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Sep 05 2006

When you’re the only game in town…

Posted at 7:57 am under Obvious

Electronic Arts’ estimates show that Madden NFL 07 has sold two million copies in its first week at retail, a record for the 17-year-old franchise.
ImageEA estimates show that Madden’s first-week performance is up 12 percent over a year ago, which saw sales of a still impressive 1.8 million units.

Earlier today, Microsoft also announced that Madden NFL 07 online play helped drive Xbox Live activity in the five days after the game’s launch. Players logged over two million hours of online play and unlocked 600,000 achievements.

Madden has also topped the Amazon.com sales charts since its release.

That’s incredible! Madden must be amazing, right? Well, let’s keep the numbers in perspective…

EA and the NFL struck an exclusive deal in late 2004, making EA the only licensed NFL game available.

Well, I guess that sure as hell limits the interestingness of the first point. I mean, if you’re the only game in town (no pun intended) what are the chances you won’t be on top?

via Next Generation

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One Response to “When you’re the only game in town…”

  1. Chet Says:
    September 6th, 2006 at 3:19 pm

    Yeah. Once the ESPN NFL 2Kx games started kicking Madden’s ass in game quality and sales, EA decided the price for exclusive licensing was well worth it. So much for the NFL and marketing ingenuity.

    The fans truly lost on this exclusive licensing crap. Depending on how long this contract lasts, interest in NFL-licensed games may turn out losing in the long run too.

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