EA, Stop? The answer is no!

supaG · Rookie Gender: Joined: 14 Jan 2005

Actually, madden still outsold ESPN NFL. But the scary part to ESPN was that they gained 40% of the market share and that is unheard of when you talk about competing with Madden. The only reason being so, the price point of 19.99.

Even at my former job, I still sold more Maddens than anything else, but there were times when people went with price instead of quality. = /

Shino · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 9:13 am Post subject:

Oh sorry. Just looked at my numbers again and you are right.

Madden 2K5 outsold ESPN 2K5 ON PS2.
However...
ESPN 2k5 outsold Madden 2K5 on Xbox.

Razer · 4934 5157 5662 5658 Gender: Joined: 07 Oct 2002

Well to hit a few points:
1) no, you can't have football without the NFL. At least you can't have a sales supported football game.

2) Sega didn't just lose the ESPN license since the ESPN NFL series had gone thru a major overhaul including the ESPN reporters, look, etc. They pretty much lost their entire property except for the engine. I shudder to think of them going back to how NFL 2K was.

3) EA cannot be blamed purely from a business standpoint. What they are doing is way "better" than what Nintendo did when they used to hold retailers ("Give us X amount of shelf space or we will not supply you with product") and companies ("use our cartridges or we will not license your product and tell retailers not to stock your product") hostage. What EA is doing is possibly unethical but not illegal.

4) Games will suffer (tho this is just my opinion). Basically time has shown that when you have no competition, the product stagnates/regresses. Madden (and most sports series in general) has become a cliche of $50 roster updates and "this year's gimmick". NFL 2K5 has the same thing as The Hit Stick but it's called something else.

5) Madden vs ESPN is simply non-football fans vs football fans. I mean, how many games of Madden do you NOT score 40+ pts. How many real NFL teams score 40+ in a season? Madden, I believe, is made for 2P games where realism is thrown out the window while the ESPN series is much more realistic in terms of real life NFL play. Both games, however, could use a major dose of realism (fatigue). The best football game ever was Tecmo Super Bowl. Why we get 97 DoA's and the spinoffs and no TSB update, I can't imagine.

6) if I were buying stock, I'd buy EA. Reality wins here, folks. Walmart comes into town and eliminates the competition by running them out of business. EA buys up the competition then buys up all of the available product. It's America at it's capitolistic best.

Hoth · Guitarist Gender: Joined: 10 Oct 2002

And yet another long thread about EA vs ESPN.. Well this might take some takers.

Last year would seem was one of our biggest regresses in the economy which means that with monies being tight that the only football alternative was espn at $20.

But who cares now anyway.. Why cry over something none of you can change. EA wins and rules and rocks so get over it.

Shino · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:25 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't say EA rules. I won't say they suck either. They make SOME good stuff.

Ultrawolf · Mr. Roarke Gender: Joined: 04 Jul 2003

Hoth · Guitarist Gender: Joined: 10 Oct 2002

Battlefield 1942!!

nintendobratkat · Spoiled Rotten >^..^< Gender: Joined: 14 Sep 2003

I will say The Urbz sucks on all systems but the DS/GBA. Huge difference in gameplay - so I do like a game by EA and proudly own it for DS!

supaG · Rookie Gender: Joined: 14 Jan 2005

First of all, Madden is 10x harder than ESPN will ever be. In 2002 and before, it was like 60pt + game but if you're playing on all-madden now, you won't be getting 30 pts just so easily. ESPN is easy as hell. anywayz....

EA has a lot of games that they publish/develop.

The Sims, SimCity 4, Sid Meier alpha centauri, battle for middle earth, all 3 LOTR movie games, Sims 2, Ultima Online, Need for Speed, MEdal of Honor, any recent 007 games, Command & Conquer Generals, BLACK AND WHITE!!!!!!!!!!, any and all battlefields, freedom fighters, def jam: vendetta/fight for ny, burnout3, timesplitters, oddworld stranger's wrath, madden, nba live, fight night, mvp, tiger woods, marchmadness, ncaa football,nfl street 1/2, nba street 1/2/3, and all SSX games.

That's a load of nice titles(excluding the 007 games), I will always buy madden first no matter what. People still bought madden at $50 price point cause they know its a better game. If EA were to sell at 19.99 all throughout just as ESPN did, Madden would clobber them easily.