110°

Why Madden needs to take a year off. And why it will never happen.

mygamertalk.com - So that left me thinking. What does EA need to do in order to fix it’s biggest sports franchise? Take a year off.

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mygamertalk.com
ranmafandude5057d ago

why it needs to take a CENTURY OFF - cause it sucks

why it will never happen - cause of the tools that keep buying it year after year

tplarkin75056d ago

Whenever EA loses the NFL license, some other company will compete with them. Madden did take a year off when they moved from sprites to polygons. I'm sure some other technological leap will force a break.

A Cupcake for Gabe5056d ago

Madden doesn't suck, but with any sports game, it can get stagnant after a awhile. They should release one madden every 2-3 years and just update it through DLC.

cyborg69715056d ago

I buy it every other year. This year the thing that sucks is the stratgy pad.

ThePlaystationFour5057d ago

Soon, this will happen to the Call Of Duty series. DON'T MILK!

allyc4t5056d ago

Yeah, just look what happened with Guitar Hero.

TheDeadMetalhead5056d ago (Edited 5056d ago )

"Soon"?

http://i37.tinypic.com/34i0...

(Apparently .gifs don't work on here)

UnSelf5056d ago

lol did u just Rocket Cancel a knife strike??

aviator1895057d ago (Edited 5057d ago )

When your game's selling like hotcakes (CoD, Madden), why would the publisher take a year off and risk all of those potential sales for that one year?
Of course, we gamers here on N4G would love to see that happen, but in reality, money talks and profits and sales is what drives the majority of these companies to pump out these games on an annual basis.
Now, if the sales were to dip quite significantly due to rapidly diving quality, performance, and popularity, this option wouldn't sound so mad in the eyes of EA, Activision, etc.

allyc4t5056d ago

The sales have been declining everyyear since 07. Hopefully they realize that its because the game is lackluster and not because of some fluke.

iceman065056d ago

but the sales are only lackluster in comparison to itself. Compare it to other games and there are a huge amount of devs that would die to have Madden's last year sales...let alone lifetime. I DO agree that they need to go back and retool. If you have been playing Madden for as long as I have (since GameDay got horrible and 2K was still stuck on Dreamcast), then it is getting stale.

Baka-akaB5056d ago

so what if it's declining ? it's still a sales juggernaut .
This is what i bet , they'll change drastically the game and its engine for ps4/720/wii 2 ....

In the mean time they'll continue milking the same game

ApocalypseShadow5056d ago (Edited 5056d ago )

year off because you wont be missing anything.you get the same game every year with new,fancy names of the same thing you already DO or already GOT.like when they introduced the "flashlight" to scan the field when gamers did that on their own.

will never happen because of "GREED" from EA,ESPN,NFL and investors.

nfl2k5 4life.but major props to back breakers for trying.

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120°

Political Pixels - 10 US Presidents In Video Games

There’s no doubting the impact that this week’s Presidential Election has had not just on the US but the whole world. While we can’t forget the result (be it good or bad, depending on your political leanings) we can at least distract ourselves with a few good old fashioned video games.

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heypoorplayer.com
derkasan2776d ago

It'd be awesome if Obama or Bill Clinton were playable in Metal Wolf Chaos.

60°

The Most Influential Features in Madden History: Part 4 of 4

Luke looks at the most influential features of Madden on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

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gamespresso.com
280°

EA Loses in Madden Lawsuit Verdict – Jury Rules Statute of Limitations Has Not Run

A jury in U.S. District Court today ruled in favor of Robin Antonick, the original designer and developer of Electronic Arts’ (NASDAQ: EA) best-selling Madden NFL Football games.

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terminalgamer.com
US8F4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

ouch, how many millions do EA owe Robin Antonick?
$200 million in revenues for games released between 1990 and 1996

Damages relating to 1997-2013 games will be tried in a subsequent phase of the trial. (I suspect $600 million more, just averaging out)

That is ALOOOT OF MONEY

EA is going to have to compensate 800 million dollar's worth!. Who wants to bet the next big EA title would be pay to win?

-Mika-4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

This is not a good thing, That is alot of money. This could lead to alot of game cancellations and like you said. Alot of DLC. Gamers should not be happy about this. This could possibly destroy the biggest third party publisher in gaming.

THamm4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

Well they pulled exclusive NFL deals and all kinds of anti competition pay outs, they need to change their ways and make better games, and the greedy NFL should too because they are next with the concussion lawsuits. Face it, Madden is boring and always has been, bring back 2k, Tecmo, heck even Konami

Theyellowflash304015d ago

I don't mind EA going down one bit.

pixelsword4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

They should have paid him when they had the chance. I don't care if this cancels all of their games and they close for good, you pay a man when they earn the money.

Enigma_20994015d ago

*plays wold's tiniest violin...*

Let's look back on how EA has treated employees, gamers, and competitors over the years. The only thing that would make this better is if they got Activision too.

Want some tissue?

ZeroX98764014d ago

Titanfall, battlefield 4 and plants vs zombies 2 seems to be amazing games. I hate what they did with most of their sports franchises, but they're still doing some good stuff here and there.

losing the sports franchise exclusivity would be great. I'd like to see competitors effort in sports franchises, like sony is doing with MLB and 2K with NBA 2KXX series.

noctis_lumia4014d ago

which is good
EA can go fck themself

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4014d ago
porkChop4015d ago

Clearly you didn't read the article very well.

"The jury will determine what to award Antonick in allegedly unpaid royalties from more than $200 million in revenues for games released between 1990 and 1996"

EA made $200m in TOTAL between '90 and '96 off of the Madden series. Antonick isn't getting paid $200m. He's going to get a smaller percentage of that money, not the whole thing.

iceman064015d ago

He'll get paid that percentage. But then there is always the "damages", if sued for, which could very well be that $200 million mark. Juries LOVE to punish big companies for trying to get over on the "little" guy.

ftwrthtx4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

Antonick might be seeing hundreds of millions of dollars with this.

knifefight4015d ago

Plus 10 more every time someone plays online!

NYC_Gamer4015d ago

i hope dude wins the case if EA is at fault

-Mika-4015d ago

Why would you want him to win. This could seriously damage them. If this guys win hundreds of millions of dollars. This could lead to alot of game cancellations. As a gamer, You should not want that.

DragonKnight4015d ago

Who cares about EA? They are a blight on the industry. They think their size grants them power over everything and everyone. It'd be sad for the people who were the working class stiffs losing their jobs, but I don't give a damn about the greedy executive losers responsible for trying to screw everyone over.

Sarobi4015d ago

"Why would you want him to win"

If EA is at fault than they deserve to pay up. So what if a few games get cancelled?.. you can't just screw people over the money you owe them.

MrSwankSinatra4015d ago

first off business is business, if EA owed me money i'd sue their asses too. if EA has to cancel games, they should've thought of that before not paying people they owe in the first place.

rainslacker4015d ago

He won't get hundreds of millions of dollars. Learn to read, and read what was written. Total revenues for the games were around $200 million, this guy won't be getting all that.

Also, I'm a gamer. But I also believe companies should pay what they agree to pay. If they didn't, then they should be sued.

I'm all for more games getting made, but that doesn't mean I'm going to say a company should do whatever they damn well please, all while screwing the guys that did the work.

Your so concerned about the developer? Well this guy was one of them. He did the work. Now he deserves to be paid.

iceman064015d ago

Because he DESERVES it!!! Screw the damage and don't think that cancellations will come from this. There is a fund that most companies have just for these things.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4015d ago
Software_Lover4015d ago

This is not going to end well.

badboy7764015d ago

Does this mean NFL 2K is back???????????

ftwrthtx4015d ago

It would be nice if someone could compete with EA. Not much new is added every year for Madden and having someone else putting out a game might force their hand a bit.

dedicatedtogamers4015d ago

I'd love to see Sony or SEGA do a Football game. SEGA has the pedigree (or does that studio belong to someone else now?) and Sony has been doing baseball for quite a long time.

THamm4015d ago

SEGA was the pub, Visual Concepts are the devs. They are owned by Take Two and are the makers of 2K sports games

ftwrthtx4015d ago

If they could use the MLB: The Show team and engine for an NFL title, I'm pretty sure it would be the best on the market.

punisher994015d ago

You know Sony used to do football games. Remember NFL Gameday on the PS1? That was from 989 studios which was one of their 1st party studios.

Rainstorm814015d ago

Punisher you beat me to it ...game day on ps1 was my go to football game

iceman064015d ago

@ftwrthtx...I'd rather let the Visual Concepts (2K Sports) guys run the show. Their games were excellent and still stand up pretty well today.

ftwrthtx4015d ago

@iceman As long as it's not the team behind the MLB 2K series. Those games don't even come close to The Show.

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Outside_ofthe_Box4015d ago

I hope and pray it does. Madden is proof of what lack of competition does to the industry.

badboy7764015d ago

Yes and No. EA bought the licensed NFL they didn't earn it. Unlike how NBA 2K made NBA Live stop production and start from scratch.

Outside_ofthe_Box4015d ago (Edited 4015d ago )

You are agreeing with me. Madden has no competition at all due to NFL license exclusivity and thus now we have lack luster Madden games every year because they have no one to push them to do their best.

On the other hand NBA2K at the moment has no competition, but that's only due to them ACTUALLY COMPETING in the first place with the end result being them having a superior product to sole competitor in Live. This lead Live to essentially quit for two years in an attempt to finally make a product that can out due NBA2K. That is what I call competition.

Thanks to EA NFL monopoly, 2K or any dev for that matter can't make a competing product at all even if they wanted to.

There is a difference between have no competition because nobody is allowed to compete and having no competition due to just being so damn good.

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