By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Mandalore76 on 22 November 2017
Edit Thread
DonFerrari said:
Mandalore76 said:

I want a Madden NFL game on Nintendo Switch because I would buy it.  I bought Madden 13 on Wii U.  Even though it didn't have the current engine the other platforms got, the ability to pick plays on the gamepad and draw my own hot routes and blitzes at the line of scrimmage was the far superior experience for me.  When EA dropped support and refused to bring another Madden title to Wii U, they lost me as a customer.  Instead of continuing to buy the annual installments on Xbox One, I just kept playing my Madden 13 for all these years.  Up until then, I had been buying Madden releases on SNES, Genesis, PlayStation 1 & 2, Xbox 360...  Now that EA has flat out ignored an entire platform(s) for 5 consecutive years, they have lost 5 years of business from me.  I'm probably not the only one either.  There is "0" reason not to put a single Madden NFL title on Nintendo Switch right now.  The system is hot.  It is considered "the tech purchase" of this holiday season.  EA is withholding sales from themselves, eroding their customer base (of people like me) and contributing to the devaluing of the NFL product by not having a presence on all systems (especially the system most in demand in the NFL's market, NA).  I point to Madden's slumping sales this year.  The first year that Madden sales in over 15 years that didn't break a million first week.  And no, I don't buy the excuse that "the customers weren't lost, they've just gone digital".  Look at Fifa's trend:

Fifa 16 (PS4 1st week):  2.7 million
Fifa 17 (PS4 1st week):  4.4 million
Fifa 18 (PS4 1st week):  4.3 million

Annual sports games have a very short shelf life.  A lot of the people who buy Madden and Fifa buy the physical copy so they can trade it in before the next one comes out and get at least something back in return.  You can't do that with digital.  Hence why Fifa's sales haven't gone down with the rise of digital distribution, they've actually increased significantly. 

Lastly, Madden needs to be on all systems, because the NFL isn't a worldwide sport.  All of it's teams are based in the USA.  The NA market makes up 70% of Madden game sales.  The Switch is hot in NA right now, that's why it makes the most sense.  But, as it's test game, EA releases a game whose 73% of its sales comes from the Switch's weakest market (Europe)?  Come on.

And let's see how much Madden sold on WiiU to see if they should keep making ports?

On X360 = 2.9M

On PS3 = 2.67M

Wii = 0.51M

WiiU = 0.23M

So again, why should they bother in putting the effort and money if the userbase doesn't put the money buying it? Or should the just put funds to please a small number of customers and make a loss?

That's a launch title compared to the sales of consoles on the market for 7 years already.  By your logic, Xbox 360 Madden series should have been cancelled after the dismal sales of Madden NFL 06 which couldn't even beat the PSP and barely surpassed the dying Gamecube:

PosGamePlatformYearGenrePublisherNorth AmericaEuropeJapanRest of WorldGlobal
1 Madden NFL 06 PS2 2005 Sports Electronic Arts 3.98 0.26 0.01 0.66 4.91
2 Madden NFL 06 XB 2005 Sports Electronic Arts 1.75 0.03 0.00 0.08 1.86
3 Madden NFL 06 PSP 2005 Sports Electronic Arts 0.69 0.00 0.00 0.06 0.75
4 Madden NFL 06 X360 N/A Sports Electronic Arts 0.54 0.00 0.01 0.03 0.59
5 Madden NFL 06 GC 2005 Sports Electronic Arts 0.44 0.11 0.00 0.02 0.57

Again, by the same logic, the PS3 Madden series should have been cancelled after it's dismal debut in 2006 when it likewise was outsold by the PSP and original Xbox.  Unlike the 360, the PS3 version could not even outsell the Gamecube which had already been replaced at that point:

PosGamePlatformYearGenrePublisherNorth AmericaEuropeJapanRest of WorldGlobal
1 Madden NFL 07 PS2 2006 Sports Electronic Arts 3.63 0.24 0.01 0.61 4.49
2 Madden NFL 07 X360 2006 Sports Electronic Arts 1.66 0.00 0.01 0.13 1.80
3 Madden NFL 07 XB 2006 Sports Electronic Arts 0.97 0.03 0.00 0.03 1.02
4 Madden NFL 07 PSP N/A Sports Unknown 0.77 0.03 0.00 0.04 0.83
5 Madden NFL 07 GC 2006 Sports Electronic Arts 0.48 0.13 0.00 0.02 0.62
6 Madden NFL 07 PS3 2006 Sports Electronic Arts 0.48 0.00 0.01 0.04 0.53

I reiterate my point that the Nintendo Switch is "the hot tech buy" in North America right now.  NA is Madden's largest market.  There is "0" reason to not even try to release a single Madden title on Nintendo Switch.  That .23 million Madden sales on Wii U was to a global install base of only 2.2 million.  There wasn't even a million Wii U owners in NA at that time.  Over 7.63 million Switches were sold by October 31st.  2.3 million Switches were sold in the US alone by October 7th.  Madden's annual sales are slumping.  Are you telling me it makes more financial sense for EA to ignore an entire platform than to release a game who's 70% of sales come from a market that said platform is currently in highest demand?