madden-nfl-11
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EA grows digital sales in Q4, stems losses for fiscal year
EA enjoyed solid growth in the final quarter of its 2011 fiscal year (ending March 31), thanks in large part to a bump in digital revenue. Digital sales were up $67 million from the same period a year ago to $211 million. Good ol' boxed games weren't slouching though, as packaged goods revenue increased $44 million up to $838 million. In all, EA rebounded from its rough Q3 to record $151 million in profit during the fiscal fourth quarter. The engine for that growth was a surprisingly impressive quarterly lineup for the company. Seven of its titles from fiscal Q4 have surpassed 1 million units shipped, with Crysis 2, Dead Space 2 and Dragon Age 2 all over the 2-million-shipped mark. DLC for those titles (like Dead Space 2's "Severed" add-on) was the cornerstone of digital profits, as well. Over its entire 2011 fiscal year, EA shipped 12 million units of FIFA 11, 7 million copies of Bad Company 2 (released at the tail end of FY10), and five million each of Medal of Honor, Hot Pursuit and Madden 11. But it seems that, in the grand scheme, these titles weren't enough to alter EA's fortunes for the fiscal year, which ended in a $267 million loss for the company. We suppose there's still a bit of a silver lining, however -- those losses would seem to sting considerably less than the $677 million lost by EA just one year prior.
EA Mobile drops the price on Madden NFL 11 for iPad to $6.99
EA Mobile's popular Madden NFL 11 for the iPad is now available for $6.99 for a limited time. Grab it while you can as this price drop is almost 50% off the regular price of $12.99. The app brings the gameplay of the Madden iPhone football series to big screen of the iPad. The iPad version makes it easier to draw hot routes for passing, running and defense and includes a vintage football mode that emulates those long-lost days of electric football games. The game features 32 NFL teams and a roster of over 2,000 current players. You can play head-to-head against friends or play through a 16-game season that lets you make trades and monitor performance stats. Interested Football fans can grab the iPad version of Madden NFL 11 from the App Store.
Madden 11 data trends show players jumping on Packers bandwagon
The Arizona Cardinals were the least popular team to play as in Madden 11 this season. According to EA Sports data obtained by The New York Times, of the more than 290 million games played (between Aug. 10, 2010 and Jan. 31, 2011) and tracked online across the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the current Madden, the Cardinals were chosen roughly 1 percent of the time as a human-controlled team by an undoubtedly stalwart core of fans still clinging to the Super Bowl run in '09 -- that's loyalty. What the overall data suggests, however, is that many Madden players jumped on bandwagons from week to week, riding out the Eagles' dazzling, Week 10 demonstration -- at the Redskin's expense -- through most of the rest of the season to make Philly "by far the most popular team" to be selected. And players were just as quick to jump off, too: By the Cowboy's fifth-straight loss in Week 9, gamers began to accept that Dallas just wasn't going to get it done. The rise of the Packers popularity (and Steelers' too), which peaked during the Conference Championship Games on January 23, is perhaps most illustrative of this trend, as the Green and Yellow spent most of the season hovering just above the NFL average for selection percentage until their real-life postseason surge pushed them to the "most popular team on Madden." Of course, we can never be certain how many of these fair-weather Packers players were actually attempting to channel the Curse and sabotage the return of the Lombardi Trophy to Titletown. (Psst, it's not gonna work until Rogers is on the cover.) [Image graph source: NYTimes.com; click image to enlarge]
NPD: 2010's bestselling game releases by platform
Gamasutra has obtained NPD data that puts a new filter on last year's US box-copy software sales, ranking the top ten bestselling 2010 releases for each console and handheld platform (PC excluded). Like the monthly NPD breakdowns, these rankings don't include actual sales numbers, but they do reveal some interesting trends. By omitting Nintendo's so-called "evergreen" titles (i.e., games released before 2010), Gamasutra found that -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- Just Dance 2 was last year's top-selling 2010 release for Wii, and among six additional third-party games that made the top ten in sales for the platform. On DS, however, Nintendo games filled out half of the top ten, and Pokemon SoulSilver and HeartGold were the only titles to surpass sales of one million units each. At first glance, PSP software sales look even bleaker, with Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep on top and, according to Gamastura, the only PSP title to break 300K units sold; with the other top ten games each falling below 200K. Of course, these rankings don't include digital sales or box-copy games bundled with hardware, so it's unlikely that Birth by Sleep (which isn't available on the PlayStation Store) was the true #1 bestseller among 2010's PSP releases -- let alone the most pirated. What is certain is that Call of Duty: Black Ops dominated torrents, as well as the games legitimately sold for PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2010. Still, both Sony and Microsoft saw two first-party releases make their console's respective top ten sales charts for the year; though each publisher's most critically-acclaimed release of 2010 -- at least, from Joystiq's perspective -- was not present. Perhaps telling of the two console's core player bases, Madden 11 beat out God of War 3 for the #2 spot on the PS3 chart, but fell to #3 beneath Halo: Reach in the Xbox 360 ranking. Finally, we have to wonder just what were they thinking? They, of course, being all those Xbox 360 owners that purchased Fable 3 and Fallout: New Vegas instead of Mass Effect 2. Three and a half stars plus four still doesn't add up to the Game of the Year, people. Check out Gamastutra for the complete breakdown of 2010's bestselling releases by platform.
Steelers win Madden 11 Super Bowl simulation
Computers can be used to calculate all sorts of truly helpful data ... or they can be used to simulate the Super Bowl. If you're going to use processing power to predict the outcome of a sporting event, then you'd better be pretty darned accurate if you hope to maintain any semblance of a reasonable use of life (it still takes human people to run, recap and even report on -- hi there! -- the simulation). EA Sports' Madden games have at least been that, accurately calling the winner of six of the last seven Super Bowls. This year, Madden 11 sees the Pittsburgh Steelers defeating the Green Bay Packers 24-20 in Super Bowl XLV, which sounds like a good enough guess. But now, do you put money on that? (After the break, delve into the video highlights and box score ... of the simulated game.) Also vying for "reasonability" will be this Thursday's Madden Bowl XVII (wait -- there have already been sixteen of these?). The annual tournament of NFL players gamers whose seasons have been reduced to playing as themselves will be broadcast live on ESPN3 (on your Xbox Dashboard) at 9PM ET, February 3. Hey Niners fans, did you know Alex Smith* has won a record two Madden Bowls? That's the same number of Super Bowl rings that Roethlisberger has -- well, until Sunday's victory, according to Madden. [*Update: Oops! Sorry to get your hopes up San Francisco faithful -- it's Alex Smith the tight end (currently playing for the Cleveland Browns) who holds the Madden Bowl record. Alex Smith the quarterback has never participated in the event.] %Gallery-115477%
Black Ops, Madden lead NPD's top 2010 physical game sales
Great news! Remember last January, when you attempted to convince friends of your latent psychic ability by writing down the names of the top 10 best-selling games of the following year, when in all actuality, you were just using your knowledge of the gaming industry and its consumers? Well, you were totally right: The NPD Group's recently unveiled ranking of bestsellers looks pretty much how you'd expect, with Call of Duty: Black Ops ringing in at first place, while Madden NFL 11 and Halo: Reach came in at second and third, respectively. You can check out the rest of the top 10 after the jump, though you could probably fill in the rest of the blanks using raw intuition. Here, give it a try. Yup. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yes, that too. Huh? Split/Second? Nope. Oh, but if wishing made it so.
October NPD: NBA 2K11 tops charts, Xbox 360 'best selling console in 2010'
Here is the second edition of the revised (and less informative) monthly NPD report. With the market research group no longer sharing specific hardware figures, it's noteworthy to point out that only Microsoft has (as of writing) released concrete sales numbers. Major Nelson tweeted that Microsoft sold 325K Xbox 360s in October. Although the figure represents a 32-percent drop from the previous month, it was enough to secure Microsoft's spot as best-selling console of the month. Major Nelson also added that the Xbox 360 "is the best selling console in 2010 [with] 3.5 million" sold so far. Sony's response doesn't offer console sales numbers, but Patrick Seybold commented on increased momentum for the company's PlayStation Move motion controller. "The PS3 Move Bundle had a 15-percent increase in sales since launch last month, and we're working hard to keep the inventory up across the country to meet strong consumer demand." In addition, Seybold reminded us of the impending launch of Sony's big holiday game: "With next week's launch of the industry's most anticipated title, Gran Turismo 5, we're sure to carry the momentum through the holidays." Nintendo, as of the time of publishing, had not offered comment. Software sales jumped 6 percent year-over-year for the month to $605 million. The multiplatform release of NBA 2K11 helped propel it to the top of the charts, undoubtedly aided by EA Sports' cancellation of NBA Elite 11. Fallout, Medal of Honor and Fable all made strong debuts -- but Rock Band 3's 15th-place position in sales has us concerned. NPD analyst Anita Frazier did make a special note in the report, assuring us that "this game has the potential to perform well over the holidays." The top-ten software breakdown is posted after the break.
EA cuts quarterly losses, despite declining revenue
Electronic Arts has posted its financial report for the second quarter (July–September) of its 2011 fiscal year, posting $631 million in revenue, a decline of $156 million compared to revenue recorded during the same period last year. However, the megapublisher managed to cut its net loss to $201 million -- almost half of last fiscal year's second quarter loss of $391 million. EA CEO John Riccitiello said of the company's recent performance, "We credit our results to blockbusters like FIFA 11 and to innovative digital offerings like The Sims 3 Ambitions and Madden NFL 11 on the iPad." Indeed, FIFA 11 was a golden goose for the publisher -- it was the best-selling game in Europe during the quarter, pushing the life-to-date sales of the FIFA franchise past 100 million worldwide. The publisher also revealed its "cost reduction plan," which seeks to "restructure key licensing and developer agreements to improve the long-term profitability of its packaged goods portfolio." How much more obtuse can the plan get, huh?
Madden 11 finally gets oft-requested Doritos 3D functionality
In one of the most bizarre yet unavoidable cross-promotions to ever rear its head in the video game industry, EA Sports and Doritos Flavor-Dusted Corn Chips™ have announced a new "Doritos 3-D mode" accessible in Madden 11. To unlock the new visuals, which we assume introduce a 3D effect into the game (and don't turn everything on the field into Doritos), you've got to enter in a code found in specially marked packs of the aforementioned snack chips, then strap on a pair of old-school red-and-cyan glasses -- or the Doritos-branded glasses currently on sale for $2.99. (Fun fact: the glasses and the snack taste about the same!) We'd love to see exactly what "Doritos 3-D mode" entails, but unfortunately, these codes are only available in packs of Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese 'itos. Our refined palette requires more sophisticated flavor-hues, like Ragin' Lobster Bisque and Extreme Herbes de Provence Chicken with Mushroom Reduction.
September NPD: Hardware down, but Halo Reaches upward
Welcome to the new NPD report! The agency's new reticence means we have no idea how hardware did in September -- except for the Xbox 360, which was at the top of the charts with 483,989 units sold. The NPD does report that at $383 million, total hardware sales are down 19 percent year-over-year. We have a bit more information about software, but the format has changed for that as well -- instead of each individual version of a game (on each platform, for example) counting as one game on the list, they've been totaled. So Madden NFL 11 occupies one slot on the top ten this month instead of two. Halo: Reach would have done well regardless of this change (it's at #1, after all, and on only one platform) but now we see games on the top ten that might have been muscled out by the Maddens -- like Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Metroid: Other M. Microsoft, never one to ignore a success story, blasted out Halo: Reach's first-month sales numbers: 3.3 million units. It notes that Reach is "only the third game this generation to surpass 3 million unit sales in the first month." The first? Yup, Halo 3. Update: Hardware sales figures can be found here. Embrace change after the break.
Heavy Rain leads an all-PS3 Amazon Gold Box
If you're looking to buy PS3 sadness simulator Heavy Rain just in time for the PlayStation Move patch, Amazon has discounted it to $39.99 as its Deal of the Day. In addition, the retailer has devoted its Gold Box page entirely to PS3 stuff today, with deals launching through 11PM ET. Right now, you can also get Madden NFL 11 for $44.99. Future deals, according to Thrifty Nerd's guesses, may include 3D Dot Game Heroes and Transformers: War for Cybertron. Let the all-day Amazon refreshing marathon commence! [Thanks, MLC]
EA launches Madden NFL 11 Week One roster update
Possibly more than any other regularly scheduled update for a modern video game, we're positively mystified by the weekly roster changes Madden NFL 11 will undergo. EA Sports just launched the "Week One" update for the title, a patch which encompasses over 500 changes to the game's catalog of footballers, including player additions, releases, trades, statistic changes and injuries. Over 500 changes! That's so, so many changes. You can check out the full list of player adjustments on Madden's official site. Or, you can just download the update with no knowledge of what it contains, and be constantly surprised by all the new stuff. (Your star wide receiver's now on the injured list! Surprise! Your favorite offensive lineman just retired! Surprise!)
August NPD: It's another mad, mad, Madden year
The sun will rise, the moon will set and it would be a sign of the end days if Madden didn't rule August software sales in the United States. The August NPDs are out and Madden NFL 11 sold over 1.8 million units in the month, a six percent increase over last year, with significant increases on PS3. Mafia 2, which Take-Two expects to be profitable, entered with a badda-boom and appears to have sold around 200K units during the month -- the title has been a chart topper in the UK since launch. The Xbox 360 remains the top-selling console for a second month, but its sales did drop nearly 20 percent from July. The only hardware to see sales gains during the month was the PlayStation 3, which according to the NPD has now seen 13 consecutive months of year-over-year sales increases. Overall, hardware and software sales were down both year-over-year and year-to-date. Sales for hardware, software and accessories combined was down 10 percent to $818.9M from last year and down 8 percent year-to-date to $8.31 billion. Consoles tried to make up for the sagging handheld market, as NPD analyst Anita Frazier notes, "The 360 and PS3 platforms both grew in dollar sales versus last year. In fact, the 360 platform contributed more than 1/3 of total new physical retail sales across hardware, software and accessories while the PS3 platform contributed over 1/4 of total dollar sales." Oh yeah, one more thing: the top ten list of titles after the break only charts console and portable SKUs, so it's worth mentioning StarCraft 2 sold another 300K units in August, which would make it the second best-selling game for the month... if it were factored in. Frazer also stated, "PC games retail dollar sales saw a 35% increase over last August." 360: 357K, down 83K (-19.7%) DS: 343K, down 55.3K (-13.9%) Wii: 244K, down 9.7K (-3.8%) PS3: 226K, up 11K (5.1%) PSP: 79K, down 4.6K (-5.5%)
Get Madden 11 without sacks (of cash) today on Amazon
If you're one of the three football game fans on the planet without a copy of Madden 11 to call your own -- good news! Your inhuman ability to hold out for a deal has paid off, as Amazon is offering the latest iteration for $11 off its normal price today. Hmm, "$11" off ... Madden "11" -- coincidence? We think not! The Amazon Deal of the Day page contains the complete details: Madden 11 for Xbox 360 and PS3 has been discounted to $48.99, while the Wii version is being offered at $38.99. Note: The price of beer, chips and a night with the TV all to yourself is not included.
Toy Story 3 atop UK charts again, Madden barely debuts in top ten
Toy Story 3 sales may be down 17 percent in the UK, but it still had enough buzz to remain atop the All Formats chart for another week. Red Dead Redemption rode hard and moved up three spots to second, while Dance on Broadway commanded the stage at third. Lego Harry Potter used "wingardium leviosa" to float up four spots and Art Academy used dark arts (and some heavy promotion, according to Chart-Track) to move up 23 spots to fifth. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 dropped to eighth, preventing it from overtaking Dr Kawashima (aka Brain Age) as the UK's "biggest unit seller" ever in the region -- oh well, there's always next week. Finally, the big premiere this week was Madden NFL 11, which took the ten spot. The American football title actually premiered at eighth in its previous iteration, but this time it was missing a Wii release.
Review: Madden NFL 11
Sports is the ultimate common ground for the common man. From the salt-of-the-earth mechanic to the high-powered Wall Street exec, sports has always broken social barriers and given all (well, most) of us something to relate to each other with. Sports games, on the other hand: not so much. As technology improved, the pursuit's become "realism." In the place of arcade-style fun is simulation, and sports games have become a kind of secret fraternity that often don't welcome newcomers with open arms. You need years of experience or worse, a degree in sportgameology to enjoy them. On the surface, Madden NFL 11 doesn't appear to buck that trend, but key design decisions help it shake off some of the inaccessibility of Maddens past. %Gallery-91909%
Sports Illustrated subscription and Madden 11 bundled for $59
It appears Sports Illustrated's Madden 10 package was a success. Last year, the magazine offered a free copy of EA Sports' football game by ordering a subscription. This year, the magazine is repeating the offer, updating the deal with a free copy of Madden 11 (on the platform of your choice) and a "Making of Madden NFL" DVD. Considering the bundle is the same price as a standalone copy at retail, this is definitely a terrific value -- provided you can survive the "4-6 week" wait time for the game to arrive. Once again, we advise you to watch out for the auto-renewal option if you do take advantage of the offer. You'll have to cancel your subscription before it ends, or SI will charge you for another year when the time comes. See, sports video games aren't the only business with annual business plans.
Preview: Madden NFL 11 GameFlow makes calling plays a snap
While our Madden NFL 11 review needs another day in the oven before it's just right, I wanted to share my experiences from an early access event EA held last month. For starters: I'm a huge NFL fan. On Sundays, I obsess over my fantasy football team, wear a jersey, microwave nachos and watch guys wearing pads smash into each other for eleven straight hours. Don't ask me to go shopping or meet up for brunch, because any and all such requests will be met with a resounding no and a flag on the play. All games will be watched, stats analyzed and a decently sized butt print will be left in the sofa. That said, I'm not a smart Madden player. On third and short, I'll throw the ball almost every time, and on fourth and long, I'll go for it like Patriots coach Bill Belichick, meaning: I'll fail miserably. That probably explains why I lose 44 to 14, but hey, I don't have a high football IQ. Throw a playbook in front of me and I'll know which says to pass and which to run, but the intricacies are lost on me.%Gallery-97636%
Buy Madden at Best Buy, get a (select) 360 or PS3 game half off
If you're raring to get your hands on Madden NFL 11, Best Buy is advertising a great incentive to do so at one of its stores. For buying EA's latest pigskin sim for Xbox 360 or PS3 at the retailer next week, you'll be able to get another game (from a list of select titles) for half off its usual price. Heck, even if you don't like football, this deal's enough to convince a friend who does to let you tag along on their purchase. Spy the full list of price-slashed titles -- Alan Wake for $20? Yes, please! -- after the break.
Source: Best Buy to offer 250GB Madden NFL 11 PS3 bundle
A reliable source has informed Joystiq that a new PS3 bundle will be available for purchase soon at retailer Best Buy, including a 250gb PS3 console and a copy of Madden NFL 11.
