This week, Electronic Arts' (Nasdaq: ERTS) perennial best seller Madden NFL 2005 hits the shelves. Millions of football fans will storm their local Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Electronics Boutique (Nasdaq: ELBO), and GameStop (NYSE: GME) stores to stand in line to pick up their copy. In fact, according to Electronic Arts, presell reservations have doubled those of last year, when Madden NFL 2004 was the top-selling video game of them all.
So does this mean that Sega's new strategy hasn't made a bone-crunching hit on Madden sales?
Probably. As we discussed a few weeks ago, Sega released its ESPN NFL 2K5 a few weeks ahead of Madden and at a super-value price of only $20 a copy. Target (NYSE: TGT) had it on sale for less than $16. Despite being considered by hardcore gamers to be roughly equal to Madden in most years, the game has been shellacked on the sales front by Madden every year.
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I tried Sega's ESPN NFL 2K5. It was a nice diversion for a couple of weeks, especially at $20 or less. Sega definitely will sell more copies of its football game than before (guaranteed by the price point), and may even swing a few converters for next year.
But EA still has the brand loyalty, the gameplay, and the gift of the mysterious Madden curse. And for this year, at least, Madden is still the game.
