Madden 07 Earns $100 Million in First Week Sales

192939495969798999 writes "CNN reports that Madden 07 grossed over $100 million in the first week, helping to resurrect a sales slump for Electronic Arts. The article states that most people are waiting for the release of PS3 and/or Wii to make game purchases." From the article: "An industry turnaround isn't expected until next year, and EA officials predicted during its quarterly earnings report on August 1 that videogame sales for 2006 across the industry would be flat to down 5 percent."

Re:I'm Curious...

[BeeBeard]

Good question. I can't speak for every other non-stereotypical ./ user, but I would imagine that playing Madden would actually create or increase interest in football. The knock on a lot of sports is that "they're more fun to play than they are to watch" (*cough* baseball *cough* *cough*), but in my opinion, actively directing the action in a sports title can sometimes have the effect of turning you into an overnight sports fan.

I had this happen to me. After playing Madden for a few months, I knew the rosters, strengths, and weaknesses of most of the major pro teams. I knew about nickel defenses, running plays, and out patterns. I learned when it was best to do one thing strategically over another, and that information did wonders for me as an armchair quarterback.

Basically, the game turned me into a more knowledgeable football fan, and helped to increase my enjoyment watching the sport on television ten-fold.

Best football game ever was...

[Glacial Wanderer]

My favorite football game of all time was Techno Bowl for the NES. I think the reason I liked it was because it was less like football than any other football game I ever played. In single player mode the AI was a little lacking (ok a lot lacking), but it was a great two player game. In these modern football games I seem to do best when I just let the AI play the game for me because it's better than I am...

Re:All that different from Madden 06, 05, ... etc

[UbuntuDupe]

As far as I know, the NFL's storyline is the same each year. Now, what I want to see is a football video game that *really* mimics what happens in the *real* NFL. Want to bribe a ref? Try it. Honeytrap the other team's key players? Do it. Dope your players? Hook 'em up. Tactical penalties to injur others? Assassinations? Fixing matches? At least make it an option.

The problem is, I ... don't think that game would go over well with the Jack Thompson crowd.

Re:I'm Curious...

[recordMyRides]

This happenned for me too. I hated football until a friend got me to play Madden a few times. Once I knew the names of the plays being run on tv, not to mention the players and coaches running them, the game developed a whole new dimension for me.

2007 is better than 2006 so far

[CPE1704TKS]

I got Madden 2k6 and hated the QB vision. It complicated an already complicated game, and was totally unnecessary. What they need to do is make other parts of the game more realistic, like the timing aspect of throwing balls, not add some unnecessary complexity with which direction the QB is looking. For example, you can basically throw to a player at any point in his route and he will grab for it, whereas in real football that is impossible. The other thing that is very annoying is that defensive backs covering wide receivers can go and block throws even with their backs to the ball. In 2007, QB vision is now an option to increase the accuracy. Great idea, it decreases complexity. It also adds more features to make the running game more unique. I would say 2k7 is a step above, but I'm going to be playing it in earnest this Labor day weekend to see how it really cuts the mustard.

Re:next year

[MyDixieWrecked]

I would not bother getting this game

3 of my friends got this game for the 360 and I must say that I think EA dropped the ball on this one (seriously, no pun intended!)

the game has locked up several times on one of my friend's consoles, and he hasn't had that problem at all with any other game. Also, there are a lot of problems with collision detection and player animations; namely the celebratory animations after a touchdown. I've seen players get stuck in the air and go into a seizure, and occasionally, a player will be walking, but his foot will be twitching like crazy.

none of it is really a complete showstopper for me, but the game feels like it was very rushed... I don't like the game either way. but apparently, you can unlock other madden games (Genesis version!), so that kinda excites me.

on a side note... what's the deal with 360 games looking like total crap on non HD tvs? I don't mean that regular TVs look like crap compared to HDTV, but some games (dead rising is the first that comes to mind) have type that's too small to read on the shotty resolution of a regular TV which causes a serious impact to the enjoyability of the game.

No Co-op mode!

[freebfrost]

I was willing to give the 360 version a chance, and then found out that the game doesn't support co-op game play, so I can't sit at home and play this with my friends.

Not only is that functionality not in the 360 version (nor is Owner mode, audibles, and other features), but that co-op play was *removed* from the Xbox and PS2 versions as well. So, for my friend who likes to sit down and play on the same team with his son - too bad! I only play Madden with my friends on the same team - too bad for me!

Basically EA has said this game is no longer for people who play together. Its for those who play alone or who just want to use Xbox Live to trash-talk other players in an online game...

Pathetic.