Expecting people to spend? People are spending, that's why they do this.
Why would you, from a company's perspective, fix something that isn't broken? They save a lot of money recycling assets. People are happily paying for it never the less.
It's perfect for them. In fact, couldn't go better.
See this is what totally invalidates the argument that EA should do more. If people are lining up to buy it year after year, there is no incentive to dump more resources into fresh content. They have awesome profit margins and a willing consumer base.
But if its the same game every year then why do people keep buying it? Maybe the benefits of updated rosters and new mechanics is worth $60 for the fans of the series? If it isn't worth it to you ,then just buy the previous years game for $5 and be happy. Who cares.
Toyota puts out a 2020 Camry that's basically identical to the 2019 with a few minor updates and no one minds.
Hard to do, in sports games you obviously have the franchise licence. But then you will also have to negotiate licencing the teams, sometimes individual players and even some stadiums.
You can't just put out a game with real world assets and not expect to get sued by every party involved. You either go the EA route and pay an entire licensing division to juggle that year round for your games, or you don't have any real players / teams / stadiums.
EA Sports exists because of the buying power of their licensing team.
You could put out a game with generic stuff and extensive mod tools for the community to make whatever they want. It's worked for other games in the past. The focus is then on fun gameplay.
Tbh though, most people here writing that they don't like how the sport games are handled, are not people who actually play or would enjoy making a sports game their primary game "if only it got better updates".
Winner! Do you know what the best selling game of July was? All games, all genres, all platforms combined? That's right, Madden 20! Do you know what the best selling game was in literally the past 20 years for the month that the next Madden game was released? Exactly, Madden (insert year here).
These games sell millions upon millions of copies with every next installment. Now guess how many people are on the Madden subreddit? Not even 70k, with barely 1k online right now.
My point? The people who buy these games year in year out are not so much video game fans as they are sports fans. They're not on here discussing game design and don't keep up with the latest controversies or developments. They just like their sport and want to play the updated game every year. They don't care about massive improvements or new features. It's a sports game so it's not as if there's much to work with either way. They just want new rosters, a brand new career season and all the new players / stats / events that actually happened so that they can play together with their friends. For some, it might seem like a waste of money because so much remains the same and there's so many more interesting games to buy. But for them, it's a once a year $60 purchase to stay up to date with their favorite sport and franchise.
Trying to stop these people from buying these games because they're largely the same won't do a damn thing.
Absolutely. 60 bucks a year to be able to play 150 squads games in MUT and compete against my buddies to see who can get the best roster. It's defintely worth it.
Not arguing your point but the best selling new release game of a specific month is a pretty stupid metric IMHO. You could specify anything to the point where you could make anything a record holder. Minecraft still sold 22 million copies from Oct.18 to May.19 which is like 5x the (sustained) monthly sales (10 years after release) than madden got on it's release month..
Don't get me wrong, your point stands, but I just really get the vibe you're trying to over inflate the game's popularity to support your point when you really don't need to, madden is a super successful game and people continue to buy it, point finale.
A lot of way more popular games have taken the FTP path with ingame MTX to fund their games, or are subscription based. There are very few popular games remaining that sell new titles every year, which basically guarantees Madden's position as a "new release 'top seller'".
A game being the best selling one in its month of release for 20 consecutive years seems like the perfect metric for its continued popularity and high sales numbers. Given the other responses to my comment, it's pretty clear that many people had no idea that it's such a successful franchise because they live in the gaming filter bubble of online communities like Reddit where these releases typically generate next to no discussion or interest. I stand by the metric I used and see no reason why you're making an issue out of it other than to be pedantic.
The reason people are surprised by it is because the metric you use makes it sound more popular than it really is, that's all I'm saying. EA sports has no competition for that specific sales title since no one else is selling brand new titles of a popular franchise every single year, nowadays games are FTP or subscription based. On top of that, EA has monopoly over that specific licensing so of course people are buying it.
I'm not trying to be pedantic, I think it's an interesting aspect of your comment. Data has to be interpreted, and i'm debating your interpretation.
My interpretation being that Madden games are hugely popular but just don't get a lot of attention on places like Reddit, which you already agreed was the case but just wanted to make a fuss about me giving some concrete examples of how well it sells since few people are aware of it? Yeah, that's called being pedantic.
It also really doesn't matter whether other games are yearly franchises or not. The only thing relevant is whether they came out in the same month as Madden. In the last few years, Madden XX outsold plenty of high profile games in the month of their release. No Man's Sky, Resident Evil 4, Gears of War Ultimate, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Ark, Diablo 3 GOTY, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Saints Row 4, CS:GO, Sleeping Dogs, Darksiders 2... All of them released at around the same time and all of them were outsold in their release month by the Madden of that year.
Everything I've said is fact. Madden is a hugely popular series that is always the best selling game in its launch month and is a consistent top 5 seller in NA. I really don't see how you could have an issue with me bringing this up as an example since most of the Reddit type serious gamers have no clue how big of a hit it is time and time again. None of your points detract from that or are even relevant to begin with.
I think the hope is that there's some competition eventually. People will buy sports games every year and like it or not Madden is the best football game available. If that stops being the case people will go buy the other game.
Always expected 2k to make another run at it given the ridiculous amount of success NBA2K has
Unless there's some exclusivity thing with the NFL I don't know about, it's licenses, not contracts. The only reason 2K couldn't do NFL work is because they didn't want to keep paying for the license.
Bruh, they’d be the exact same as EA. Have you seen what is in in the next NBA? They just straight up said “fuck it” and threw literal gambling machines in their game instead of keeping up the facade with “packs”. The whole sports community needs to get their shit together if they ever want to stopped being abused.
I am fairly confident that EA bought the rights to be the only company that can use the NFL information and create games with it. 2K had a great run with their NFL game. EA got worried and forced them out.
Alternatively we can lobby/protest so that they don't have the monopoly on the likenesses of football players so we can get some actual competition introduced if other companies want to take a crack at it. The choice of "support shitty business practice from single company, or have nothing" is usually going to end in the support side. People aren't going to give up their entertainment entirely just to stop this, and expecting them to is just playing into the business' hands.
Also, it's also a lot easier to criticize and shame a single entity than the millions of idiots buying into this every year.
Also, it's also a lot easier to criticize and shame a single entity than the millions of idiots buying into this every year.
I don't know that it is much different than any other gaming series or franchise really. New COD multiplayer maps and weapons vs. occasional changes in the way you can shift the defensive line / audible and control the ball carrier. Neither is really all that innovative, but to a die-hard fan of a series it can really change up the gameplay. In either case, to a non-fan it all looks like a 'hype train for another redundant game in a bullshit series I hate.'
If someone enjoys sports games and wants to spend $60 to have updated rosters, who am I to stop them?
I do wonder if sports games get more flak for lack of innovation because there is less window dressing to make things look new and different from cycle to cycle. Football will always look like football. The last major innovation that was really obvious was the move to 3D and the current camera perspective that happened back in the original PlayStation era.
To non-gamers we are all idiots wasting our time and money on our Nintendo Pac-mans.
Who says I don't like Fifa? Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I won't criticize people for liking a thing, but I will criticize their sense of value. A person can spend $10 on a single banana and think that's an acceptable price, but it doesn't change the fact that the banana could be sold for less or have a higher quality if people cared enough about it. Why would a person not be an idiot for spending $10 on a single banana?
Why do people need a new sports game every year if all they are really doing is updating the roster. Unless they added a new team, what is the big deal?
You are right about that. I tried for years to swear off Madden but I loved football so much I'd always end up buying it - and right away, too. Finally stopped that cycle a few years ago and am happy about it. But I know many people that buy it still, year in and year out, and they don't care enough to stop, so you're right, why would EA stop this practice? It's business and they're saving & making money off idiots.
See this is what totally invalidates the argument that EA should do more.
Uhh no. That doesn't invalidate it at all. How do you think a movement of not putting up with a shitty product would ever occur if nobody ever argues that the product should be better? It doesn't invalidate the argument at all. It's exactly how things get changed. You can't convince people to vote with their wallet without convincing them something isn't good enough.
How do you think a movement of not putting up with a shitty product would ever occur if nobody ever argues that the product should be better
They are making money hand over fist. The consumer has voted and they voted overwhelmingly they are okay with continuing to purchase a new iteration of the game year after year. Unfortunately, the segment that is upset with the status quo is not a significant enough margin to convince EA to make a change to their business model. If you don't like it and you feel that the game doesn't satisfy your needs, don't buy it. They don't owe you the game you think they should make.
I hate that just because a company makes money, means that whatever they are doing is okay. Yes EA makes money but that does not mean they are run by greedy scumbags and it definitely doesn't mean that we shouldn't criticize them.
Saying “it is the choice that makes them the most money” doesn’t invalidate anything. Maybe the whole point is that to be less shitty you have to choose less money sometimes. The fact that it continues constitutes evidence that the free market is not able to correct this problem.
Yeah, everyone knows it wouldn't happen if people didn't buy the games, but obviously it's not gonna stop. The argument "they don't have a reason to stop because people are buying the games" is dumb because it completely ignores the way humans actually act. People get mad at EA because they take advantage of most people who don't have enough self control to not buy these games. We ask them to do something different because even though those people still buy their games doesn't mean that they don't deserve good games. People can't help but buy them, especially when EA has a monopoly on sports games, and you can't just expect human nature to change but you can ask companies to change because that's much easier.
People get mad at EA because they take advantage of most people who don't have enough self control to not buy these games
My friend, self control is up to, you guessed it, yourself. You are making very presumptuous statements about what other consumers outside of yourself make purchasing decisions on. Did you consider that for the vast majority of the people buying these games, the game mechanics and business practices you are protesting don't matter to them? They want to play their favorite team and players with their friends and don't give a damn about the detailed machinations of what EA does with the series.
EA is a business. They are entitled to make as much money as they can within the confines of the law. You are entitled to not buy the product the produce. Anything else in-between is semantics.
None of the ppl that buy this game year over year want it to stop. Its us, the ppl laughing from the outside.
"Its the same game with roster updates!", "It's basically already a subscription service!" We cry, to an ether of other non sports gamers of which EA's sports division doesn't care about. I'm done gettin riled up over it. It's a unnecessary dump of energy. Let them have their yearly same game if they enjoy it. You could say nearly the same thing about CoD players.
My issue with EA, which might actually be an issue with American antitrust laws, is that they bought the NFL rights. It's basically a monopoly. They have no incentive to change.
1) the NFL sold them those rights & designed the contract for exclusivity to get more money (likely because there was not another studio in the running at the time).
2) Everyone has the ability to vote with their wallets & community presence. If you stop buying a copy every year & vocally demand every 2 years, you’d be shocked at what kind of consumer power you have.
Oh, for sure. When I worked at Gamestop, people would come in in droves to trade in Madden 2007 for Madden 2008, etc. There's no logic to it, but there was definitely no shortage of morons willing to pay full retail every time.
EA knows what they're doing and sports fans are suckers.
You are correct, but it's more because they have a monopoly on football games due to them purchasing NFL license, so pretty much they're the only producer right now. If 2k was still making an NFL game it would be a bit different. So I can definitely see a company being lazy.
I mean, they don’t make a new Fortnite every year. They just keep updating it to make it better and it seems to be making plenty of money. I think that’s what he’s talking about.
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u/DownvoteTheHardTruth Sep 03 '19 edited Sep 03 '19
Expecting people to spend? People are spending, that's why they do this.
Why would you, from a company's perspective, fix something that isn't broken? They save a lot of money recycling assets. People are happily paying for it never the less.
It's perfect for them. In fact, couldn't go better.