EA is in an interesting position. I feel like they finally understand what Nintendo has been saying all along - that there are no casual gamers; there are simply those who like to game more often (or dedicated gamers as I like to call them, the current "hardcore" gamer) and those who don't game as often (part-time gamers, or the current "casual" gamer), then there's also the non-gamer, but the idea with WiiFit is to turn them into part time gamers (and then hopefully dedicated gamers). The dedicated games need depth and increasing levels of difficulty (whether that difficulty is given by different levels or simply making the game difficult), while the part-timer gamer needs to be able to pick up the game and quickly get into it because they don't have hours and hours to dedicate to get good at the game, and they don't have time to finish a game if it's overly hard.
It may seem impossible to cater to both of these groups, but Nintendo has done a really fine job with it. Mario Kart is really easy to pick up and play, easy to understand the most basic ideas of the game, and one can do fairly well without hours of practice. But if you dedicate yourself to it, you can learn all those neat tricks and such, and can become much better than the players that don't play the game as much (an example would be me - I get pwnd every MK race when I join the tournament...). WiiSports is even a good one - anyone can pick that game up and be somewhat good after five minutes, but go up against, say my brother, and you'll probably get owned (unless you dedicated yourself to the game to get good at it). IN tennis he is able to hit the ball at the right time to send it the farthest away from my character as possible - much like you would do in real tennis. Neither of these games have I really bothered to try and get good at (and my brother has even done the training things in WiiSports), so if the games were just based on luck or wild swings of the wiimote (as some suggest), then I feel I should win a few times, yet I never do...
So back to the beginning - EA has seen what Nintendo is doing/ has done, and are trying to copy them, but keep failing at one or two major breakpoints. With Boom Blox they failed to advertise - and though few of Nintendo's games need advertising, they all get it and are rewarded with very good sales. With Madden 09, they were still stuck with the idea that "casuals" love cute looking things, and gave the cover a slightly more funny look, and added that "All-Play" nonesense to it. These "casuals" have been playing games for years on the PS2 and PS1, the same games that the so called "hardcores" were playing.
Basically, EA is moving in the right direction. They've made Madden 09 more accessible while not making it simple. They made it fun while not making it boring (if that even makes sense). They made it easy for all, while making it difficult if need be (through the Easy, Madden, All-Madden, etc difficultly settings). But then they fucked up that cover. Marketers be damned!
Also, lets not forget that Madden 08 was selling 7k a week back in July. It might not be as high as the others, but few Wii games have great big launches, so I don't see why this one should be all that much different. 08 managed more than 800k according to this site, after only selling the 174k in the first two months. Why can't 09 sell over a million (I know what you are thinking - but it's already over 9000...) after only selling 176k in the first two months? And when did a million (or over 800k for that matter) become a bad thing (and not profitable as eliasg said)?
