August 09 Sales Numbers
by 
The official sales for August were released yesterday offering the opportunity to analyze the sales of Madden 10. The 360 version sold 928,000 and the PS3 sold 665,000 for a total of 1.59 million copies. Compared to last year sales fell from 1.64 million. So with a drop of 50,000 copies representing 3% Madden held relatively strong compared to other recent releases. The sales aren’t anything to celebrate though as EA would obviously look at the increase in user base as a potential for sales growth. With the state of the economy that may not be a completely viable goal for an annually released franchise as it seems that expanded user base is just going to limit the drop-off rather than build on the fan base.
In many cases when quality increases it can take a year or two in order to build back that trust with consumers. Some lost sales could be attributed to disinterest in the franchise after years of disappointment. However along with the positive response this year it could have stronger legs than the last few Maddens. With the PS3 sales drop and release of the Slim, and with the 360 Elite seeing a price drop there is some additional potential to trend higher than usual as consumers pick up copies of games for their new system in the coming months.
To compare, NCAA Football 10 dropped 5% from the previous year’s opening month but has also seen a sharp decline following the initial results as poor word of mouth spread and consumers looked towards Madden. The 360 version fell all the way from #2 in July to #15 in August and the PS3 didn’t even make the Top 20 meaning NCAA’s drop month over month was 83%. The average seen with yearly sports games falls in the 75-80% range. With the state of the game right now it is in much more dire condition going forward than Madden is. That doesn’t even count all the ongoing lawsuits that threaten the already mediocre authenticity the game offers. You can also look at Fight Night Round 4 which came out of the gates with very disappointing sales and never recovered from consumer backlash.
The Wii version of Madden 10 bombed in astonishing fashion selling just 67,000 copies which is a 42% plummet from 09. Even though the direction they took it this year made a lot of sense there is just complete apathy when it comes to yearly sports titles outside of Tiger Woods on the Wii. With these sales it would not be out of the realm of possibility that EA repackages it as something other than just Madden. That could end up being similar to how they took the Nascar license and used it for Nascar Kart Racing. The Madden name doesn’t do anything for it on the Wii unlike the branding value it has on other platforms.
On the encouraging side as discussed on Thursday Madden 10 released for the iPhone and to overwhelmingly great response. That is a new platform for the series and could prove to be a successful venture for EA this year and beyond.
One other factor to consider in all this is the unknown revenue being produced through downloadable content. We won’t have an idea whether things like extra Teambuilder slots, Online Franchise codes for those with used copies, various downloadable cheats, Madden Elite, and so on drew in enough money to offset the losses in sales. Certainly though that revenue will have helped to soften the blow.
September 12, 2009 at 4:15 pm
1stttttttttttt
September 12, 2009 at 4:16 pm
good that Madden did alright. the game is so good it deserves the sales. and also hope that EA sees how NCAA is failing and turns it around like they did for Madden
September 12, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Maybe they should update their online franchise rosters. I bet that would increase sales.
September 12, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I think that all of EA's offerings were pretty solid this year. I understand those frustrated with NCAA as the dynasty logic is still messed up and the extra modes aren't as solid as they can be.
I am somewhat shocked by FN4. The game is outstanding and EA stepped up to add button controls through a patch.
I think game sales are going to naturally struggle since people are being more selective. I used to buy every game every year but now, because of the economy, I have to be selective as to what I buy new and what I wait to purchase used. I also believe that this lends to consumers' criticism weighing more on whether or not people purchase a specific game.
For me, I love NCAA 10. I am not one to play the same team over and over however, again, if EA is going to add modes these modes need to work properly….
September 12, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I think that all of EA's offerings were pretty solid this year. I understand those frustrated with NCAA as the dynasty logic is still messed up and the extra modes aren't as solid as they can be.
I am somewhat shocked by FN4. The game is outstanding and EA stepped up to add button controls through a patch.
I think game sales are going to naturally struggle since people are being more selective. I used to buy every game every year but now, because of the economy, I have to be selective as to what I buy new and what I wait to purchase used. I also believe that this lends to consumers' criticism weighing more on whether or not people purchase a specific game.
For me, I love NCAA 10. I am not one to play the same team over and over however, again, if EA is going to add modes these modes need to work properly….
As far as Madden for Wii, absolute junk!
September 12, 2009 at 5:27 pm
I agree with you on Fight Night being a great game. I also agree with you on people being selective but do you think that the MMA game that came out just before FN4 took away a lot of sales from FN4?
September 12, 2009 at 9:23 pm
That was definitely part of it. But EA struggled with FN (exclusive/delayed demo, weak roster, no button controls) and didn't deal well with those issues.
September 12, 2009 at 5:01 pm
This is probably why we saw such a massive increase in the DLC because EA knew this would be an issue and decided to make more money off the people who did buy the game. I can understand that, but I still think it's setting up a bad trend.
About the mess with NCAA Football and FNR4, I think that is just another reason why Live will be good this year. EA knows they HAVE to get it right this time or risk losing that game as well. You can see the amount of work they put in to it this year and I think it's going to pay off.
September 12, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I see your gripe but that is the "beast " of the free market, you can set your product to generate as much money as humanly possible. In the short term it's only for extras that doesn't destroy the game but eventually it will become more integrated to interfere with basic functions of the game forcing you to purchase content to just enjoy the game.
September 13, 2009 at 12:40 am
kive is garbage better than last year but still im going with 2k
September 12, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Well, i hope this spurns EA to actually put more effort into NCAA AND Madden….despite its strong showing this year, there's still a lot of room for improvement.
Take heed, moore!!!
September 12, 2009 at 10:59 am
I guess there are alot of people like me out there i want madden but really cant find $60 to spend on it right now will be gett when i get paid
September 12, 2009 at 6:15 pm
thats good for ea, maybe the will start hearing what consumers want instead of leaving it up to a bunch of pansies who never played any type of organized athletics. i still can not believe the uselesness of season showdown. what a total waste of my money and their time. i really like what the did with madden, although the roster updates need to be every week to be accurate.
September 12, 2009 at 9:25 pm
The roster updates are weekly throughout the season.
September 12, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Hey, when does the roster update come out for PS2, last time it was on a 2-3 day delay, do you know if it will always be like this?
September 12, 2009 at 12:32 pm
You can make all the excuses you want, but the overall sales for Madden and its STALE engine have gone down for 5 straight years. Madden 05 for xbox and ps2 sold a combined 6 million. They’ll be lucky to crack 3 million combined for the 360 and ps3 this year.
Thankfully, all of this means the end of the exclusives is undoubtedly near.
September 12, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Ea is losing there touch with sports gamers.We want SIMULATION sports not arcade junk leave arcade to midway. EA sports is becoming like Sears, In my opinion the only game holding ea afloat is madden, once people wise up and realize HEY were not taking this stale madden TRASH anymore EA will no longer be a powerhouse like they were in the OLD GEN days!
I mean Ea is the only company to take out features to madden then put them back in the following year and say hey we have a new feature! Like WTF! They implement refs who continuously huddle up after you KNOW you scored and bring out the chain gang after every freaking first down. I mean WTF happend to you EA you use to actually be worth something this is heart breaking for me almost as heartbreaking as watching mike tyson go from PHENOM to Laughing Stock
Heres to hoping people will finally stop being SHEEP and will hold EA accountable!
(hey it can happen I mean people are now holding politicians accountable)
September 12, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I believe that Fifa & NHL are also keeping EA afloat. NBA Live is looking quite promising this year. I haven't bought Madden since 07 since that was my first PS3 game and I'm still waiting for something worth the money. EA really should quit with the nickel and diming and implement what people want and not remove old great features. It is all about building not taking steps back.
September 12, 2009 at 10:11 pm
The reason EA dropped off in sales is because it rained today
September 12, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Pasta, you may or may not already know that next season the NFL will
have an uncapped year being that it's the last year of the owners and
player union's collective bargaining agreement. Now with that on the horizon and the severe
restrictions on player movement, contract eligibility and ramifications on team finances it
will dramatically change the landscape of the NFL. I know that people will think
that the rich will get richer in personnel i.e. New York Yankees while
technically that is possible but it's really not that simple. A team
that has a high cap number in 2010 from rapid spending could be forced
to cut half their team if a new collective agreement is implemented for
the following 2011 season. For example WAS has an 200 million payroll
for 2010 the 2011 collective agreement sets the new salary cap to 150
million, so WAS has to release over 50 million in salary virtually
rendering the team a cap casualty for the next several years. Just to
bring up a few changes here are some of the high points
The top eight playoff finishers from the previous season would be
allowed to sign free agents only at the rate at which they lose them.
Players would need six NFL seasons to be eligible for free agency,
rather than four.
Each team would be allowed to restrict two eligible free agents with
"franchise" or "transition" player tags, rather than one.
So my question is how is the Madden team and EA sports going to
compensate for this change? Do they plan on giving us the current
system in Madden 10 or will they try to accommodate the the actual NFL
agreement of the 2010 season in next year's Madden game? Also, Pasta what is your take on the
whole collective bargaining agreement?
September 12, 2009 at 5:29 pm
To be fair I don't think that a bad word of mouth is a chief contributor to lack of sales. All across the board sales have fallen sharply be it automobiles, houses, stocks, appliances, and even season tickets in sports. So the video game world is not immune to the dramatic decrease in consumer purchases. So to only have a 3% drop in a economic climate where consumer confidence has dropped over 80% is a definitive win.
Now with NCAA they have felt the economic crush and along with Fight Night and have had similar competition in close proximity of their respective release dates . Although I still think Fight Night is a great game it's timing should have been before the MMA game instead of after it. This year people are willing to purchase a game but instead of previous years where they would buy more than 1 game of the same genre this year they are only saving for 1 game of similar titles. So the MMA got the fight sales and Madden receive the football sales. I expect to see low numbers for both NBA 2K and NBA Live as they will probably split the revenue to minimal results.
September 12, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Good post, Mr_EA_Sports.
pasta – I am not sure how valid vgchartz.com is, but according to them the 360 version of NCAA 10 has sold 1,485 less copies than 09 did at the same point – at current rate, should exceed last year's pace next week or week after. The PS3 version of NCAA Football 10 has sold 48,652 more copies than 09 did at the same point. Minus the poor launch week sales, the game has exceeded sales of 09 each week. If correct, one could make a valid argument that word of mouth has helped the game.
September 12, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Finally Pasta……
Anyway The only way EgAy could get back sales is to let go of the exclusive license deal….bottom line.
Competition=Innovation.
Maybe if they do that Madden won’t be the stale, substandard trash heap that it is…..
I would never buy the trash but EA might get all the kiddies back who actually like their shitty games..
2K Football will get the sim crowd, EA the garbage kiddies…and we will all be happy.
What do you think?
September 13, 2009 at 6:55 am
This makes no sense.
September 13, 2009 at 3:55 am
It because of deadlines and making a product basically every 6 months
Diablo III has been made for over 2-3 years now and I expect Diablo III patched up to 1.12 again even
with the 2-3 years. Nugs are in the matrix and there isnt shit that u can do but patch up what they ate.
September 13, 2009 at 3:55 am
*BUGS LOL
not NUgs nugs are good though LOL