EA Sports announces across-the-board price cuts

[kingoffighters]

For those who prefer their posts bullshit-free;

September

1 PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 288,747
5 PS2 ESPN NFL 2K5 203,101

3 XBX ESPN NFL 2K5 128,226
5 XBX MADDEN NFL 2005 102,886

August

1 PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 1,112,588
2 PS2 ESPN NFL 2K5 448,433

1 XBX MADDEN NFL 2005 509,100
2 XBX ESPN NFL 2K5 311,359

July

3 PS2 ESPN NFL 2K5 406,083
3 XBX ESPN NFL 2K5 385,660

Total Madden PS2 sales: 1,401,335
Total ESPN PS2 sales: 1,057,617

Total Madden XBX sales: 611,986
Total ESPN XBX sales: 825,245

Total Madden sales for PS2 and Xbox: 2,013,321
Total ESPN sales for PS2 and Xbox: 1,882,862

For comparison, ESPN NFL Football has sold 213,793 and 198,986 copies for the Xbox and PS2 respectively, for a combined total of 412,779 life to date. On the other hand, Madden 2004 sold 3,410,917 copies on the PS2 alone.

First of all, thanks for posting the results.

Second, the sales figure is really telling and no wonder EA is cutting their price in response to ESPN.

Regardless of how you feel about EA/Sega's lineup, EA sold almost 2 million copies LESS than last year, and that's just PS2 alone. At say on average, EA is getting $40/copy, that's 80 million dollar of loss revenue (just a very rough estimate here). With Xbox and PS2 combined, it is probably closer to 100 million dollars of revenue they are not getting.

Considering that the marginal cost of producing a Madden DVD is next to nothing, that's alot of profit they aren't seeing this year b/c of Take2's pricing strategy. Meanwhile, Take2/Sega could still be in the red because the price is so low (not sure what the development cost is for this year's version), but I doubt it.

No wonder EA is trying to recoup some of its 'loss' sales by lowering its price. Not to mention, EA spent YEARS and hundreds of million of dollars to build up the Madden brand, they don't want that to erode in a few years. This is pretty impressive on Take2/Sega's part.

[Survival Kid]

Madden sells 7 copies on the Gamecube.

And it is the GameCube's most successful third party title.

lol That's fucked up, dude.