ESPN Vs Madden Sales

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All July and August sales into one pile

ESPN 2k5 Approx 1.5mil
Madden 2k5 Approx 2mil

July
Xbox ESPN NFL 2K5 $7,495,292 385,660
PS2 ESPN NFL 2K5 $7,810,233 406,083

August
1 PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 1,112,588 $54,142,420
2 XBX MADDEN NFL 2005 509,100 $25,103,580
3 PS2 ESPN NFL 2K5 448,433 $8,897,210
4 PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 COLL 395,811 $23,390,230
5 XBX ESPN NFL 2K5 311,359 $6,165,545

Its a whole lot closer than before. Although EA is making MAD money from Madden.
 
Meh, Madden killed ESPN again...

Sold over 2 million copies in one month not including GCN sales. ESPN didn't even half that. I will say bring out ESPN a few weeks diffenately helped, because with out they would even have cracked the million mark. While they are closer, take away the 20 day advantage for ESPN and it still wasn't even close. However, I'll be very interested to see if the budget pricing works in the other sports like basketball, baseball, and especially hockey.
 
However, you could also look at it like this... ESPN cost Madden two million worth of game sales when all is said and done... since I figure it to be unlikely that people will own both.. doesn't that basically equate to almost $100 million in net revenue? That's not chump change...
 
I think the real damage will be judged next year when both games will likely be priced at $50. ESPN is clearly as good as Madden (better IMO). The price point was VC's way of getting Maddenites to recognize that.

Also, even though there is a huge discrepancy in earnings, that can only be attibuted to the equally huge discrepancy in price. ESPN is only half a million units behind Madden this year. Duo_Maxell would have you believe that this was another blowout year for Madden but I disagree. Name one other game that has come this close to beating Madden in the last 10 years. (The year EA canned Madden doesn't count.)
 
^^ I dunno if they are both $50 next year I will more than likely go back to Madden. I had Madden '04, then ESPN 2K5, so going back to Madden for '06 would keep it fresh. (That's assuming they both continue to be top notch games.)

I also think ESPN would sell a lot fewer units at $50.

But it will be interesting to see if they actually do try to go back to $50 next year. I hadn't read anything indicating they would do anything other than keep it at $20, though.

Pretty amazing that Madden did over $100 Mill in August on PS2 and Xbox. Wow.
 
It is pretty good marketing for ESPN to do this, since its costs them about a penny to make the game, if they sell almost as much as Madden does then IMO they actually did do a good thing for there business, even though it was not as profitable as it could have been. This is kinda like the NBA Finals last year when one of the highest budget teams lost to a mid-budget team.
 
ESPN is better than Madden is some areas (especially Maximum Passing, Presentation and The Crib which is a vastly superior reward system compared to Madden Cards IMO). But ESPN still lags Madden in these areas..

ESPN needs to improve the playbooks (not enough plays available on Defense or Offense), team management, and the slowdown in snow is inexcusable. ESPN is much improved though and is a worthy purchase. I got that first this year and my sister's fioncee got Madden. I will still get Madden for PS2 but I really like ESPN on the Xbox. I think it still needs more polish before it could overtake Madden. I will say this, Gameday and Fever may as well give up because I really don't see them as being a threat to Madden or ESPN anytime soon.
 
[quote name='yeahokthenfu']It is pretty good marketing for ESPN to do this, since its costs them about a penny to make the game, if they sell almost as much as Madden does then IMO they actually did do a good thing for there business, even though it was not as profitable as it could have been. This is kinda like the NBA Finals last year when one of the highest budget teams lost to a mid-budget team.[/quote]

You know they actually have to pay their programmers etc. right?

Still, it was a good move. The move people see how much superior ESPN is the more will buy it next year and beyond.
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']ESPN is better than Madden is some areas (especially Maximum Passing, Presentation and The Crib which is a vastly superior reward system compared to Madden Cards IMO). But ESPN still lags Madden in these areas..

ESPN needs to improve the playbooks (not enough plays available on Defense or Offense), team management, and the slowdown in snow is inexcusable. ESPN is much improved though and is a worthy purchase. I got that first this year and my sister's fioncee got Madden. I will still get Madden for PS2 but I really like ESPN on the Xbox. I think it still needs more polish before it could overtake Madden. I will say this, Gameday and Fever may as well give up because I really don't see them as being a threat to Madden or ESPN anytime soon.[/quote]

Actually I'm fairly certain that ESPN has a much larger playbook than Madden.
 
[quote name='daphatty']I think the real damage will be judged next year when both games will likely be priced at $50. ESPN is clearly as good as Madden (better IMO). The price point was VC's way of getting Maddenites to recognize that.

Also, even though there is a huge discrepancy in earnings, that can only be attibuted to the equally huge discrepancy in price. ESPN is only half a million units behind Madden this year. Duo_Maxell would have you believe that this was another blowout year for Madden but I disagree. Name one other game that has come this close to beating Madden in the last 10 years. (The year EA canned Madden doesn't count.)[/quote]

A) It's actually more than a half million units down, because Madden sells on more than just two platforms, if you wanted to calculate all the Madden units sold you'd have to include GCN, PC, GBA and even PS1. Plus it had a 20 day advantage. Look at it this way Madden came out on Aug. 9th and still outsold ESPN for the month of August on all platforms.

B) I'm not leading anyone to believe anything, the numbers are there everybody can look for themselves. I was just stating clear facts. Also, raising the price back up next year will only hurt sales. A decent number of people actually bought both games because ESPN was so cheap, but if more people know the Madden name, it's just going to turn out like year's past. Unfortunately sales isn't always about the suprior product (especially in the media/entertainment industry), and in this case, product recognition seems to be most key. Also how are supposed to know EA won't come pack with improvements, they've done it before.

c) Bottomline is that the low price point from Sega and Take-two was to try and get EA to sweat, and in the end, after we look at sales for all the football, hockey, baseball and basketball games, EA may actually be sweating, but I doubt after these figures that they are all too worried about the Madden vs. NFL2k5 race. Though I do agree, if they read into what the critics are saying, they do need to realize that they'll have to step it up next year to actually have the best product (but not necessarily the best-selling).
 
[quote name='sblymnlcrymnl'][quote name='GuilewasNK']ESPN is better than Madden is some areas (especially Maximum Passing, Presentation and The Crib which is a vastly superior reward system compared to Madden Cards IMO). But ESPN still lags Madden in these areas..

ESPN needs to improve the playbooks (not enough plays available on Defense or Offense), team management, and the slowdown in snow is inexcusable. ESPN is much improved though and is a worthy purchase. I got that first this year and my sister's fioncee got Madden. I will still get Madden for PS2 but I really like ESPN on the Xbox. I think it still needs more polish before it could overtake Madden. I will say this, Gameday and Fever may as well give up because I really don't see them as being a threat to Madden or ESPN anytime soon.[/quote]

Actually I'm fairly certain that ESPN has a much larger playbook than Madden.[/quote]

When I am at the play select screen in both games I have less plays to choose from than in Madden, especially on defense. Of course that is alleviated somewhat by defensive audibles but still....
 
ESPN NFL 2k5 was the first football game I bought since NFL Blitz on Nintendo 64. That $20 price point ($15 with the GGC) hit home with some of us non-sports gamers.
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK'][quote name='sblymnlcrymnl'][quote name='GuilewasNK']ESPN is better than Madden is some areas (especially Maximum Passing, Presentation and The Crib which is a vastly superior reward system compared to Madden Cards IMO). But ESPN still lags Madden in these areas..

ESPN needs to improve the playbooks (not enough plays available on Defense or Offense), team management, and the slowdown in snow is inexcusable. ESPN is much improved though and is a worthy purchase. I got that first this year and my sister's fioncee got Madden. I will still get Madden for PS2 but I really like ESPN on the Xbox. I think it still needs more polish before it could overtake Madden. I will say this, Gameday and Fever may as well give up because I really don't see them as being a threat to Madden or ESPN anytime soon.[/quote]

Actually I'm fairly certain that ESPN has a much larger playbook than Madden.[/quote]

When I am at the play select screen in both games I have less plays to choose from than in Madden, especially on defense. Of course that is alleviated somewhat by defensive audibles but still....[/quote]

You're probably right, I hardly play any Madden because I prefer ESPN so much. I also seem to remember http://www.maddenwishlist.com/ saying that ESPN had a much larger playbook in their review but I can't seem to find it now.
 
[quote name='Rig']ESPN NFL 2k5 was the first football game I bought since NFL Blitz on Nintendo 64. That $20 price point ($15 with the GGC) hit home with some of us non-sports gamers.[/quote]

Same here! If they go back up to 50 the odds of me buying it next year are pretty close to 0%. I liked it and everything, but I don't like football games enough to spend 50 on one. I actually found the playbooks to be too big, I was way overwhelmed trying to look at all them and pick one in 25 seconds or so. These new-fangled football games definately take some getting used to, they are way deep. I'd still take Tecmo Superbowl for SNES over any of these new football games anyday though.
 
I would like to see how the 2005 games are selling compaired to the 2004 games. I'm sure ESPN has sold more but I'm wondering it Madden has gotten a dent in sales.
 
NPD: August sales off slightly

Football titles snare the lion's share of sales; Madden still the leader, but ESPN Football 2K5 earns analysts' respect.
NPD Funworld stats rolled into analysts' in-boxes Monday, and the results were decidedly mixed. For the month of August 2004, the console market saw retail sales of $337 million, off 4 percent sequentially from the $350 million tallied in July, but up 4 percent year-to-date. Compared to August 2003, sales were up 1 percent. One analyst said says year-to-date sales were $2.76 billion through August 2004, compared with 2003 year-to-date sales of $2.66 billion.

When it came time for analysts to check in on the Madden 2005 vs. ESPN 2K5 foot race, there was no denying that Madden was the winner. According to Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities, the EA footballer sold 2.1 million units through August, versus 1.5 million units for Sega and Take-Two's title. Madden was the top-selling PlayStation 2 and Xbox title during the month, as well as the third best-selling GameCube title.

But while Madden scored a decisive victory in the sales camp, analysts all recognized the strength of ESPN Football 2K5, co-published by Sega and Take-Two. "Although Electronic Arts' sales were in line with our estimates," Pachter said, "we believe that investors may be concerned with the market share gains made by Take-Two's ESPN NFL game." Pachter spun his cautionary tale further, saying he expects Electronic Arts to "maintain a share of over 60 percent [in the football sector], but note that some investors may not be satisfied with year-over-year sales gains on an absolute basis should the company lose significant share to Take-Two."

Mike Wallace of UBS added his voice saying, "The Madden numbers are slightly reassuring for Electronic Arts, although we still think ESPN is having an impact on Madden sales."

PiperJaffray's Tony Gikas noted that Madden 2005, NCAA 2005, and ESPN Football 2K5 alone accounted for 38 percent of all console game sales in August. Total sales of football games across all platforms for the month of August 2004, was 3,092,980, a jump of 45 percent from August 2003, when 2,134,090 units sold through.

Gikas added, "We estimate that ESPN NFL 2K5 will sell 3 million units and Madden NFL 2005 will sell 5.5 million units by the end of the football season. We estimate that sales of ESPN NFL 2K5 will cut into sales of Madden NFL 2005 by roughly 300K-400K units. In the near term, we think EA Sports will initiate sales promotions on its sports games to help maintain market share and grow 2004 sales."

August software sales figures were also interesting: sales of PS2 games were down 2 percent, Xbox software was up 31 percent, GameCube titles fell by 14 percent, and Game Boy Advance software was up by 17 percent. Overall, hardware sales were down 6 percent, with sales of PS2s down 27 percent, Xboxes up 49 percent, GameCubes up 9 percent, and Game Boy Advances down 16 percent. Most analysts recognized that shortages of PS2 hardware at retail outlets continued during the month.

By Curt Feldman -- GameSpot
 
Dare I suggest that as a life-long Madden guy I might represent a "typical" ESPN purchaser?

For $20, I was like what the hell, lets pick it up.

The reports are this is a solid game, and $20 is nothing.

I also think the ESPN is the closest thing to making me consider another football game over Madden since I started playing Madden.

I think ESPN was an excellent game, priced at $50, I wouldn't have taken the risk. Now to daphatty's point - what will I do as a typical Madden fan do next year when ESPN is priced at $50?

I don't know yet. ESPN does have some issues, which if for no other reason aren't in Madden (the cartoon Chris Berman for instance) which might in and of itself be enough to tip me in favor of the franchise I have played for almost 11 years.

Alternatively, Madden needs to dramatically improve some facet of its game - for instance something along Owner's Mode. The real down side to Madden this year was "hit stick" or not, there wasn't much improvement - ESPN did dramaticly improve itself.

CTL
 
[quote name='Trakan']ESPN should have sold more copies. IMO, it's a better game in every way.[/quote]

True. Even last year ESPN had just about everything new in Madden this year except formation shifts, and those are broken. It's really quite sad that more people don't give it a chance.
 
[quote name='guessed']If they are both $50 next year, I will more than likely go back to neither (I'll still have ESPN 2K5).[/quote]

I agree fully....if ESPN wasn't $20 bucks I would have never bought it anyway regardless of how good it was..
 
[quote name='CTLesq']Dare I suggest that as a life-long Madden guy I might represent a "typical" ESPN purchaser?

For $20, I was like what the hell, lets pick it up.

The reports are this is a solid game, and $20 is nothing.

I also think the ESPN is the closest thing to making me consider another football game over Madden since I started playing Madden.

I think ESPN was an excellent game, priced at $50, I wouldn't have taken the risk. Now to daphatty's point - what will I do as a typical Madden fan do next year when ESPN is priced at $50?

I don't know yet. ESPN does have some issues, which if for no other reason aren't in Madden (the cartoon Chris Berman for instance) which might in and of itself be enough to tip me in favor of the franchise I have played for almost 11 years.

Alternatively, Madden needs to dramatically improve some facet of its game - for instance something along Owner's Mode. The real down side to Madden this year was "hit stick" or not, there wasn't much improvement - ESPN did dramaticly improve itself.

CTL[/quote]


i completely agree with u, i said the same exact thing when i purchased espn nhl2k5(i know were talking football here but its pretty much the same disparity between espn and es for hockey as well), but the point is many people decided that for 20 bucks it was worth it, especially cuz it meant u could play a football game or a hockey game almost a month before the ea game came out...

however, espn has impressed me with their gameplay, i have a blast playing hockey online, and the level of realism is very high, but the fact is espn doesnt advertise as much as it needs to to surpass ea... hell, nfl matchup on espn is SPONSORED by ea sports, they use madden as virtual visuals! what kind of marketing of your games is that...
 
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