Could Sega just tap outta sports games...

**SEGA (JP:7964) DOWN, MORGAN SAYS NFL GAME OFF TO BAD START**

Videogame publisher Sega Corp down 6.84 percent or 180 yen at 2,450 yen after Morgan Stanley cut its target price on the stock to 3,800 yen from 4,500 yen due to a disappointing start for sales of the "Sega Sports NFL 2K3" American football simulation game.

"August sales for the game only came in at about 150,000 units. Considering the company initially shipped over one million copies, we would have hoped for at least 400,000 or 500,000 sold," said Morgan Stanley analyst Shunji Yamanishi.

In contrast, Yamanishi said Sega competitor Electronic Arts Inc (ERTS) had sold more than one million copies of its "Madden NFL 2003" game, well outpacing Sega's performance.

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/tools/quo...8A025AB928A%7D

Sega needs money. This game tanked. Bad.

I fart in EA's general direction.

Is sick when one considers that NFL2K3 is by far the better game than that EA drivel.

I really don't understand why it sold so poorly... the sales of previous versions were so high... (I don't know about 2k2's though)

Bah! I thought SEGA should have given up on sports a long time ago. Sports games are, almost as a rule, shitty.

Didn't DC 2k1 outsell PS2 Madden?


I just can't understand the casual "gamer." :(

Sega can do no wrong. These reports are obviously lies concocted by Electronic Farts.

I bought neither. But my bro always buys both. I think he is kind of wierd, but he likes both equally.

Sega sold 144,000 units of its NFL 2K3 American football game in the U.S. in August, versus sales of 1.16 million of Electronic Arts' Madden NFL 2003 game, said Jay Defibaugh, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston Securities (Japan) Ltd., citing a monthly industry survey.

SEGA needs a catchy name. people say "madden is awesome" and you know what they are referring to. saying "nfl2k3" just makes me tired.

They could license Joe Montana's name again...

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Originally posted by Kinopio
SEGA needs a catchy name. people say "madden is awesome" and you know what they are referring to. saying "nfl2k3" just makes me tired.

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Virtua Football?

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Originally posted by mattvanstone
Sega sold 144,000 units of its NFL 2K3 American football game in the U.S. in August, versus sales of 1.16 million of Electronic Arts' Madden NFL 2003 game, said Jay Defibaugh, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston Securities (Japan) Ltd., citing a monthly industry survey.

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I'm not listening! *plugs ears* Lalalalalalalalalalalala!

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Originally posted by Shinobi128
Didn't DC 2k1 outsell PS2 Madden?

I just can't understand the casual "gamer." :(

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I'd guess that's because PS2s weren't widely available until after the 2000 football season was over.

Oh, and Sega shouldn\'t bow out of sports entirely because the NBA2K is both very successful and unparalleled by EA\'s offerings.

Well, sega is owned in football, soccer, hockey, and possibly baseball, I dunno on that last one.

When you ship 1 million, sell 140K, probably another 100 this month, that's a lotta loss. Sports games don't sell assloads for long long time.

Owned in hockey? No way in hell, not after NHL2K2. Once they get their act together and polish up the front end stuff the series is going to be gold.

Strictly sales. Does NHL series not sell more than sega's thing?

Oh oh sales. Nevermind. NHL2K2's sales were probably shit.

I think a lot of this has to do with Sega Sport's lack of brand name recognition amongst "mainstream" gamers. EA have been selling them sports games on multiple formats for years, but Sega haven't. Give Sega a few years, and with any luck the critical acclaim their sports games receive, along with some decent marketing (I'm not sure this is happening in the US, but I sure hope so) should help boost their reputation amongst the mainstream and allow them to compete with EA on even terms.

Here a little tidbit:

ESPN.

On their network, whenever they talk about football games, they reference Madden.

In a special report where they reviewed all three big offerings (Sega, Microsoft, EA) they ranked in as Microsoft having the best game.

Yet, their logo, brand name, commentators, and SOUL are in the Sega Sports games. I'm all for "keeping it real" but they could at least toss a plug for THEIR game once in a while...

I'm interested in knowing if Sega topped EA last year in terms of basketball game sales.

all i know in terms of b-ball game sales was that the DC's nba2k1 outsold nba live 2001 on the psx..

when you consider each system's userbase, that's pretty damn funny..

i wouldn't touch an EA product with an 8 foot pole.

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Originally posted by Shinobi128
Didn't DC 2k1 outsell PS2 Madden?


I just can't understand the casual "gamer." :(

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NFL2k1 sold over 890,000 units.


I could'nt see NFL2k3 impacting sales of Madden 2003, as every time you walked into a GameStop, EB etc.. all you heard was: "We're taking pre-orders for Madden 2003." Most of the Madden games were sold, before a review or even a game hit the store shelves.

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Originally posted by johnk_
all i know in terms of b-ball game sales was that the DC's nba2k1 outsold nba live 2001 on the psx..

when you consider each system's userbase, that's pretty damn funny..

i wouldn't touch an EA product with an 8 foot pole.

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Is it just as funny that the PS outsold the DC during the DC's lifespan, effectively killing it's 2nd sega system?

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Originally posted by gamevet
I could'nt see NFL2k3 impacting sales of Madden 2003, as every time you walked into a GameStop, EB etc.. all you heard was: "We're taking pre-orders for Madden 2003." Most of the Madden games were sold, before a review or even a game hit the store shelves.

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Not true of EB. They gave kickbacks to employees who sold Sega Sports products the month of the 2K3 launch. They had to pimp NFL2K3 with all their might. People didn't want to hear it though. They'd usually play the kiosk for about 10-15 seconds (literally) and proclaim "Is this a joke? Better than madden? Madden is perfect" and then trade in their copy of said perfect game for $5 of of the new one.

As long as Sega keeps NBA and their racing games. Although you've gotta believe that Sega's too close to really outpacing EA at football for them to give up now.

Most every review said they were either just as good as each other, or one slightly better than the other. I guess most people just stuck with the one they knew.

NBA 2k3 is gonna destroy NBA Live...

There is just way too much name recognition attached too Madden for anybody to compete. For most people, "Madden" and "video football" are one and the same, just like how "Kleenex" can refer to any tissue or "Xerox" can refer to any photo copy machine. If there was any justice in the world, Sega's football game would be right up there with Madden, but it isn't. I tend to not worry about it because I just do not have any fun when playing those types of games, but I can see the quality in both Madden and the Sega offerings regaurdless.

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Originally posted by mattvanstone


Is it just as funny that the PS outsold the DC during the DC's lifespan, effectively killing it's 2nd sega system?

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Funny that it outsold the DC, yes.
Funny that you think PS1 "killed" DC, yes.

I don't think PS1 was responsible in any way for the "death" of DC.

i think SEGA should just rename their sports games to "better than EA's shit". that kinda rolls off the tongue.

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Originally posted by Dragonmaster Dyne
i think SEGA should just rename their sports games to "better than EA's shit". that kinda rolls off the tongue.

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This made me laugh. :D

Sega should continue making sports games just to cut into EA's sales, no matter how small. EA didn't support Sega. Paybacks are hell.

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Originally posted by Chibi Nappa
There is just way too much name recognition attached too Madden for anybody to compete. For most people, "Madden" and "video football" are one and the same, just like how "Kleenex" can refer to any tissue or "Xerox" can refer to any photo copy machine. If there was any justice in the world, Sega's football game would be right up there with Madden, but it isn't. I tend to not worry about it because I just do not have any fun when playing those types of games, but I can see the quality in both Madden and the Sega offerings regaurdless.

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IT's time to go to plan B: Operation: Waiting for John Madden to Die

Buffy for the Xbox has the EA logo on it. This makes me feel ill...
So does SSX Tricky when I boot it up...
:(

At least Sega's Tennis game sales trounce EA's...

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Originally posted by Frogacuda


IT's time to go to plan B: Operation: Waiting for John Madden to Die

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I'm more partial to Operation B-1: Taking an active role in John Madden's death. :sneak:

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Originally posted by GameZector
Sega should continue making sports games just to cut into EA's sales, no matter how small. EA didn't support Sega. Paybacks are hell.

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don't get caught up in this... there's no 'payback' going on. That's not the objective, the objective is to be #1 (which currently is an impossible goal). Switch EA's position with Activision and the goal would still be the same. To be #1... or a somewhat close #2 would be more realistic for now.

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Originally posted by TracerBullet
don't get caught up in this... there's no 'payback' going on. That's not the objective, the objective is to be #1 (which currently is an impossible goal).

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The only objective is to be profitable.

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Originally posted by Frogacuda

The only objective is to be profitable.

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Exactly. Market share is only an objective when market share leads to higher profits.

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Originally posted by Chibi Nappa
There is just way too much name recognition attached too Madden for anybody to compete. For most people, \"Madden\" and \"video football\" are one and the same, just like how \"Kleenex\" can refer to any tissue or \"Xerox\" can refer to any photo copy machine. If there was any justice in the world, Sega\'s football game would be right up there with Madden, but it isn\'t. I tend to not worry about it because I just do not have any fun when playing those types of games, but I can see the quality in both Madden and the Sega offerings regaurdless.

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Maybe Sega should start calling their football games \"Madden games,\" then argue that Madden games have become a generic term for electronic football games when it gets sued.

how can sega be profitable selling 10% of the shipped games? Obviously, they expected to sell 4-500K, and then trickle the rest out.

Selling 800-900K copies of a game at an impending discounted price, can't be good for profits.

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Originally posted by bloodyarts

Funny that it outsold the DC, yes.
Funny that you think PS1 "killed" DC, yes.

I don't think PS1 was responsible in any way for the "death" of DC.

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PS2 hype killed the DC. Not everyone is an early adopter - last-gen consoles probably continue to outsell next-gen consoles for quite some time after the next-gen launch simply because they are more affordable, available, and have established libraries.

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Originally posted by Frogacuda


The only objective is to be profitable.

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Extention: MOST Profitable.. in the long term.

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Sega shouldn't sweat their football series selling poorly - their NBA2K series is the best NBA sim there is, year after year, and Tennis and Beach Spikers are the best ever made for their respective sports. I think WSB2K3 will be a serious contender, too...

John Madden must be soooooooooo rich!!!

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Originally posted by mattvanstone
how can sega be profitable selling 10% of the shipped games? Obviously, they expected to sell 4-500K, and then trickle the rest out.

Selling 800-900K copies of a game at an impending discounted price, can't be good for profits.

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But isn't selling 150,000 copies at full price and 850,000 copies at reduced prices better than only selling 150,000 at full price ??
- Kabuki

Not if Sega is taking a loss on those discounted copies.

who says sega will sell 850K of those?

They expected to sell 400-500K full price last month. they sold 140. THat be bad :(

The overhead is very low on sports games gents.. I doubt they'd lose money on each copy sold at 19.99.

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