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[sonycowboy]

EA's Madden NFL 06 Has Record Number of First Week Fans
Thursday August 18, 3:18 pm ET
EA SPORTS Gridiron Title Scores Big at Retail

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 18, 2005--Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS - News), today announced that, based on internal data, Madden NFL 06 scored big at retail in its first week in stores and sold-thru more than 1.7 million copies, making it the biggest week one launch of a Madden NFL Football game in the franchise's sixteen-year history.

"Gamers were demanding the best Madden NFL Football ever this year and the response at retail indicates that we delivered the game that everyone wanted," said EA Vice President of Marketing Todd Sitrin. "Consumers have voted with their dollars, and the vote is in -- this is the best version of Madden NFL Football ever."

"EA ups its game for the best Madden yet," said Matthew Kato, Senior Editor of Game Informer magazine. "They delivered substantial innovation to the Madden franchise, making Madden NFL 06 a must-have title of the year."

"You'd think the big news in the locker-room this week was the start of the preseason, but all everyone could talk about was the new Madden game," said Ahman Green, All Pro Running Back for the Green Bay Packers. "Everyone had to check out their new ratings and the new features in the game."

Based on internal tracking, EA estimates:

* Madden NFL 06 had the biggest week one launch in the history of the franchise, selling more than 1.7 million units.
* NCAA® Football 06 was the #1 selling video game on the PlayStation®2 computer system in July 2005.(a)
* With double digit sales percentage increases this year, both Madden NFL 06 and NCAA Football 06 are tracking well ahead of last year's launch sales.
* Within a month of NCAA Football 06 shipping and with Madden NFL 06 on store shelves only a few days, EA SPORTS(TM) football fans have played more than 1.5 million games through the PlayStation 2 console and on Xbox Live®(b) on the EA SPORTS Nation.

"The strong starts of NCAA Football 06 and Madden NFL 06 set the pace for a strong EA SPORTS lineup of titles this fall. Up next from EA are FIFA Soccer 06, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 06, NBA LIVE 06 and the rest of our EA SPORTS lineup," added Sitrin.

In its 16th year and with more than 45 million copies sold, Madden NFL Football continues to stand out as the most popular football videogame franchise of all time with a combination of innovative new features and the most authentic football gameplay. Developed in Orlando, FL by EA Tiburon Madden NFL 06 is now on the PlayStation 2 console, the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube(TM), Nintendo DS(TM), Game Boy® Advance, and mobile. The PC version will be available August 17 and the PSP(TM) (PlayStation®Portable) system launches later in September. Madden NFL 06 is rated "E" (Everyone) by the ESRB and has an MSRP of $49.99 for the PlayStation 2 console, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and PSP, $39.99 for PC, and Nintendo DS, $29.99 for Game Boy Advance and Madden NFL Football for Mobile will range from $3.99 to $9.99, depending on the handset and terms of usage. For more information check out www.madden06.com.

Developed in Orlando, Florida by EA Tiburon, NCAA Football 06 is available for the PlayStation 2 console and Xbox. The game is rated "E" (Everyone) by the ESRB and has an MSRP of $49.99 for both console versions. The game's official website is www.ncaafootball06.com.

 

[truffleshuffle83]

what other choice do we have???

 

[Matlock]

ride the madden train

 

[GhaleonEB]

what other choice do we have???

Obviously you have the choice of which thread to post in. But that's about it really.

 

[Laguna X]

(Madden blows up at retail)

For a second I thought John Madden waged holy Jihad at an ACE Hardware store.

"BOOM!"

 

[Kon Tiki]

How much did nfl games sell in their first week last year?

 

[sonycowboy]

Last August: (released 08/09/2005 - so these numbers represent 16 days worth of sales)
---------------------
PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 1,112,588
GCN MADDEN NFL 2005 87,404
GBA MADDEN NFL 2005 20,588
XBX MADDEN NFL 2005 509,100
PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 COLL 395,811
Total for month: 2,125,491


EDIT: Fixed (Xbox version added)

 

[Xenon]

what other choice do we have???

CFL2K6

 

[Fuzzy]

ride the madden train

Someone needs to put Madden's head Mr. Pennybags' body. :lol

 

[Kon Tiki]

Damn shitty forum

 

[Zeo]

Ughhh.

 

[WasabiKing]

Good work GAF Boycotters

 

[Wellington]

Don't make me use it.

Where's AirBrian? I need him to come in here and repeat how 06 won't outsell 05. :lol

 

[GDJustin]

How much did nfl games sell in their first week last year?

Weekly data isn't provided in the US, besides the rare instance when a publisher divulges it for bragging rights (as in now). You'll have to use the NPD data provided above.

 

[donny2112]

So about 1 million of that is for the DS version, right?

Obviously kidding, as Madden 2005 sold pretty well but not amazingly for the DS last fall. With a full month of Madden versus 4-6 days of Nintendogs, Madden could be the best-selling game for August on the DS, though.

It'll be interesting to see how Xbox owners do with Madden as some past threads pointed out that the 2K series did just as good or better than EA's sports series on the Xbox.

 

[Laguna X]

:lol

 

[AniHawk]

Last August: (released 08/09/2005 - so these numbers represent 16 days worth of sales)
---------------------
PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 1,112,588
GCN MADDEN NFL 2005 87,404
GBA MADDEN NFL 2005 20,588
PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 COLL 395,811
Total for month: 1,616,391

Xbox version...?

 

[Solid]

kinda sad trash like madden sells so much while the best sports game ever, WE8, struggle with 64k within it's first month.

 

[sonycowboy]

The extra sales had to go somewhere:

July & August ESPN sales last year
-------------------------------------------------
XBX ESPN NFL 2K5 385,660 311,359
PS2 ESPN NFL 2K5 406,083 448,433

 

[Kon Tiki]

Last August: (released 08/09/2005 - so these numbers represent 16 days worth of sales)
---------------------
PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 1,112,588
GCN MADDEN NFL 2005 87,404
GBA MADDEN NFL 2005 20,588
PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 COLL 395,811
Total for month: 1,616,391

Do you have numbers for ESPN as well? I was wonder how big the nfl market was.

 

[Ranger X]

Monopoly + very little additions to the game = more sales. Tks EA.

 

[Unison]

I blame the DS version.

 

[sonycowboy]

Xbox version...?

Fixed above, but oops.

Last August: (released 08/09/2005 - so these numbers represent 16 days worth of sales)
---------------------
PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 1,112,588
GCN MADDEN NFL 2005 87,404
GBA MADDEN NFL 2005 20,588
XBX MADDEN NFL 2005 509,100
PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 COLL 395,811
Total for month: 2,125,491

 

[WasabiKing]

kinda sad trash like madden sells so much while the best sports game ever, WE8, struggle with 64k within it's first month.

That's cause soccer sucks.

All you doubters got Truck Stuck

 

[Wario64]

I will kill all Madden owners.

 

[TheUnknownForce]

America is a Football whore country, and with so many people wanting to play football games involving the NFL, they really only had one choice: buy Madden. I also think that they were advertising it a bit more than usual. They made sure EVERYONE knew it was coming out.

 

[Slo]

Good work GAF Boycotters

:lol

 

[Solid]

That's cause soccer sucks.

biggest sport in the world

 

[WasabiKing]

biggest sport in the world

So big that the "best" game representing your sport sold 1/4th the amount of units with 4 times as much shelf time.

 

[Borys]

Grats EA.

This will be an interesting thread: EA h8rs contra Madden lovers.

The fact that most of Madden lovers are mods does not exactly help EA haters :lol

 

[Attack You]

So, are Nintendo people just anti-Madden or what? And, I'm gonna have to point and laugh at EA if Mario Strikers outsells Madden.

 

[Kabuki Waq]

So big that the "best" game representing your sport sold 1/4th the amount of units with 4 times as much shelf time.

WE is still better than MAdden "Money Play" Sim 2006.

 

[Crimson Dragon]

"Gamers were demanding the best Madden NFL Football ever this year and the response at retail indicates that we delivered the game that everyone wanted," said EA Vice President of Marketing Todd Sitrin. "Consumers have voted with their dollars, and the vote is in -- this is the best version of Madden NFL Football ever."

Soooo, being the only company that can make an NFL game didn't have anything to do with these 'votes'? Good spin marketing guy!

 

[Solid]

So big that the "best" game representing your sport sold 1/4th the amount of units with 4 times as much shelf time.

well all americans are dumb and fat and knows nothing of whats happening outside the USA.

lol am i rite or what

 

[WasabiKing]

So, are Nintendo people just anti-Madden or what? And, I'm gonna have to point and laugh at Wasabi if Mario Strikers outsells Madden.

That's fine, but keep in mind during my trip to E3, NO ONE played Madden 2006 on the GameCube. It was all alone. And to be honest, what good is Madden 2006 on GameCube? No online, so the rosters stay static. Yet EA makes it for that console. How selfless.

Madden 2006, GC GOTY

Solid - hey, you brought in WE in a Madden thread. So yay to sweeping generalizations! Oh, and I actually like WE, but that's not possible since I play Madden...

And as for the money play debate, it's much harder to do that now. You can bring up the outs and curls from 2005 (which you could counter with a 3-4 2 Man Deep Spy), but you can choose to defend any pass 5 different ways. Something you should be aware of if you actually own the game

 

[Fuzzy]

So, are Nintendo people just anti-Madden or what? And, I'm gonna have to point and laugh at EA if Mario Strikers outsells Madden.

It's not that they hate Madden it's why should they buy it for GCN if they have another console if it has no online and takes up almost an entire MC251.

 

[krypt0nian]

THis is my fave thread in ages!

Boycotts set sales records!!!

 

[Kon Tiki]

well all americans are dumb and fat and knows nothing of whats happening outside the USA.

lol am i rite or what

Dumb enough to buy PS2s..


...wait, what?

 

[jamesinclair]

So big that the "best" game representing your sport sold 1/4th the amount of units with 4 times as much shelf time.

Please fell free to add in sales of Madden in Europe and Japan and sales of WE in those territories.

WE8 was released officially in Brasil even though the PS2 never was.

 

[sonycowboy]

So big that the "best" game representing your sport sold 1/4th the amount of units with 4 times as much shelf time.

I wonder. Add up Winning Eleven's sales in Japan, with PES in Europe (and if you want, the trivial amount of Winning Eleven in the US) and then FIFA worldwide and you'll probably get a monster number.

 

[Amused_To_Death]

Yawn, EA put out a similar PR last year saying they sold 1.35 million copies in the first week on 4 SKUs. So they sold 350,000 more copies on 5 SKUs and with no competition, that is definitely worth the hundreds of millions you spent on NFL exclusive.

Here's the PR from last year:
http://investor.ea.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=88189&p=irol-newsArticle&t=Regular&id=605294&

 

[123rl]

I want to fucking cry because it's so blatantly obvious that EA can just buy their way to success, and so many morons just put up with it and buy the trash that EA spew out every year.

If the fuckers do a similar thing to Konami and Winning Eleven then I WILL give up gaming forever, because the industry might as well be dead

 

[Kabuki Waq]

WE is the best representation of a sport in a video game ever.

MAdden is all about finding out the money plays and then using them over and over again.

I saw that madden championship crap and realized what a farce this series is.

 

[Wellington]

 

[Outcast2004]

For a second I thought John Madden waged holy Jihad at an ACE Hardware store.

"BOOM!"

With what? Bombs made of "BOOM" Tough Actin Tinactin?

 

[Attack You]

That's fine, but keep in mind during my trip to E3, NO ONE played Madden 2006 on the GameCube. It was all alone. And to be honest, what good is Madden 2006 on GameCube? No online, so the rosters stay static. Yet EA makes it for that console. How selfless.

Madden 2006, GC GOTY

Madden 06 GC was at E3? I honestly didn't see it the couple dozen times I ducked in and out of Nintendo's booth. Hrm.

 

[BuckRobotron]

Fixed above, but oops.

Last August: (released 08/09/2005 - so these numbers represent 16 days worth of sales)
---------------------
PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 1,112,588
GCN MADDEN NFL 2005 87,404
GBA MADDEN NFL 2005 20,588
XBX MADDEN NFL 2005 509,100
PS2 MADDEN NFL 2005 COLL 395,811
Total for month: 2,125,491

LOL, how does someone start tallying numbers for Madden and manage to grab, say, GBA and GC numbers but forget Xbox?

Anyway, yeah, with these numbers we see yet again the influence of GAF...nil. Maybe hate on GAF actually helps sell games...

[joking, I think...]

 

[Rorschach]

Where's AirBrian? I need him to come in here and repeat how 06 won't outsell 05. :lol

Lots of ownage this week.

 

[Matlock]

Someone needs to put Madden's head Mr. Pennybags' body. :lol

 

[Wellington]

Yawn, EA put out a similar PR last year saying they sold 1.35 million copies in the first week on 4 SKUs. So they sold 350,000 more copies on 5 SKUs and with no competition, that is definitely worth the hundreds of millions you spent on NFL exclusive.

Here's the PR from last year:
http://investor.ea.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=88189&p=irol-newsArticle&t=Regular&id=605294&

You do realize that pre-season had barely even started by the time the game came out. I'd wager that the bulk of the Madden series' sales come at the last half of the season and into the playoffs, you know when football is really in gear... but hey we can just take your slanted view at face value.