The issue of EA Sports and its yearly release cycle for its major franchises is a contentious one at best, with the argument consistently being whether EA is justified in charging $60 a go for what essentially amounts to the game game with some features swapped and an increasingly high number at the end. Now, ever few years I am affected by geothermal energy or space radiation and am filled with a compulsion to play an EA Sports title, normally NHL or Madden. So when I go out to pick up a copy to fill that need, I inevitably brush up against the big question that always seems to follow EA Sports. Should they be able to charge $60 every year for what an expansion pack at best or a roster update at worst?But I've always found the question to be, why would they ever stop?
The problem is that for any large publisher, games are always going to be about numbers. When you look at Madden's sales numbers for instance, though sometimes there does appear to be a decline, they are consistently selling in the area of 3 to 5 million copies per year. Now the ideal thing from a quality perspective would be for them to take a year off and really refine their game, skip Madden 14 to make Madden 15 something wholly different. But will that make Madden 15 sell an extra 3-5 million copies to make up for the missed year? No, probably not.
I'm on the side of quality games, just like everyone else, but I also understand the situation EA is in. Despite all the claims that they are an evil, maniacal empire, EA is quite simply a business. Like any business, they have an obligation to their shareholders to bring in as much profit per year as possible. Giving up 3-5 million sales in order to not make them back the next year is a hard decision to pitch, no matter what industry you're in.
So it all comes down to one simple fact, EA will stop publishing yearly sports titles when gamers stop buying them, not before.
It's not an entirely hopeless cause yet. Sales of sports titles have been trending downwards for the past several years, something EA has been more than aware of in the past years. Though its true that Madden 13 showed an increase in sales, one data point does not a trend make. So if sales continue to trend downwards, EA may decide that they need to do something drastic in order to bring back a sinking franchise.
So unless we expect EA to take a pass on 180 million or more in sales, I would expect to see Madden 14 on the shelves next year. But hey, maybe this one will have slightly improved player animations and high-definition team logos...
