Madden Moves $100 Million in a Week
A week? You football freaks blow us away.
Published: September 1, 2006
Though it's fun to make the "hurr roster upgrades" joke about the Madden NFL series, all the laughing and pointing in the world isn't going to stop EA from raking in absolute truckloads of cash every year the games come out. They're consistently the best-selling games on nearly every platform they appear, ousted only temporarily by the odd Grand Theft Auto release before climbing right back up onto that pile o' moolah.
This year, though, the power of a $60 price tag on the next-gen version of the game, combined with current-gen and handheld versions that were scooped up, meant Electronic Arts was absolutely rolling in the dough after just a week. To the tune of $100 million dollars. Think about that for a second. In a friggin' week, EA pulled in the amount of money tossed in as a joke in the first Austin Powers movie. And we wonder why some countries hate capitalism.
To hear EA tell it, though, this is just payback for all the hard work they put into the game. The folks at EA Tiburon, when they arrive at work in a few days with gold-plated Lamborghinis, are probably not hurting too badly either, and of course what's good for EA is good for retailers, as evidenced by the pair of quotes from both parties.
"We put a ton of innovation into Madden NFL 07 from new game modes and controls to NFL Superstar Hall of Fame,” stresses Todd Sitrin, EA's Vice President of Marketing. “Consumers are the most meaningful judge of game quality and based on sales and the record-setting online activity, our toughest critics think Madden NFL has delivered another great game experience.”
“Madden NFL 07 continues to grow in strength and popularity with our customers,” begins Jill "Don't You Dark Make Fun of My Last Name" Hamburger, VP of gaming at Best Buy. “It’s one of our biggest releases of the year and proof of that is in the energy and excitement you see in our stores on release day, not only with customers but with our Blue Shirts, it truly is an event.”
Want some numbers to go with all that marketing spin? Sure, try these on for size: 2 million - that's the number of copies of the game sold so far; 228 years - that's the amount of combined play time already logged online; 12 percent - that's the increase in sales over last year's game. Growing? Yeah, we'd say the series is growing -- and it's likely to be even bigger next year when the series moves into its 18th year given that there will be three next-gen consoles, and let's not forget the current-gen stuff, which so far, despite being $10 less has been getting more content. Seems a little lopsided, don't it?
Of those 2 million copies, one of them was our resident sports freak, and we'll have a proper review here soon. Check back in a few days!
This year, though, the power of a $60 price tag on the next-gen version of the game, combined with current-gen and handheld versions that were scooped up, meant Electronic Arts was absolutely rolling in the dough after just a week. To the tune of $100 million dollars. Think about that for a second. In a friggin' week, EA pulled in the amount of money tossed in as a joke in the first Austin Powers movie. And we wonder why some countries hate capitalism.
To hear EA tell it, though, this is just payback for all the hard work they put into the game. The folks at EA Tiburon, when they arrive at work in a few days with gold-plated Lamborghinis, are probably not hurting too badly either, and of course what's good for EA is good for retailers, as evidenced by the pair of quotes from both parties.
"We put a ton of innovation into Madden NFL 07 from new game modes and controls to NFL Superstar Hall of Fame,” stresses Todd Sitrin, EA's Vice President of Marketing. “Consumers are the most meaningful judge of game quality and based on sales and the record-setting online activity, our toughest critics think Madden NFL has delivered another great game experience.”
“Madden NFL 07 continues to grow in strength and popularity with our customers,” begins Jill "Don't You Dark Make Fun of My Last Name" Hamburger, VP of gaming at Best Buy. “It’s one of our biggest releases of the year and proof of that is in the energy and excitement you see in our stores on release day, not only with customers but with our Blue Shirts, it truly is an event.”
Want some numbers to go with all that marketing spin? Sure, try these on for size: 2 million - that's the number of copies of the game sold so far; 228 years - that's the amount of combined play time already logged online; 12 percent - that's the increase in sales over last year's game. Growing? Yeah, we'd say the series is growing -- and it's likely to be even bigger next year when the series moves into its 18th year given that there will be three next-gen consoles, and let's not forget the current-gen stuff, which so far, despite being $10 less has been getting more content. Seems a little lopsided, don't it?
Of those 2 million copies, one of them was our resident sports freak, and we'll have a proper review here soon. Check back in a few days!
