Football games are a part of sports genre, when you populazed a part of a genre, you also promoted the entire genre on some level

Did American futbol fans start buying NFL games because of FIFA 10? No they didn't, they already bought NFL games since Madden became popular in 90s. And before FIFA 10, futbol fans didn't bought futbol games because the Madden franchise was popular.

Sports game become popular because of the fanbase said sport has and one game that sets the boundries (Madden and FIFA in this case). That's why you don't see rugby games selling, even though those games enter in the sports genre.

are you arguing just for the sake of arguing?

Same can be said about you. If you can't refute my argument then don't post anything. 

I didn even quote you, you quoted me.

And I can refute your ''argument'' but you seem like an enormous waste of time, really.

And you continue. If I was a waste of time you wouldn't even have answered me in the first place.

But go ahead and refute the argument, in the end that's why most of us are here for: to debate. I'm all ears.

Edit: this is my 5000 post yay!

Ok, Ill bite for the last time

Popularizing the genre doesnt mean that every game or every sub genre will be popular. FACT

Call of Duty popularized FPSes. FACT

Tons of shooters still cant sell well. FACT

More people play FPS games now then before COD, thus FPS genre is more popular thanks to COD. ALSO A FACT

Now lets replace COD with FIFA

Popularizing the genre doesnt mean that every game or every sub genre will be popular. Football is the most popular sport in the world, of course its gonna sell more than water polo games. FACT

FIFA 10 popularized sport games, since football itself is a sport. FACT

Tons of sport games still cant sell well. FACT

More people play sport games now then before FIFA 10, thus sport genre is more popular thanks to FIFA. ALSO A FACT

...is it reeeeally this hard to understand? Why are you even arguing about this? Are you really this bored

A sports franchise becomes popular, thus, sports genre also benfits from its popularity. Why the FUCK is that so hard to grasp???

If Nintendo is not THAT important, I can't imagine how disposable are the other companies.

COD popularized FPS on home consoles? LOL.

Did GoldenEye and Halo not exist or something?

Wow you have some anger problems it seems. 

Anyway I'll bite for the last time as well.

The core difference between comparing sports with other genres is mainly do to core gameplay mechanics. FPSs follow the same principles, there are differences between the games sure, but the core, "meta" gameplay stays the same between each one. In one FPS you have a level up system, but in another you don't , however what's the goal in each game? to shoot and kill the enemy, same principle, same core mechanics.

Now with sports you have two gameplay mechanics that are completely different. The rules, the controls, practically everything is different. Playing Madden is a completely different experience from FIFA, meaning that someone who likes the gameplay mechanics of FIFA (completely ignoring if the person is a sports fan or not) don't necessarily will enjoy a Madden game. However, someone who likes CoD will have tons of enjoyment when playing Battlefield, Borderlands, Bioshock or any other FPS.  

Let's ignore gameplay for a moment here, and focus more on what makes sports games popular: the sport fanbase. As I mentioned before, what makes a sport franchise popular is how many real sports fans are out there, why you think FIFA is the most popular sport franchise? Because Futbol is the sport with the biggest fanbase in the world. Why you think FIFA start selling better in America as of recent? because in recent years, soccer has become bigger in the U.S.

Here is where the biggest difference between sports and other genres lies. FPS, platformers, action games, puzzle games, etc don't have a "real" audience to cater to. Sport games have existed since the Odyssey days, and what you think is the reason behind this? because sports are an universal source of entertainment which cater to more than half of the earth population. This also bring another point, why aren't Madden games popular in Europe or Asia, and why Futbol games are? There's also a very big cultural difference when it comes to video games, and ever more present with sports in particular.

Let's put a very simple example, Mario Bros. is what you truly call a game that popularize the genre. After Mario Bros. released, everyone in every country was playing the game, there were no cultural boundaries, it also pushed other types of platformers like Mega Man and Castlevania for example, which the same people who enjoyed Mario Bros. enjoyed those games. A single sport game simple can't do this, why? for all the reasons I already explained above.

What Madden did for sport games is to make American futbol more popular in the video game industry, Madden didn't made golf, futbol, tennis or any other sport more popular in video games. The best thing it did was to encourage other developers to make other type of sports games and that's about it (but it didn't made those other sports more popular). It wasn't until FIFA 10 that futbol games became a mass success, and it wasn't until Tiger Woods Tour or whatever that golf games became somewhat popular.

I think my point is very clear, given that sports games have so many different things between each other (gameplay, fanbase, etc) they simple can't be compared.