EA cutting PC sports titles from its '09 lineup

[jyoung]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6188682...newstop;more;9

Today, EA Sports quarterback Peter Moore shed some light via his official blog on why the PC edition of [Madden '09] had been benched. Echoing sentiments expressed by various other gaming execs, Moore said EA Sports would be scaling back its efforts on the PC on account of the platform's troublesome economic climate.

"The PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii," said Moore. "We are committed to shipping a limited number of our games on the PC this year, but we've also had to cut a few of our games from the platform."

However, EA Sports hasn't abandoned the most venerable of gaming platforms quite yet. "We do have ideas for how to revitalize the PC for sports games and the types of games that are best suited to the platform, and we'll continue to explore those," said Moore.

Developed by EA Tiburon, Madden NFL 09 is currently slated to arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and Wii. The Madden NFL 09 Collector's Edition will be available only for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Madden '09 is confirmed dead; other titles remain in limbo, though most are likely to get canned, considering that Madden is their best selling sports game across all platforms, and even it failed to sell more than 250,000 copies:

Units sold - Top 10 for 2007 (NPD numbers)

PC

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade – (Vivendi) – 2.25 million
World of Warcraft– (Vivendi) – 914K
The Sims 2 – (Electronic Arts) – 534K
The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack – (Electronic Arts) – 433K
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – (Activision) – 383K
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars – (Electronic Arts) – 350K
MS Age of Empires III – (Microsoft) – 313K
Sim City 4 - (Electronic Arts) – 294K
MS Flight Simulator X - (Microsoft) - 280K
The Sims 2: Bon Voyage Expansion Pack – (Electronic Arts) – 272K

Console

360 HALO 3 4.82 million
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE 4.12 million
360 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE 3.04 million
PS2 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK 2.72 million
WII SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2.52 million
NDS POKEMON DIAMOND 2.48 million
PS2 MADDEN NFL 08 1.90 million
PS2 GUITAR HERO 2 1.89 million
360 ASSASSIN'S CREED 1.87 million
WII MARIO PARTY 8 1.82 million

The sad thing is that the PC version has been a barely-altered port of the PS2 version for years now, while the PS2 source code has been running on the same game engine since 2001. Even sadder is the fact the PC version has consistently been the best Madden product for the last three years, because it avoids all the pitfalls of the newer 360/PS3 disasters while offering a level of customization that the PS2/Xbox versions do not.

The technology certainly exists for Madden PC to be the best version from a technical standpoint, and many people thought that this might finally be the year that EA stops porting the PS2 game and starts working with Vista/DX10, but instead of having to do some actual work on the game, it looks like they'd rather drop the project altogether.

You have to wonder just how badly it was selling for them to drop it, when it's obvious that the PC version gets the least amount of developmental effort of all the different Madden versions (and ironically, winds up being the best).

[YellerDog]

Does the average sports gamer play anything on a PC?

[Joust Williams]

Madden isn't big in Europe (obviously). The PC games-outside-of-MMO-and-casual-garbage isn't big in the US.

I'd be surprised if they canned FIFA or something. That can sell on a PC because the audience is there.

Madden sucks anyway, though.

[YellerDog]

Agreed. Does this somehow free up the NFL license for PC use, now?

[mannerbot]

This is a big "Who cares?" from where I'm standing. First off, nobody but Yoshi plays sports games on the PC. Second, I know wEEman doesn't give a fuck about EA Sports.

[Frogacuda]

I really don't care except that I do wish someone would revitalize the PC marketplace. I do think people play PC games as much as console games, but they don't pay for them, so yeah.

[jyoung]

This is a big "Who cares?" from where I'm standing. First off, nobody but Yoshi plays sports games on the PC. Second, I know wEEman doesn't give a fuck about EA Sports.

Before All Pro Football 2K8 came out, I played '06 and '07 Madden on the PC.

Considering that All Pro Football 2K9 has yet to be confirmed, Madden '09 could potentially be the only new football game this year.

[mannerbot]

Eh, I just figured you were the type of guy that would have played 2K5 for 3 years.

[jyoung]

I would have if Sega hadn't shut the online lobbies down.

I hate playing against AI in competitive games (sports, shooters, whatever), so I'd rather player a lesser game against a live opponent than play a better game against the computer.

[Yoshi]

This is a big "Who cares?" from where I'm standing. First off, nobody but Yoshi plays sports games on the PC. Second, I know wEEman doesn't give a fuck about EA Sports.

Hell, I haven't even played a sports game on PC since NHL 96 IIRC.

Fuck EA anyway.