"Madden NFL 10" Expected To Sell As Well As Last Year's Version

"Madden 10" Expected To Sell As Well As Last Year's Iteration

Analysts are projecting that EA Sports' "Madden NFL 10," which hit stores Friday at midnight, will "sell as well as last year's did," according to CNBC's Darren Rovell. Rovell: "Any company that can debut a product and have it sell as well as last year certainly has to be happy with itself. … This is one thing in this economy that gamers seemingly have to have." EA Sports Dir of Marketing Nathan Stewart said, "It's not that people don't have money that they're spending in this space. It's probably they're just being a little bit more careful about the money they're spending. So we want to make sure that we take the guesswork or take the question out of that." Rovell noted EA "could use that boost with shares down better than 56% since last year" and NPD Group reporting Thursday that videogame software sales "continue to slide." Rovell reported from a videogame retail store in N.Y. and noted "earlier reports from here say that there are fewer preorders for the game, but maybe that will pick up when this store opens a little bit later on today." Rovell added a "negative here is that the game sells better in the more realistic versions when you talk about Playstation and Xbox as opposed to the Wii," which is a "negative because the Wii is the best selling console" ("Squawk Box," CNBC, 8/14).

NEVER BETTER: YAHOO SPORTS' Matthew Darnell wrote in "taking the focus off of one big advancement/gimmick, and instead focusing on smoothing out the overall feel of gameplay and presentation," this year's version of "Madden" represents the "biggest single-year advance that the game has seen in years." The graphics and overall presentation of the game are "absolutely bananas." Darnell: "No sports game I've ever played has looked this good, either on the field or in the game's menus" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 8/13). SPORTING NEWS TODAY's Chris Littmann writes the game is an "undeniable comeback in the series thanks to a myriad of game-play enhancements and unprecedented expansions into online gaming." "Madden NFL 10" is "probably the best Madden title in at least 2-3 years, so if you've held out waiting for a worthy copy, you'd be smart to jump back in the game this year" (SPORTING NEWS TODAY, 8/14). The AP's Dirk Lammers wrote under the header, "'Madden NFL 10' Is Franchise's Best Yet." In this year's version, the "21-year-old franchise has delivered its most striking, realistic-looking football video game yet." Athlete and stadium models that "looked great last year jump off the screen with improved lighting effects and the addition of depth of field, which blurs out the background to make the foreground appear more vibrant" (AP, 8/13). In Charlotte, Langston Wertz Jr. wrote "Madden" has "never looked better." EA had said that it was "listening to its many gaming critics and promised to make Madden play and look more realistic." Wertz: "For the most part, I think the game hit its marks." Wertz noted the game "seemed a little slow on the Wii and making a motion akin to rolling a bowling ball didn't exactly make me feel I was kicking anything," though it was a "different story" on the Xbox 360 version (CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.com, 8/12).

Writer Feels There Is An Excessive Amount Of In-Game Advertising In The Game

NOT WITHOUT FAULTS: In Detroit, K.J. Hardy writes of "Madden," "Each year, I find myself asking the question: How can they possibly make this any better? And each year, they do. Well, until this year. I'm not sure any of the changes make the game dramatically better. And I found a few of the enhanced realisms more distracting than adding." There is also an "excessive amount of in-game advertising ... littered throughout the game," and the commentary of announcers Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth is "a bit awkward at times and annoying most of the time." But "beyond the rich sound experience, EA has captured, in cinematic fashion, all of the elements surrounding the game: the interviews, the shirtless fat guys waiting in line for beer, the barking players at the line" (DETROIT NEWS, 8/14).

CONTROLLING THE WEATHER: MULTICHANNEL NEWS' R. Thomas Umstead noted The Weather Channel's interactive division has "partnered with EA Sports to provide an interactive weather feature that lets 'Madden NFL 10' players include weather effects, like snow and rain, during game play." The net's logo is "prominently featured during game play" as it is "shown in several locations -- both during the game set up when choosing weather options, as well as right before the coin toss" (MULTICHANNEL.com, 8/13).