Is The Madden Brand Fading?

Is Madden still a thing? Honestly, is it still a thing?



The Madden brand just doesn’t seem to have the power it used to have, when it was the best-selling game for 2-3 months out of the year every year during the sixth generation. During the PS2 games, it was expected that Madden would sell at least 2 million---and then would scrape up a few more millions with the XBox and (sometimes) the Gamecube.



Then something odd happened. The sales started dropping during the seventh generation.



The XBox 360 became the dominant system for Madden, yet it was averaging just half of what Madden was selling in the PS2 days. Its best-selling Madden edition, Madden 2010, was outsold by the 2006 edition by 2 million copies----and that wasn’t even the best-selling installment. And now that we’ve reached the newest generation, the best-selling Madden in this era is the 2015 edition---which barely passed 1.5 million.

So why is the Madden brand fading? It’s a mix of reputation and the overall decline in sports simulation sales. EA and Madden doesn’t have the positive vibes that it carried in the early 2000s, and by destroying the competition the effort level to enhance the franchise diminished completely. After the NFL 2K5/Madden 2005 incident (still an unforgivable act to this day, forget you EA Games), Madden 2006 began the quality downward spiral that went egregiously out of control with the XBox 360 games. And guess what, reputation goes far in the gaming industry; no matter how successful you were before the streak will end if you unleash bad product. Mortal Kombat suffered from this for about a decade post SNES/Genesis period.

The games aren’t as good anymore, and it took a couple years before gamers realized this and decided to spend their hard-earned money elsewhere. The last final blow the NFL 2K series delivered was that awesome price tag of $20 on the 2K5 edition. Ever since that year, the $50-$60 just looked much more expensive to give to a Madden game that monopolized its way to being your only option. EA never tried to lower its price, and now it’s being outsold by the NBA 2K series even though the NFL grosses about 5 billion more than the NBA.

But sports simulations just don’t sell as well as they used to, with just the FIFA series remaining a major success. The number of sim franchises has diminished severely, and the ones that have stuck around have been stagnant in the past few years because of declining quality and/or declining interest. MLB the Show peaked at the PS2 days and has yet to sell a million copies worldwide. NHL from EA also peaked in the PS2 days and the latest installment just sold 400,000 more than an N64 version of the hockey franchise. The NCAA games thanks to legal issues are non-existent.

It has become harder to justify buying the same game every year. Even Call of Duty at least changes up its story and ways of playing each year resulting in consistently outselling the competition in November (even though this franchise has also been seeing a decline). Then there’s the increasing popularity of the more entertaining, more engaging, and more rewarding fantasy football, which makes Madden look like child’s play. Fantasy sports is not just child’s play, it can also become a career. Fantasy football is a $70 billion dollar business---while Madden 2015 made somewhere over $345 million—which is a far cry from the $405 million they earned in 2005.

So how can Madden ever go back to the dominant sales days in an era where games are making more than ever? The solution is simple: convince gamers that the Madden brand is refreshed and will be worth your money. Madden should be more connected with the NFL stats and should adjust the gameplay accordingly. If you want to truly create the realest experience, you need to find a way for player and team stats to update alongside the gameplay of the consumer throughout the season. EA needs to creep closer and closer to fantasy football within the gaming experience as humanely possible.

The biggest hurdle however is taking on the legend that surrounds NFL 2K5. What made 2K5 such a gem was the presentation and the easy-to-pick-up gameplay. Madden is a pure chore to churn through when trying to survive franchise mode. It needs to loosen the realism and look more like your simpler Blitz/2K games. Too much realism and simulating hinders the experience—video gaming is an escape pure and simple. Gran Turismo might be the most realistic racer in the planet, but it survives because it’s still an easy game to handle. Madden stopped being simple a long time ago, and needs to return to this. It needs a good balance, something the 2K franchise was amazing at.

However, there is a chance that ultimately, the sports simulation franchise just might be a thing of the past. It has to be more than mere coincidence that nearly every sports sim franchise has slipped in sales (FIFA also falls in this category, although 5 million sold on the PS4 is nothing to laugh at). The sales bleeding in Madden might never stop---even if the games finally start improving. A reboot might be necessary, some time off might be required. Skipping a year or two couldn’t hurt EA anything---they still have the rights and still have their fantasy football league to rely on. But staying the course is not the answer, EA has lost too much money. A reboot, drastic change, or massive overhaul is required to return to PS2 Madden sales.

Bottom Line: Madden is not a thing. The lackluster sales and depleting interest is evidence of this. It still makes good money, especially because of lack of competition, but its power grip on the gaming industry is slipping rapidly. Similar to the JRPG genre, it could be a fading trend that not even Kevin Hart can save. Ghosts of NFL 2K5 remain hovering on the games, and believe or not its incredible gameplay and $20 price tag hit EA deeper than we could have ever anticipated. With sports being bigger than ever, Madden should be pulling in Call of Duty numbers. Instead, it’s being outsold by the likes of Just Dance 2015 and Monster Hunter. A change is needed, otherwise who knows how much longer the brand will be around.

 All Data Thanks to VGChartz

P.S. I really miss the NFL 2K series....as well as NFL Blitz....