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MontanaHatchet on 11 September 2008
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DeguelloNWR said:
mrstickball said:
azrm2k said:
Saying the Wii won't be like the PS2 is a valid enough prediction. However basing that off of Madden sales is not. The Wii demographic isn't the key target for Madden fans and most Madden enthusiasts that play every year competitively will keep sticking to the HD consoles instead of going to the Wii SKU which has a completely different control scheme they'd have to get used to.

The PS2 was dominant but not all genres thrived best there. It was the console of choice for Madden gamers last generation but shooter games still reigned supreme on Xbox. Likewise this generation even if other gamers flock to the Wii Madden will never be as popular on the Wii as it is on the HD consoles, at least not to the traditional Madden gamers you see on Madden Nation.

But it proves the Wii demographic is nothing like the PS2's. It's not entirely about sticking to HD consoles. If that was the case, the PS2 version wouldn't of sold 4 times that of the Wii. I don't buy the "they won't buy it for the Wii due to new control scheme" - Have you played Madden? Control schemes are different each year, as EA adds a bunch of stuff, and mixes up a decent bit of controls for each Madden.

The PS2 *was* dominant in every category - Go back and look at shooters - Just because the Xbox excelled there doesn't mean the Playstation 2 did bad there.

http://vgchartz.com/ayearly.php?year=2004&console=&maker=

What does VGC say the top PS2 games of 2004 were? Grand Theft: SA (Shooter), MGS3 (shooter), Call of Duty (shooter) and so on. There are quite a few PS2 shooters on that list that did fairly well.

The fact is, the Playstation 2 had virtually every demographic. The Wii does not. The Wii doesn't have the hardcore/core demographic of males ages 16-30 like the PS2 had that buy shooters, sports games, and the like. The Wii still has the time and chance to either grow up their users into buying games like Madden, and/or acquire said players due to it's North American dominance, but Madden and it's ilk continue to show that the Wii's target demo is similar to the DS, at least in NOrth America.

 

The PS2 has every demographic... when all was said and done.  It's first year was horrid.  It took a long time to build up that library and it wasn't always rosy.  Madden 09's inability to sell on Wii (at least in it's first month) stems from two problems, both from EA.

1. The "All-Play" Purpose branding, effectively making the game out to be some kind of "Sub-Game" or at the very least "different" from "Regular" Madden.

2. EA's decision to basically only market the 360 version via Walmart and such.

This would be a problem for Nintendo... if Nintendo weren't ahead of everybody and making cash hand over fist.  If EA wants to cater to the 360 and PS3 owners and the HD press, even while they post losses or miniscule profits, that's their choice.

I think what's gone unnoticed here is that Madden, once the champion of the casual gamer, the beating, straight-laced heart of the PS2, has become a hardcore game, what with Midnight launches and super special deluxe 20th anniversary editions, and the commercials showing dumpy fat white guys. (target market, eh?)

To say that Madden's sales "show the demographics" of the Wii is slipshod logic that can easily be disproven with the DS.  Madden sells terribly there too.  But I'm not about to challenge the DS's "demographics" and say they don't have any 16-30 males who own it.  (This number range gets smaller each time, which is weird.  Apparently once you turn 30 you turn in your gamer credentials and any gameplaying after that is considered "uncool" for you to do.)  And Because of this, you cannot make the same assertion about the Wii, because 16-30 males do own it and when the Wii just contines to barn-burn it's way through a historical third mostly sold-out holiday straight, the potential market for 16-30 males on the Wii will become larger than MS's.  Just like how the PSP is directly advertised to 16-30 males, despite the DS actually having more of them and everybody else too.

So, what do you blame for the poor sales of Madden on the Wii before it went under the "All Play" brand? Given the hardware sales, and the casual nature of the platform, the Wii greatly underperformed with the Madden series. As for the marketing, it managed to do very well on the PS2 and incredibly well on the PS3, and it seems like all versions got about the same amount of advertising save for the 360 version.

As for why Madden doesn't sell well on the DS...isn't it obvious? It has a lot less to do with demographics and a lot more to do with how the system is thought of. If you wanted to buy a Madden game, would you buy it on the DS? And if you were a 16-30 year old male, and you only owned a DS, would you be the type to buy Madden? Madden sales are great on the PSP despite it having less 16-30 males than the DS.

And Madden is becoming a hardcore game? When you write an essay and accurately describe the distinct differences between casual and hardcore, I might find it in myself to agree with that statement.