EA explains benching of Madden PC
Peter Moore says "serious business challenges" are preventing the publisher from releasing PC edition; other sports franchises to be similarly sidelined.
Last week, Electronic Arts announced that the Madden NFL 09 season would commence on August 12. Surprising to some and grating to others, the publisher at that time also said that the Tony Dungy-covered NFL Head Coach 09 would be available only as a pack-in to the $89.99 collectors edition of the game. However, that wasn't the only unusual tidbit nestled away in the release. As revealed by way of omission, the publisher also pulled the plug on the PC edition of its annual trip to the gridiron.
Today, EA Sports quarterback Peter Moore shed some light via his official blog on why the PC edition of the game had been benched. Echoing sentiments expressed by various other gaming execs, Moore said EA Sports would be scaling back its efforts on the PC on account of the platform's troublesome economic climate.
"The PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii," said Moore. "We are committed to shipping a limited number of our games on the PC this year, but we've also had to cut a few of our games from the platform."
However, EA Sports hasn't abandoned the most venerable of gaming platforms quite yet. "We do have ideas for how to revitalize the PC for sports games and the types of games that are best suited to the platform, and we'll continue to explore those," said Moore.
Developed by EA Tiburon, Madden NFL 09 is currently slated to arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and Wii. The Madden NFL 09 Collector's Edition will be available only for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
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177 Comments
*yawn* Havn't touched an EA Sports game in years, don't think I'm missing anything. Good luck with it EA.
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I have grown to hate EA more...and more...and more....I have always been pissed at the lack of graphics and new features in the PC Madden games.
I have also been wanting MVP Baseball back for years.....
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Good idea, lose an entire group of people.
Hard to maneuver? Buy a controller for your PC you tool.
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Ecenomic Climate? WTF are you talking about?
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lucas 182oh and btw.. player WEAPONS?
WTF is a player weapon?
oh right... that icon thing that does NOTHING AT ALL...
lol i died from laughter when he typed this
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Consoles are so much easyer to manuver then pc so i dunno..
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I got an idea! How about EA benches Madden? Bring back 2k and more that way EA actually has to try to make their games good. All you get with Madden now is a roster update and a new feature that will only last for that year.
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wow... maybe EA should try playing their PC sports games...
maybe then theyll find out they all SUCK compared to their console versions..
why do u think madden 08 cost only 40 bucks?
play the game, youll find out...
console gets a crap load of features... PC gets a new menu (which still looks like sh*t in that sorry a$$ 1000x700 resolution EA) and a "ring of the champion" that could as well be an excel spreadsheet.. would make no difference.
and guess what.. its been like this since madden 05.
oh wait.. this year we got widescreen support.... woohoo... now my stupid looking players wont look as fat.
whereas in the console, you can practicly see the sweat on the players face...
oh and btw.. player WEAPONS?
WTF is a player weapon?
oh right... that icon thing that does NOTHING AT ALL...
seriously EA...
you EXPECT PC GAMERS TO BUY THAT KIND OF CRAP?!!!
we are NOT that stupid.
oh and BTW... i DONT have a console port
sports games are just as good on PC (i have 12 usb ports, i can play with 12 gamepads just like playstation if i wanted to)
we do have BETTER graphics
and
pirated games are just as easy to find on consoles... wake up
the only thing consoles *may* have better than a pc in tech terms is sound.. but i rarely care about sound, my ears are not that sensitive.
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It's just a symptom of how sad PC gaming is getting. It sucks having to rely mostly on ports to get by. Not that there aren't some great games on the consoles, and Madden is one of them. It sucks that consoles are stealing most of the oxygen in the gaming industry right now. As many others have already said, even most ports on the PC feature better graphics and added features that usually add so much more value to the title. I am thinking of picking up a PS3, just so I can get in on some Force Unleashed among others.
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Ohh noes, one less madden game!
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They may as well just bench all their craptastic sports games. they all stink.
Old Peter is too busy makeing sure Madden runs at 5fps on the PS3 while it runs at 60fps on the 360. I wont waste another dime.
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They may as well just bench all their craptastic sports games. they all stink.
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If EA got off their lazy asses and actually made quality PC versions of their sports games, hey, they mighta sold a lot better.Don't really care since cookie cutter sports games really aren't my thing anyway, but blaming anyone but themselves just makes EA look like the jerkoffs they are( they blame everything BUT in the full press release, which this is not).
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More like EA are scaling back PC sports games because people keep modding the game with the latest player transfers.
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PC version of Maddon can be got for 40 bucks in Uk.
Most PC gamers have a Ps3 /Xbox so forcing them to buy
the console version makes sense.
I have a PS3 but buy most of my games are on PC .
To be honest ,except for some sports games my PC versions
look better but the real reason is they cost so much less.
They can charge the earth for a consolegame..PC market its
not possible to maximise RIP off pricing.
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Sports gaming on the PC has been dead for a LONG time.
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I have to admit, as a PC Gamer, I've always purchased my sports games on whatever console. Sports games seem more natural on the console, just like shooters, in my opinion, are best played on a PC.
This doesn't surprise me much.
Lancer VI
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hmm, i wonder, don't most PC gamers also have a console gaming
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I'm guessing the reason why their releasing the game in every platform but the PC is because they realized that they only get a piece of what they can really milk out of PC users. Since PC games are so easily pirated compared to other consoles. (Next to the PSP and DS lol)
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If you ask me, its probably poor sales since most copies are sold, play and are rated better on consoles.
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"The PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, " Translation
People can mod the game to update the rosters themselves, so they don't need to buy it every year.
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This proposed EA boycott isn't going to be hard, considering how their games are mediocre or rehashes.
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So its going to come out for pretty much everything BUT the PC. Come on, who's going to actually buy Madden for the DS? There may be a better market for Madden on consoles, but that doesn't mean people don't play sports on their computers. Congratulations EA, you're going to have a horde of pissed off gamers knocking on your doors soon.
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I've got it .....EA wants to buy T-2 to kill all the competition and use them to rehash their EA Sports PC Games and brind a real carrer mode....who else could bring all the corruption, gambling, and drug use in major league sports better than R* ....haha j/k
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you know, if they actually improved madden/nhl/etc. on pc, I would've bought those games.
case in point, I actually bought rugby 06. didn't buy 08; no change in the gameplay engine whatsoever.
I would've bought nhl 08 on the pc. the xbox/ps3 versions were pretty damn good. then I played the pc demo and said 'ohhhhhhh, they're recycling nhl 04 for the 4th year in a row. nevermind.'
same goes for madden. EA, if you want people to BUY your damn pc sports games [I have every nhl from the first on the PC to 2004, every fifa from the original to 2002, every madden from john madden II to madden 2004, and nba live from 95-2003. those that I had bought legally because I kept seeing improvements]. you're shooting yourselves in the foot.
2k, please release pc versions of hockey, etc. I will BUY them. I will tell all my sports playing friends to buy them.
do people quickly forget that there are dedicated internet leagues for the ea sports games? people are still forming leagues for games like madden 2004. you continue to abandon that which made you a powerhouse. thanks EA.
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They'll have to rip my computer out of my cold, dead, zombified hands.
PC GAMING LIVES FOREVER.
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It makes financial sense, I guess, because the games have been selling poorly and piracy is an issue, but EA hasn't made an effort to improve any of their titles on the PC since 2006. A quality product sells and they haven't tried to make one in years. Modding communities made up for a lot of the shortcomings in ea sports games and made PC sports gaming relevant but this is going to kill a lot of them. I guess I may have to cave and buy a console if I want to keep playing sports games.
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no you still have a choice. its called NOT BUYING THE GAME.
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This is ridiculous. I am a PC gamer and I have both Madden and NBA Live 08 on PC. I believe it is much better than console versions, mainly because of solid graphics (depending on your video card), and a great amount of customization, such as roster updates and assorted utilities you can download and have at your disposal. Of course, there's not much left in the franchise at this rate; the only thing that seems to change each year is the roster, and maybe an added feature or two.
And contrary to popular belief, not ALL PC gamers play WOW. Madden, Call of Duty 4, Half-Life 2, Crysis, and BioShock are just some of the most popular games. But now, thanks to this, Madden will no longer be one of those games. And that 'exclusive NFL license' won't help them one bit. That license means that they can create a football game, take a diarrhea dump on it, put it in a box and sell it, and we would have no choice but to buy it, because that's the only NFL game out there.
-=Brian=-
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My computer probably wouldn't be able to handle it anyway. Besides, I hardly ever play football games.
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PC gaming is more tied to economic issues than consoles. This is mostly true due to the fact that a pc that can handle new games usually costs a few thousand dollars; where as a console, that came out two years ago and can play those same games costs only a few hundred. It has nothing to do with the fact that people steal pc games more than console.
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Better not cancel FIFA on the PC, or they'll have gone too far.
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Oh, and another thing. Don't say that they just repackage the previous game year after year. Remember, they have to CHANGE the rosters.
Oh, and avok23? They don't release FIFA first because it's their best seller. They release FIFA first because all the soccer leagues across the globe start before football does. That's also why they release baseball last; because that league doesn't start until spring of the next year.
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"The PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii..."
Woah, time out. People PLAY Madden on the Wii???
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"...many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii..."
Seems like when you pull the plug on PC games when they're multi-plaftorm titles, yes we will be.
Never been a big fan of sports games... but it seems stupid either way that the PC version of anything multi-platform won't come out.
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Wow, this was a shock. The piracy is not only on PC, but also on consoles, so that isn't an excuse, and they could have made it next gen like on the 360 and PS3. Well that's it, I just hope that they will release GTA4 on PC, and together with Starcraft 2 it will be all that I need related to gaming. That and WoW
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Strat-O-Matic PC football is a better game anway, it's a simulation so the graphics are just X's and O's and there's no arcade element (which is a good thing in my view) but the strategy is top notch and very realistic. www.stratfanforum.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strat-O-Matic_Football for info.
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thanks alot all u cheapo pirates. i hate ea sports games, but thats not the point. its a developing trend that the pc is being left out or given poor ports, thanks to all u cheap fools who cant just buy games and illegally download them instead. again, thanks alot u cheap you know whats
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pc gamers are to busy playing WoW to care about this crap
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Just repackage Madden '08 and call it '09... they've been doing it for the past three years.
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@Autolycus actually fifa is their best selling sports game. And it has been for years thts why its lways the first game realesed on any system (mobile phones included). Ah well ea maybe u would consider an expansion pack cos thts what your games are like anyway.
@Marsz85 apparently ps3s are easier to cheap since sony cant catch them. in he end we all know everyone will revert back to pcs. its a matter of time when they will become smaler and even cheaper. no one wats multiple appliances doing the same thing. computer = dvd, +audio player + games console and still the easiest cheapest and most flexible platform to make games
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Blackace, you are the exception rather than the rule in this case.
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Does this mean EA waives their NFL license for the PC for 09?
Who cares about EA.
No NFL games for the PC?
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business challenges? i'm kind of shocked. usually EA will make madden for anything with a screen. it's true though, Madden sells by the truckload on 360 and PS2 (at least the 07 did, not sure about 0
. and then it just kind of slows down on the other platforms. Sure, plenty of PS3, DS, PSP, etc. copies get sold. but PC copies barely move. and i wish they'd stop making the 'special editions' because they never sell. I worked for EB when 07 came out and NO ONE wanted the special version of it because it wasn't worth it. People still won't want this one even though they're getting an extra game. i kind of wish 2k was the rich company trying to buy out EA. at least we'd get a better football game out of the deal.
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EA sport product dont get good in sell. not because of piracy.. its because.. they port from ps2... if they port from ps3 gen the sell is going crazy i believe.. since the rumor that FIFA09 on PC going much better than console this year.. i believe the sell for FIFA09 going to be great.. conclusion -> EA dont be stupid..
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Does there really need to be a really, long involved explanation for this? Isn't it obvious that Madden is being discontinued on PC simply because Madden games don't sell well on that platform?
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