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[DMczaf]

http://general.gamerfeed.com/gf/features/333/

ESPN vs. Madden

The football wars are heating up. By now you have probably heard that Take-Two Interactive will be releasing Visual Concepts' NFL 2K5 title for $19.99. What you don't know is that Electronic Arts probably won't be able to counter with a price drop to $39.99, and they will get clobbered by Wall Street!

EA doesn't make that much money on Madden because of royalties to Madden, the NFL, NFLPA, Sony, and Microsoft. Even though the game sells a lot of units, they don't have much room to maneuver on the price because at $39.99 they don't get any price breaks on the royalties from Sony Computer Entertainment of America. That price break takes effect at $29.99 and they won't be able to go that low according to the analysts I spoke too.

The other big thing to watch for is who comes out of the gate first. EA is scheduled to release Madden NFL 2005 in the middle of August and Sega, Take-Two and Visual Concepts are scheduled to release their game at about the same time... or are they? Several retailers we spoke with suggest that if Take-Two beats Madden NFL 2005 to store shelves, orders for the game could double from around 250,000 to 500,000.

As a result, EA is in their hurry up offense and they are trying to get the game to market before NFL 2K5, and they should be successful, according to my sources. Watch for one or both titles to be on store shelves by the end of July.

But you didn't come here to read about that kind of stuff now did you...

Visual Concepts and Take-Two

You really want to know what is behind the Sega, Take-Two Interactive deal, and I have all of the details for you.

This year Take-Two Interactive is distributing NFL 2K5, and in year two of the deal they are co-funding the development of the game with Sega. In 2006, the third year of the deal, Take-Two has the option to buy Visual Concepts. Sega doesn't want to be in the sports business and they haven't kept that a secret... they want to make entertainment titles.

According to my sources this deal was done by Visual Concepts president Greg Thomas and Take-Two Interactive's Director of Business development Ryan Brandt.

 

[DopeyFish]

what they need to do is drop the travesty that is ESPN likeness

argh.

 

[Mrbob]

LOL, EA excuse for a non price drop is pretty weak:

EA doesn't make that much money on Madden because of royalties to Madden, the NFL, NFLPA, Sony, and Microsoft.

Umm, doesn't TT/SEGA still have to pay royalties to the NFL, NFLPA, Sony, and MS?? Perhaps we know why EA could be dropping Madden??

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

but they also have to pay madden! i bet he gets a decent chunk of change.

 

[DMczaf]

but they also have to pay madden! i bet he gets a decent chunk of change.

"This do-hicky over here gives me money and this whachamacallit gives porn! Its all very high tech, Al!"

 

[Deleted member 284]

but they also have to pay madden! i bet he gets a decent chunk of change.

So what does Sega give to ESPN? A Juicy Fruit stick and a worn copy of Joe Montanna Football for the Genesis? No wonder they pimp Madden on that channel

 

[retardboy]

What exactly are his sources? This forum or OS? We've already had rumors on this forum of a TT buyout and a July release on this forum. The TT buyout rumor was from the press release where it says TT has the option to be more involved with Sega's games not just their sports line but was read wrong. The July release rumor has been around the net all over the place. Gamestop's release used to say July and some other place too.

BTW, Sega made the official release date Aug 10th today.

 

[Suikoguy]

"This do-hicky over here gives me money and this whachamacallit gives porn! Its all very high tech, Al!"

LMAO!!

 

[Alcibiades]

For Sega's sake I hope they keep Visual Concepts with all the marketshare gain they'll be making this year...

Even if they aren't terribly profitable, the sports games line definitely adds some prestige to the Sega name and they'll definitely need them to become a 3rd party company that can keep with EA, Activision, and Ubi-Soft...

 

[Meier]

Selling a shitload of copies at a budget price doesnt mean the series will be better off. How quickly people forget that the 2k3 series sold quite well on the PS2 at 15 bucks and below and then went on to bomb horribly again the next year.

The games (or game if its just NFL that goes budget) will sell better, but it doesnt gaurantee increased market share for future iterations or even decreased Madden sales.

 

[Alcibiades]

Selling a shitload of copies at a budget price doesnt mean the series will be better off. How quickly people forget that the 2k3 series sold quite well on the PS2 at 15 bucks and below and then went on to bomb horribly again the next year.

The games (or game if its just NFL that goes budget) will sell better, but it doesnt gaurantee increased market share for future iterations or even decreased Madden sales.

but there is a difference between selling a ton of copies during Madden's release, and people waiting for a price drop to buy it (or having budget customers only buy it cause some football fans had already bought Madden)...

the difference is it'll start earlier this time...

maybe people saving up for Madden will make impulse purchases of this when they see the price and that they can afford it...

 

[Meier]

Most people who buy Madden arent exactly going to be unable to afford it all of the sudden if they spend only 20 bucks on NFL 2k. They'd simply buy both if they even bothered with it.

 

[Alcibiades]

Point is they may go for the cheaper one, since at $50 vs. $50 they go for Madden, but if they choose 2k5 to save some money, they may see it fitting their needs...

 

[MASB]

LOL, EA's excuse for a non price drop is pretty weak

They don't really need an excuse anyway, because they don't have to drop the price on it. At $19.99, at least 2K5's journey to the bargain bin will be that much shorter than previous incarnations of the series.

I don't know, with Take Two at the helm, 2K5 may impress in sales. Sega can't make it happen, so Take Two might as well have a shot. Being bought out by them(if that ever happens) may be the best thing for them in the long term.

At any rate, $19.95 is great for the people who buy the game. And it just might help the series, I mean, when nothing is working you have to try something and lowering the price so much, might do the trick. It'll be interesting to see what will happen with the 2005 editions of Madden/2K.

 

[retardboy]

I don't know, with Take Two at the helm, 2K5 may impress in sales. Sega can't make it happen, so Take Two might as well have a shot. Being bought out by them(if that ever happens) may be the best thing for them in the long term.

Well, TT isn't really at the helm... Sega is publishing and TT is distributing. It's still Sega's way of publishing.

 

[sonycowboy]

EA doesn't make that much money on Madden because of royalties to Madden, the NFL, NFLPA, Sony, and Microsoft. Even though the game sells a lot of units, they don't have much room to maneuver on the price because at $39.99 they don't get any price breaks on the royalties from Sony Computer Entertainment of America. That price break takes effect at $29.99 and they won't be able to go that low according to the analysts I spoke too.

LOL. That is the most retarded thing I've ever heard. These guys have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

 

[segasonic]

I concur.

 

[MetatronM]

The football wars are heating up. By now you have probably heard that Take-Two Interactive will be releasing Visual Concepts' NFL 2K5 title for $19.99. What you don't know is that Electronic Arts probably won't be able to counter with a price drop to $39.99, and they will get clobbered by Wall Street!

"Thank you, sir! May I please have another!"


Seriously, how many years do we have to do this before it gets through to certain people that Madden 20XX WILL DESTROY NFL 2KX.

 

[DarienA]

EA doesn't make that much money on Madden because of royalties to Madden, the NFL, NFLPA, Sony, and Microsoft. Even though the game sells a lot of units, they don't have much room to maneuver on the price because at $39.99 they don't get any price breaks on the royalties from Sony Computer Entertainment of America. That price break takes effect at $29.99 and they won't be able to go that low according to the analysts I spoke too.

Anybody who believes that first sentence should be kicked in the head.. twice.

 

[shpankey]

Whoever wrote that tripe literally just made shit up. He thought it in his little brain, it sounded good and reasonable to his limited understanding, so he said wtf and printed it. What garbage. The first sentence is completely illogical. Sega pays the same fees except for Madden, in which SEGA pays ESPN instead. All those other fees are the same.

How do fucktards get to print made up shit like this?

 

[Guileless]

Clobbered by Wall Street? What, is CNBC going to break into their programming and breathlessly announce that Madden will still be 49.99 this year, causing a massive sell-off of EA stock, panic on the floor, a stock market crash, and another great depression?

 

[DMczaf]

Clobbered by Wall Street? What, is CNBC going to break into their programming and breathlessly announce that Madden will still be 49.99 this year, causing a massive sell-off of EA stock, panic on the floor, a stock market crash, and another great depression?

....Yes.

Madden is the only thing keeping this country from going 1st party to 3rd party.

 

[ManDudeChild]

Whoever wrote that tripe literally just made shit up. He thought it in his little brain, it sounded good and reasonable to his limited understanding, so he said wtf and printed it. What garbage. The first sentence is completely illogical. Sega pays the same fees except for Madden, in which SEGA pays ESPN instead. All those other fees are the same.

How do fucktards get to print made up shit like this?

Course you could streamlined that to: It's GamerFeed.

 

[DarienA]

There's also the "perceived quality" danger to pricing your release title at $19.99. Sure some people will pick it up as well, or instead of Madden, but there is always a danger that you'll get a group of people who will turn it away thinking that it was released at $19.99 because it sucked. Personally I'm hoping it sells well... competition is a good thing. I'm not sure that $19.99 was the best idea though.. I think $39.99 or $29.99 would have been better.

 

[BuddyC]

Guys, the "Video Cowboy" (ugh) who wrote that feature isn't a member of the GamerFeed staff, but rather freelance. The rest I'm going to be civil about, because technically, we work for the same people and I can't express my true feelings without getting into some hot water.

 

[Guileless]

Well, if the licensing is handled on a per unit basis rather than a flat fee, then he could be right about EA not making a large per unit profit. I have no idea if licensing is a flat fee or per unit, but if it were per unit they would be paying a royalty on every copy sold to Madden, the players' association, and the NFL in addition to the hardware manufacturer. I can see how that would lessen the per unit profit. However, you multiply even a relatively small per unit profit by the 3 million copies it sells, and you have a lot of revenue.

On the other hand, if they just pay a flat fee for licensing then the only royalty is to the hardware manufacturer. So the question becomes is NFL/NFL PA licensing done on a uniform flat fee to all videogame developers, or do they cut separate deals based on royalties and sales?

 

[Link316]

EA doesn't make that much money on Madden because of royalties to Madden, the NFL, NFLPA, Sony, and Microsoft.

WTF is gamerfeed talking about? Madden's one of the products EA has the highest profit margins on

 

[btrboyev]

the fact of the matter is sports games should be budget priced anyways...buying a $50 upgrade every year gets tiresome...

 

[DMczaf]

the fact of the matter is sports games should be budget priced anyways...buying a $50 upgrade every year gets tiresome...

Yeah, its only fair when it has a Nintendo or MS name on it!

 

[btrboyev]

well at least the nintendo and ms upgrades are different games

 

[DMczaf]

well at least the nintendo and ms upgrades are different games

That's debatable.

 

[GDJustin]

Course you could streamlined that to: It's GamerFeed.

Meaning what, eh? As BC already mentioned, the author isn't GamerFeed staff at all. He's a freelancer who's been published all over hell, including doing this little thing for us, once a week. I don't actually care about this rumormill bashing/questioning at all. If he shows up he can address that himself.

I just wanna know why the GF crack I always thought our news was among the best of the best, and features have been steadily improving for over a year now. To the point that we have a minimum of three reviews/previews/features, every single day. Not many free sites put out that much content, these days. I persnally think the writing is acceptable, but apparently not everyone else does

 

[soulja224466]

"This do-hicky over here gives me money and this whachamacallit gives porn! Its all very high tech, Al!"

tryptophan! turducken!

 

[OG_Original Gamer]

Well if you consider the fact that 2k5 has Madden beat in the graphics department, ( and I assume you all agree) Xbox gamers might see it as the football game to own. If the gameplay is as or atleast as good as the graphics, then you might see a shift in sales.

 

[bishoptl]

"This do-hicky over here gives me money and this whachamacallit gives porn! Its all very high tech, Al!"

bwahahaa