Madden NFL 20 Has Biggest Ever Digital Launch in its First Week

Yikes......

In glad face of the franchise is acknowledged. They really need to expand on it. IMO, development and new ideas in franchise mode, face of the franchise, H2H, and MUT can all benefit from one another.
I've always wondered if all of the giveaway digital copies are excluded from the sales though. Ever since Twitter and streaming got Popular, Seems like each year more and more people get codes.
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I think thats big lie..to a track consumers to buy the game.. Madden 20 is the same game as last year with minors additions not going for it this year.. Madden needs to step up as AAA game they're not doing enough to justify a $60 price tag. Ill pass...

This likely shows why they don't invest much in developing those little details in franchise further than they are now. Majority of players don't care. They play the game because they love football and Madden is the game for that. They also more than likely play H2H and MUT in which case gameplay is their main want. There is no denying that this is the best on the field gameplay that Madden has put out when you combine all of the aspects like motion, graphics, X-Factors, etc.

I'm sorry that I contributed to this. The AI in Franchise is bad and that is very frustrating for me. There has been little to no change to make Franchise more compelling. I basically have stopped playing the game. I have tried to be positive but EA clearly is content being a monopoly and, as long as they keep making money hand over fist, they will. I can only dream about NFL2K21 for next year....

miguelitoKache could be right and I wouldn't be suprised if EA pulled a lie to get more sales of the game going.
I wasn't one of those fans to get the game in my hands and I know friends who skipped this Madden version as well. I'm sticking with Madden 19 (free on EA Access). The changes/additions made to the game are not enough for me to fork over $79.99 CDN. I'm sorry.
dtlm6is right about the franchise mode. It needs an overhaul. It's getting stale. NFL2K5 has the better franchise mode (and gameplay btw.) and that game came out 15 years ago!! LOL. Come on EA!
EA thanks for killing 2K when you signed that exclusivity. You robbed us of a great football game. I think I'll boycott your sports games going forward. Your NHL series has the same problem as well. I'd like to see what they say about the NHL20 once it releases. I bet we get another article saying how NHL20 has the biggest ever digital launch in its first week. lol...

EA did everything right... Madden 21 will be another minor update and CFM will remain the same crap, i'm sure.

Some say you need money to make a change... pshhhhhhhhh that’s a lie

This is my first year buying the game digitally although I buy the game every year. I don't know what this statistic means as a standalone peice of data. Digital is growing and hard copies of games are declining overall so this could be good, bad or meaningless as far as sales go. My opinion though is that the game is selling very well compared to the last few years. With the huge pop culture success of marvel the introduction of super heroes into football is genius from a marketing perspective.

Of course FOF is going to show growth when you put absolutely nothing into improving other aspects of the game.

Uhhh seems pretty normal that people are going to play the new addition first to see if it lives up to the created hype.
Id be intrested to see if things remain the same 2 months from now lol

And here lies the ying and the yang with OS.
Here is a positive article posted about Madden and people find ways to bash. lolz.
Edaddy is correct, this happens on both ends of the spectrum.

Maybe im in the minority, but I dont get why people moan at EA for buying up exclusivity. If anything thats the NFLs fault, they obviously tendered it and whoever can hoover that up for the right money is going to obviously win out.
Blame 2K for being cheap? Maybe.
Blame the NFL for being greedy? Maybe
Blame EA for getting business done? Nope
The merits of the game are subjective, would the Madden be better if 2K existed? No, because if 2K existed, Madden wouldnt and its all hear say from there on in.

Huh?

This game is a joke. There are more digital downloads because more people download today than years prior.
After playing Madden 20 a few days now I am 100% convinced this entire year was designed to generate MUT $$ and thats it...the non-MUT modes are a joke...not even half-baked, Scenario engine and FoF are terrible
- Superstar Xfactors -Cant win online without them and they cost more in MUT
- Probowl - A more interesting way to Play online in MUT, just another MUT team. and NOT the largest request from the community like they said
- No Huddle animations - Cut down on presentation... increase the # games played in MUT so they can mislead*this stats too. Madden 20 most games played this year!
The game is so fast and quick play now, that its barely a football game anymore. There is no EVENT in playing a game in CFM.. its 10 minutes of speed football

Fantastic news, this will show EA that they were right to hold the line and make the game better in regards to pass rush and other more realistic aspects this year. It's also apparent that more of us liked the new feature of getting to the line super fast to get more playing and less watching as well.
Glad to see EA is getting rewarded for making the best Madden game ever! I am #addicted this year!!!

It's the biggest digital launch, not Madden's biggest sales launch (which is tough to gauge because companies don't release that information and so you have to rely on NDP, which doesn't usually track week-to-week data like this or have historical data, especially for games like Madden).
"Biggest digital launch" would track with the rest of the industry and the rest of EA products. EA surpassed 50% for digital > physical sales for the first time in H1 2019, Sony announced that they reached near parity (it's like ~45% digital sales) on PSN. Microsoft has not released their figures, but I'd imagine they track slightly ahead in terms of digital : physical than Sony.

That's what this is about.
re: complimentary copies, yes, those usually count towards sales. Comps are writeoffs for the company and the company will self report those as digital sales. But even with the huge number of free comps this year (literally like every sports podcast I listen to seemingly had Madden codes to give away this year), that shouldn't make a considerable dent into getting over the 50% hump for digital v. physical.
EA Access launching on PSN this year would probably make a significant difference contributing to this, but also there's just higher digital uptake in the industry now than ever before for obvious reasons.

I’m not even knocking them, but duh...no kidding, digital sales across all games are peaking now compared to hard copies. It’s the direction gaming is headed. Not exactly a lie, but a bit of a stretch with some good marketing hot words. Plus add the fact they are back on PC...on top of Premium EA Access members getting it with their membership and there you go.
Just two years ago I said I’d never go digital, but here I am. It’s more convenient and I stopped worrying about trading them in for $10 at GameStop lol.
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The tracking of game sales will be a thing of the past in 3-5 years when everyone is on service subscriptions.

You forgot the “s/“

This isn’t helpful or productive.
If you want to participate in the conversation in an adult manner, feel free to do so.
Otherwise, don’t post.

I went all digital many years ago. I don't buy many games like I used to. I only buy the main ones I like and ones I know I would never trade in.

Look... There were a lot of positive reviews on the beta, in particular, game play. That is going to push a game version of America's favorite sport pretty far. Even if this year's Madden has flaws that make it aggravating, by now the people complaining would have already bought it. If this year's Madden really is of poor quality, if that affected sales appreciatively (and it doesn't due to the NFL license and the demand for an NFL game), it wouldn't show up until next year's Madden.

Game is good and people buy game even with gameplay utterly broken, that was hapen before madden 20. Game is far from perfect but have a gameplay.

M20 is a really good game. It's not perfect, but what is... I'm having a good time with my Falcons CFM. Online head to head with my little brother is the best it has been in years. Good on Madden!

So with my post being deleted that points out the factual misstatements in the original article, is there some place that I should post these corrections that aren't "A terms of service violation?" The incorrect statements are still printed in the article ~2ish hours after I mentioned them:
The original press release from EA states:
The number of games played in-game in the first week is up by double-digit percentages over last year.
This is restated in the article as:
Gamers have played the 2x as many games as last year
"2x as many games as last year" would be a triple-digit increase, e.g. 100% increase over last year. The Press release states "double-digit percentage" increase not "double" or "2x." In the parlance of press releases, "double digits" usually translates somewhere to ~10-20% increases, although it's likely intentionally vague in the press release (it's worth noting that earlier in the press release they explicitly cite 70% and 80% increases in players trying out the face of the franchise mode, so it's arguable that switching to "double digit" instead of a hard percentage numbers later in the article is a good deal less than 70 or 80%). In any event, it's not 2x or 100% more head to head games.
Here's the spot with the error:

I don't think it should be a terms of service violation to correct misstatements that are in the original topic. I reread the terms of service, given that I first agreed to these ~16+ years ago... and I don't think there's anything in that deleted post or this one that would qualify as violating the terms of service?

Your post was deleted because you directly back-talked a forum moderator in an argumentative manner regarding how the thread was being moderated, which is an obvious and direct violation of the Terms of Service:

I exercised some judgment and leniency in this case and opted to not execute a ban in this case because you were attempting to make some cogent points in other parts of your post, which you have since restated without directly addressing a moderator attempting to keep the thread discussion on the level.
If you have any further questions about forum moderation, please reach out to me via PM. There will be no further public discussion on this specific topic.

EA learned from MS I see lol

Im just too old and lazy to get up and change a damn disk everytime i rage quit whatever game i am currently playing. lol Also i was tired of being offered $1.50 for the previous years Madden or NBA2k so i said why not.
Save some gas too not driving to gamestop to turn it in.

I only buy digital now. It used to be really cool to own the disk/cartridge whrn they used to give you a manual and maybe some other extras lika a map (depending on the game). But since that went away theres no reason to own the disk....wont be long until Gamestop is gone. 

Another thing:


Electronic Arts is a publicly traded company. News they release about how their products perform at market can be considered investor guidance. If they openly lie about how a product is performing and that lie deceives prospective investors into buying more stock which will then fall when the company doesn't hit earnings targets, they open themselves up to all sorts of investment fraud lawsuits.
So no, they aren't lying about how the game is performing.

I think with today's technology, it should be expected that sales would move toward digital and away from physical copies, so that should come as no surprise. Also, the article points out they (EA) aren't claiming any sales records (yet), so it could be nothing more than a sign of the times.
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Maybe it’s my age, but if I don’t like a game, I move on to something else. If I like a game I’ll spend time on a forum or wherever talking about it (how to improve, cool things in the game, etc.). If I don’t like a game, I just move on to something else. Will never understand why waste your time coming on a forum about a game just to bash that game. I think I’m just getting old and don’t wanna waste my time lol.
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It's like people who are probably rational, clear thinking adults in their real life every day actions, turn into leaders of the tin foil hat brigade when it comes to talking about Madden or other video games.
To have your first reaction to this news be, "they're probably lying" is nonsensical to point of being some kind of new example of Absurdist fiction.

I expect week one sales to be good. Then when everybody resizes its basically the same with a few additions like QB1 which is a limited experience then the sales will slow down. Overall I hope sales are worse than last year so they have a little panic to be better.

If I had a nickel for everyone that has said that over the past 15 years..................

It's probably for the same reasons that every negative review thread quickly devolves into pissing and moaning about either the reviewer, the review itself or both. Personally, I've been really enjoying Madden 20 and the thought of spending time trying to disprove and discredit anything that doesn't match my opinions completely blows my mind. But :nocomprende:
More people need to be like Bill:

Are we taliing game quality now?
If so, Madden 20 mostly is the best Madden, but there are four or five flaws that are so infuriating that they more or less kill most of the game’s quality. EA Tib could, however, fix some of these issues in a patch. But, this year more than any before has seen the lurch toward catering to the MUT/esports crowd, so I have my doubts. In particular, I don’t expect things like the coverage will be fixed unless pass rush is nerfed, and I certainly don’t expect things like the face editor to be expanded to Franchise, or other Franchise improvements (like fixing permanently hidden development traits).

With how awful franchise mode, zone coverages, CPU clock management, CPU QB play, fumbles, and other miscellaneous gameplay mishaps, I’ve actually turned to MUT this year and I’m enjoying the hell out of it .
This is the first time I’ve ever tried MUT, and I must say, playing this game competitively against another human, not having to deal with the fact that franchise mode is probably the worst I’ve ever seen it, dare I say I’m having ... fun with MUT
Never thought I’d see this day from me, but I wanted something for my football fix, and MUT is absolutely the way to go for me this year.
They’ve had years and years and years to prove they care about franchise mode, and I’ve come to accept that fact that they just don’t. Instead of beating a dead horse about it, bashing EA I could in every thread, I decided to get my money’s worth any way I could.
I was never a MUT supporter, hell, I’m still under the impression that MUT is the absolute reason franchise mode is still the worst or 2nd worst franchise mode in any sports game. (Looking at you MLB the show)
Madden is what it is. It’s an arcade game with sim elements. The zone coverage issues are absolutely unacceptable, and I honest to god don’t see how anyone can logically defend that. If you have this game, find your niche, find what you consider fun and run with it. If not, it’s going to be a long Madden season for a lot of people
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Similar boat. I’ve been playing MUT to kill time and wait for the possibility of patches fixing up some of the gameplay and cfm issues. Also hoping for 5th year options and more scenarios soon. Currently cfm is filled with immersion killers for me.. looking forward to seeing what they do with M21 more than anything.