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Forums - Sales Discussion - Why Madden sells the way it does

If you want the answer...In a more consice format:

Demographics.

Madden's core demographics focus on males, ages 16-30.

The Xbox 360/PS3 have a large portion of said users in their userbase, therefore they have the lion's share of sales during the first week, and overall LTD numbers.

The Wii, on the other hand, does not have that userbase as heavily as the PS3/X360 do. Because of this, Madden doesn't have the explosive selling power that the 16-30 demographic provides the X360 and PS3. However, it leads to larger legs, as the Wii continues to outsell the competition, and build up Madden's core demographic.

Having said that, we can see the Wii and PS3's building up of the 16-30 Madden demographic - both had pronounced increases in sales vs. last year.

On the other hand, we have the X360 which had very similar sales. This could be that Microsoft is attempting to diversify it's user base. In NCAA09's case, we have seen better legs than NCAA 08 or 07, as it is outselling both, 5 weeks into sales which indicates that user demographics may have changed, which are leading to better legs, and better eventual sales for the X360's version.

On the handheld side, it's also about core demographics. The DS is a very versatile system in terms of it's demographics: it has a large following of users outside of the core 16-30 age demographics. Not only this, the PSP, and home consoles are competing with users that have a DS + another system (and again, are in that age group). This severely impacts the DS's sales of Madden. On the other hand, the PSP has the age group in spades, and is actually marketing the Madden PSP bundle. Also, a big question would be DS functionality...Does it even have Multiplayer? It's a large component of the Madden allure.



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Might have to do with people wanting to play over XBL



mrstickball said:
If you want the answer...In a more consice format:

Demographics.

Madden's core demographics focus on males, ages 16-30.

The Xbox 360/PS3 have a large portion of said users in their userbase, therefore they have the lion's share of sales during the first week, and overall LTD numbers.

The Wii, on the other hand, does not have that userbase as heavily as the PS3/X360 do. Because of this, Madden doesn't have the explosive selling power that the 16-30 demographic provides the X360 and PS3. However, it leads to larger legs, as the Wii continues to outsell the competition, and build up Madden's core demographic.

Having said that, we can see the Wii and PS3's building up of the 16-30 Madden demographic - both had pronounced increases in sales last year.

On the other hand, we have the X360 which had very similar sales. This could be that Microsoft is attempting to diversify it's user base. In NCAA09's case, we have seen better legs than NCAA 08 or 07, as it is outselling both, 5 weeks into sales which indicates that user demographics may have changed, which are leading to better legs, and better eventual sales for the X360's version.

On the handheld side, it's also about core demographics. The DS is a very versatile system in terms of it's demographics: it has a large following of users outside of the core 16-30 age demographics. Not only this, the PSP, and home consoles are competing with users that have a DS + another system (and again, are in that age group). This severely impacts the DS's sales of Madden. On the other hand, the PSP has the age group in spades, and is actually marketing the Madden PSP bundle. Also, a big question would be DS functionality...Does it even have Multiplayer? It's a large component of the Madden allure.

Very good points, mrstickball. I agree with that analysis.

Omac said:

Might have to do with people wanting to play over XBL

That's a big factor too. Makes a lot of sense.

John Lucas



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mrstickball said:
Trying to apologize for the Wii's sales of the largest American sports game, eh?

 

Why would he apologize for a game that doubled the last versions first week sales?



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Didn't take long for everyone to post.



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Madden 2008 sold 74,421 in week 1 on the Wii, and has sold (roughly) 790,000 LTD for a ratio of 10.5 to 1

Madden 2008 sold 491,763 in week 1 on the PS2, and has sold (roughly) 2,170,000 LTD for a ratio of 4,41 to 1

Madden 2008 sold 244,830 in week 1 on the PS3, and has sold (roughly) 850,000 LTD for a ratio of 3.47 to 1

Madden 2008 sold 711,258 in week 1 on the XBox 360, and has sold (roughly) 2,300,000 LTD for a ratio of 3.25 to 1

 

Now, I could be wrong but I suspect that the people who are/were die-hard Madden fans upgraded to the XBox 360 because it offered the conventional Madden experience they loved with improvements, like better visuals and online gameplay. In contrast I think that the Wii sales demonstrate that the Wii sells Madden over time in part because the more 'Casual' Madden fan (for lack of a better term) will buy the newest version of Madden when they buy a new console, or will buy the newest version if it has enough improvements when they get around to it.

I wouldn't expect madden 2009 to sell 10 times as many copies as it sold on its first week, but I wouldn't be that surprised to see it in the 5 to 8 times range; or (to put it another way) to have lifetime sales in the 800,000 to 1.2 Million range.



johnlucas said:
NightDragon83 said:
The leading current gen console in America always sells the most copies of Madden... DUH!

Last gen it was always PS2>Xbox>GC and before that it was PS>N64>Sat for madden sales... SNES and Gen were neck and neck though sports titles sold better on Genesis overall.

And before you go and say "Wait a minute NightDragon... Wii is the best selling current gen console, so why the lackluster sales?"

Glad you asked... because 360 is the leading console in America this generation for GAMERS. People who own 360s and PS3s are the ones who are most inclined to camp out and pick up madden its opening week. Then you got PS2 which continues to sell well and has an installed base of 50 bajillion so of course its still gonna sell well (plus its a cheap alternative than making the jump to next gen).

Then there's Wii, whose audience is more concerned with repetitive mini-games than a serious football simulation. Madden Wii sales are still strong nevertheless... more than double last years effort, and it will continue to sell well because of its long legs, unlike the HD consoles whose audiences pick up games in the first week or 2 of release.

The leading current gen (7th gen) console in America didn't sell the most copies of Madden in 2006 (part of the 7th gen).

See here:

American Chart for Week Ending 26th August 2006

http://vgchartz.com/aweekly.php?date=38956&console=&maker=&boxartz=1

John Lucas

 

That's because PS2 was still the "leading current-gen console" back in summer of '06... it was still outselling the 360 on a weekly basis and there were only 2.5 million 360s on the market at the time vs almost 40 million PS2s... plus most "core gamers" and "madden fans" were still gaming on their PS2s at the time. Still that makes 360's numbers even MORE impressive for that week because, according to the sales data, 24% of 360 owners purchased madden in just its first week alone!

I don't consider this current generation to have officially started until all three consoles were on the market, which is Q4 of '06... since then the 360 has been the leading "core gamers" console this generation, which is why Madden has sold the most on it the past 2 years and will continue to for the forseable future. Just like mrstickball said, it's demographics that drive sales of Madden, which is why it was PS1, then PS2, and now 360 that were the leaders in Madden sales, and all just happen to be the top selling "core gamer" consoles of their respective generations.

 

Edit:  post #200!   Movin' on up!



On 2/24/13, MB1025 said:
You know I was always wondering why no one ever used the dollar sign for $ony, but then I realized they have no money so it would be pointless.

johnlucas said:
colonelstubbs said:
Soooo....an american football game sells well in america on an american console because its....american?

Now i get it!

Not 100% of why it sells that way but yes definitely a factor. Why else would a more powerful system like the PS3 not be able to match the sales strength of the 360 version? PS3's price is somewhat a reason but this series matured on the PS platforms for 10 years. You'd think the newest Sony system would still get the lionshare of the sales but this is not so.

Even in spite of the 360 beginning to lose ground to the PS3, the 360 version blows everybody else out of the water. there's a lot of reasons behind this but American identity is definitely one of them.

There's a reason why Nintendo fans never get a Mario version of American football.

John Lucas

Also (at least in Madden 08) the PS3 version was inferior to the 360 version (e.g. framerate). I have the 360 version of Madden 08 and when I played the PS3 version at my brother's house it felt really choppy to me! I didn't like it at all. I'm not sure about this year's version as I've only played the 360 Madden 09, so far, though according to reviews the 360/PS3 versions should be pretty similar.




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HappySqurriel said:

Madden 2008 sold 74,421 in week 1 on the Wii, and has sold (roughly) 790,000 LTD for a ratio of 10.5 to 1

Madden 2008 sold 491,763 in week 1 on the PS2, and has sold (roughly) 2,170,000 LTD for a ratio of 4,41 to 1

Madden 2008 sold 244,830 in week 1 on the PS3, and has sold (roughly) 850,000 LTD for a ratio of 3.47 to 1

Madden 2008 sold 711,258 in week 1 on the XBox 360, and has sold (roughly) 2,300,000 LTD for a ratio of 3.25 to 1

 

Now, I could be wrong but I suspect that the people who are/were die-hard Madden fans upgraded to the XBox 360 because it offered the conventional Madden experience they loved with improvements, like better visuals and online gameplay. In contrast I think that the Wii sales demonstrate that the Wii sells Madden over time in part because the more 'Casual' Madden fan (for lack of a better term) will buy the newest version of Madden when they buy a new console, or will buy the newest version if it has enough improvements when they get around to it.

I wouldn't expect madden 2009 to sell 10 times as many copies as it sold on its first week, but I wouldn't be that surprised to see it in the 5 to 8 times range; or (to put it another way) to have lifetime sales in the 800,000 to 1.2 Million range.

Yup, I came up with similar numbers in another thread; specifically that first week sales represented ~30% of total sales on the HD consoles for NFL 08 and only represented~10% of total sales on the Wii.  As a consequence I predicted the Wii would end up passing the PS3 version by next year.  

I'm interested, why do you think that the wii version won't have similar legs (percentage or ratio wise) as last years?  Personally I think that once casual gamers/football fans actually see or hear about Call Your Shot, then they will pick it up.  Wii games thrive on good on word of mouth...

 



polezo said:

I'm interested, why do you think that the wii version won't have similar legs (percentage or ratio wise) as last years?  Personally I think that once casual gamers/football fans actually see or hear about Call Your Shot, then they will pick it up.  Wii games thrive on good on word of mouth...

 

...Because as first week sales rise for certain games, it becomes vastly more difficult for it to have similar percentage or ratio based legs. Just because the Wii sells twice the copies of Madden this year versus last year on the first week, doesn't mean the Wii version will track 100% better every week. As the more popular a game typically becomes on a console, and the higher the first week sales, the game usually trends down in terms of legs. This is the case for most franchise games.

I would think that the Wii version of Madde 09 will sell around 300,000-600,000 extra units versus the 08 version.

 



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