellent job with Fight Night and compared to the UFC game is much more detailed. I believe people will replay Fight Night more than UFC for those who have the game.
Mo Diddley the teller of truth!
August 14, 2009 at 2:32 am
what planet do you live on? LOL! It's no secrete EA dropped the ball right out the gate on FNR4, just head over to ALL the complaints people had about the game [and there were fans of the franchise]. The problem is the dev team was arrogant in thinking we could be simply fooled [like you were] by pretty things. The game has to actually work properly.
August 13, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Were they the same ones calling me an idiot because FN had only been out "so and so days" and that the sales were actually good?
August 13, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Pasta, surely you have to admit that was a poor comparison, even if the sales haven't been particularly strong following that period.
August 13, 2009 at 11:56 pm
No the comparison had complete merit. Sales were going to be frontloaded. Saying you can't compare UFC's 11 days to FN's 6 is incorrect. If anything FN would have the advantage being as sequel and with EA's preorder incentives.
August 14, 2009 at 12:19 am
No the comparison had complete merit. Sales were going to be frontloaded. Saying you can't compare UFC's 11 days to FN's 6 is incorrect. If anything FN would have the advantage being as sequel and with EA's preorder incentives. I even correctly predicted that FN would be lucky to chart in July, as opposed to people suggesting that the sales would be rolling in and heavier than June.
Think of it in the same way as a movie. Good buzz and word of mouth led a new franchise to extended strong sales. With a "sequel" you get the early rush and then big drop-off.
August 13, 2009 at 11:40 pm
I'm proud to say i'm one of the 26,000 that decided not to buy the game compared to last year. And I'm really really really glad their sales are down significantly from last year, especially when you consider alot more people own gaming systems compared to last year. I was really hoping that this would happen and it did in spades. I'm not a hater but I didn't buy NCAA for the first time in over 10 years due to known issues not being dealt with until a patch comes out, wtf, and the rosters, and overall a shitty game.
Realize this we the consumers have a lot more power than you think. If there sales were equal or better you could expect the same crappy game next year. But with us speaking with our wallets this sends a message that us gamers won't continually get duped into buying a shitty EA sports game.
August 13, 2009 at 11:40 pm
I think a lot of it had to do with EA using the Season Showdown as marketing strategy. The EA Inside Blogs that accompanied NCAA were TERRIBLE compared to Madden's. The NCAA dev's showed up "new" animations, Season Showdown, and Teambuilder.
Madden showed up a revamped franchise, Pro-Tak engine, and highlighted the online franchise. Personally, I chalk of the bad release of NCAA to the devs – Ben Haumiller has almost single-handedly killed the NCAA series.
August 13, 2009 at 11:46 pm
i only buy it every 2 or 3 years and after playing this years demo..i just couldn't see enough of a difference to shell out 60 bucks when i am happy with 09..problem for me is there are so many great games coming out and i have to pick out which ones i want to fit my budget and a game like ncaa 10 just doesn't warrant a buy for me.
August 14, 2009 at 12:23 am
I'm like you. I have NEVER bought sports games in successive seasons. I just get too attached to my franchises. But it looks like Madden10 has done enough in 1 year that I'll probably break that rule this season.
August 14, 2009 at 12:23 am
I haven't bough a Next Gen NCAA game yet. I buy Madden every year though. Fight Night was a no go for me because I stayed at friends apartment for a week and played it a lot. I ended up getting bored with it after 3 days. I am very picky with the games I buy for the 360.
August 14, 2009 at 12:23 am
Great news. Money is the only thing that will make them improve games at this point. Take that away and they will scramble to make a better game. Good job to those that held off buying it this year.
August 14, 2009 at 12:34 am
THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES JUST PICKED UP MICHAEL VICK!
MO DIDDLEY THE MEDIA REPORTER!
August 14, 2009 at 12:41 am
So he has to be in the 1st roster update that EA sends out now
August 14, 2009 at 12:48 am
First off EA releases 2 football games each year. One college and one pro. If anyone is like me i prefer the pro game over the college game. Now I bought NCAA 09 last year and it was a solid game, but once Madden dropped it was off to the trade in bin for NCAA. I am assuming that most people don't have the time to dedicate to playing two football games so its either one or the other. Also unless your a sports gamer and in particular a football gamer, you will not be playing this game either. The fact that the sales of this game are down is a reflection of nothing really. It could be because the recent influx of new console owners aren't sports gamers. It could also be that Madden is so good this year that many, my self included, saw no reason to waste 60$ on college when the pinnacle of football was a month away. There also may be those who are just waiting for various reasons to purchase the game. Bottom line is, there is plenty of time for these numbers to change and heck, Madden isn't even out til tomorrow, so why are you even counting in the first place.
August 14, 2009 at 2:00 am
We count because a game like NCAA 10 will probably do %60 of its business in the first month, its sales aren't going to go up they will only drop starting tomorrow, and obviously there will be an influx of used copies to purchase tommorrow and those don't count towards the npd numbers.
August 14, 2009 at 3:55 am
I knew that NCAA FB 10 was not going to sell very well. The game sucks, period. Sure there is some good but it's sprinkled in between way too much bad. This game's progress in comparison to last years game is just a joke. EA obviously didn't care too much about quality of NCAA 10 because they put everything into Madden. I bought NCAA 10 (although I wish I hadn't) but only because I got the guaranteed $40 coupon towards Madden from gamestop. I'm sure that many people would not have bought the game if it wasn't for that and the sales numbers would have been even worse for NCAA.
August 14, 2009 at 4:14 am
Good to hear people aren't just throwing away money. I still have not picked up FNR4, will check it out when it drops to $30 or $40 max, may still pass. NCAA Football, the same thing, it needs a price drop to interest me. I'm really not even hyped about CFB this year for some reason. The generic rosters of Ncaa Football and the Button debate on FNR4 hurt both games, but at the end of the day NCAA did not have a bad slip in sales considering the economy.
August 14, 2009 at 6:05 am
Guys this is a great time for 2k sports to jump in and snag the college football license. pasta already said EA is thinking about not renewining the license this would be perfect for 2k they could perfect there engine for 2013 and possible steal or the NFL might let both companies do an nfl game.
its wishful thinking but the news isn't all bad.
August 14, 2009 at 6:31 pm
I actually think that NCAA 10 is a pretty sweet game and differs from NCAA 09 in many areas. My personal opinion is people are being a touch more selective when buying. Instead of jumping out and purchasing a game when it is released, I believe people are more willing to rent first.
I agree that the Madden team has taken Madden 10 above and beyond what we have seen in the past few years.
I would like to know what GameFly's numbers were for July.
August 14, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Good, NCAA 10 was a pathetic excuse for a full game. It was so marginally improved over 09 that asking 60 dollars for the game should be considered a crime. It’s great to see consumers are recognizing this, the only ppl who aren’t are the blind lackeys. Thank God for the Madden dev team who actually decided to improve their game nor just release the same game with a few minor inconscequential changes. I hope the NCAA team gets their s**t straight for next yrs game.
August 14, 2009 at 8:35 pm
I'm prepared to get blasted, but I like NCAA better most years than Madden. This year, so far I call them equal. I think there is a lot more depth to the game than I see it given credit for on the net. Is it a perfect game, no, but then again there isn't one IMO. I guess I'm just sick of seeing the NCAA series unnecessarily totally trashed as in my opinion part of the reason for down NCAA sales is massive nitpicking and hating on the net. Just my $0.02. Fire Away!!!!!