[quote name='mmn']
How, for you, then, will it be improved? Humor me, will ya?
myke.
Alright.
To me, if ESPN had stayed and kept pumping out games at $20, Madden's quality would've declined.
See, to remain competitive, and cost effective, EA would've done things like cut Madden's staff and put less hours of work into the game. Yes, EA probably would've released Madden at $50, but you saw how fast it dropped to $20 this year (about 3 months, the way I figure it) when last year it stayed at $50 well past the Superbowl.
In order to save money on the production aspect of Madden, who knows how far EA would've gone. I really like EA as a company, because they make good games, but I realize all they care about is how profitable their games are, especially their biggest game.
[/quote]
Actually, to reamin competitive, they would do the exact opposite. If they were to put less work into each madden in order to 'save money', people would realize that for a cheaper price, they could get a game that gets more work put into it every year. Eventually people would jump ship to SEGA leaving EA with less profit every year. It would cost them more to stay competitive, but in the long run it would definetly help them out.
[quote name='mmn']
Now that they have exclusivity, they don't have to worry about the monkey on their back in ESPN. They can calm down, add as much staff as they need, and really get to work on making a great game. Now they NEED to make improvements to Madden, because they have to convince the ESPN audience to play their game. They need the ESPN audience to justify the cost of paying the NFL a ridiculous amount of money for the exclusivity. That's why its my belief that they'll try to appeal to everyone by making solid improvements in almost every aspect of the game.
People have always said ESPN has better presentation while Madden has better gameplay, and that if you could combine the two, you'd have damn near a perfect football game. Well, now there's nothing to stop EA from doing this. Obviously EA has no problems copying an idea (look at the LOTR RPG thats almost a direct clone of Final Fantasy). Imagine if they incorporated the whole "Monday Night Football" aura into the game more. Maybe they get together with ESPN and go "hey, now that you aren't able to work with Sega anymore, you could throw support behind Madden". So then, maybe, just maybe, you get things like Chris Berman doing his halftime show on EA's game. You get the idea.
There's really nothing holding back EA now from making the best football game we've ever seen, because they now have all the power. See, unlike most people in this thread, I don't expect them to drop the ball - they didn't let me down with the LOTR franchise, the Burnout franchise, etc etc. I'm optimistic this will end up being a good thing for gamers and I'm convinced all this complaining is simply because people on these forums won't be able to buy a brand new football game for $20 next year. [/quote]
With the Burnout franchise, they still had competition. There were other racing games out there, its not like they were the only one. I know there will still be other football games, but people who play games like NFL 2K, Madden, etc. play it for the realism. They don't want an arcady style game, and taking away the NFL license will take ALOT of the realism out of it.
[quote name='mmn']
Now you probably still aren't going to give Madden a shot next year, which is fine, but at least try to be a little more positive and don't shit all over EA before the game is even released. If Madden comes out next year and sucks badly, feel free to write complaint letters and boycott and all that you want to do. But at least let them make the game first.
[/quote]
I am basing my opinions purely on speculation. MOST companies would put less effort in a game that they know will already sell because of no competition. But none of us know 100% if this is true with Madden. Even if the game doesn't suck though, I still don't agree with their decision to go exclusive. Most people are NOT against the Madden series in this thread, they are just angered by the fact that EA bought their way out of competition instead of actually competing.
