Madden Sells Two Million in First Week

September 1, 2006, 2:51 pm EDT
Total comments: 13

It's the biggest launch in the history of EA's leading franchise.

EA's Madden NFL 07 Returns Opening Week Kick-Off With Biggest Retail Performance Ever

$100 Million Week-One Gross Tops Most Summer Films

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 2006--Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS), estimates that customers have purchased more than two million copies of Madden NFL 07 in its first week -- the best performance in the 17-year history of the game franchise. Unit sales are roughly 12 percent higher than one year ago.

"We put a ton of innovation into Madden NFL 07 from new game modes and controls to NFL Superstar Hall of Fame," said Todd Sitrin, EA Vice President of Marketing. "Consumers are the most meaningful judge of game quality and based on sales and the record-setting online activity, our toughest critics think Madden NFL has delivered another great game experience."

"This is the Madden gamers have been waiting for," says Jon Robinson, Editor-in-Chief of IGN Sports. "From the fans to the football players themselves, all anyone is talking about is Madden, and for good reason."

"Madden NFL 07 continues to grow in strength and popularity with our customers," said Jill Hamburger, VP of gaming at Best Buy. "It's one of our biggest releases of the year and proof of that is in the energy and excitement you see in our stores on release day, not only with customers but with our Blue Shirts, it truly is an event."

EA estimates:

-- Madden NFL 07 had the biggest launch in the history of the franchise, selling through more than two million units.

-- Unit sales of Madden NFL 07 are up 12 percent over the 1.8 million units sold in a comparable period last year.

-- According to Microsoft, Madden players are breaking records for online play on the Xbox 360®. Within five days of the launch, Madden players unlocked more than 600,000 achievements and logged more than two million hours of online game play. That's the equivalent of 228 years of online gaming in less than a week.

-- NCAA® Football 07 was the #1 selling video game on the Xbox 360, Xbox, the PlayStation®2 and PSP® (PlayStation®) Portable July 2006.

Entering its 17th year and with more than 53 million copies sold life to date, Madden NFL Football continues to stand out as the most popular football videogame franchise of all time with a combination of innovative new features and the most authentic football gameplay. Developed in Orlando, FL by EA Tiburon Madden NFL 07 is available on Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube®, Nintendo DS®, PC (as well as www.downloader.ea.com), PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) handheld entertainment system and Game Boy® Advance. Madden NFL 07 is rated "E" (Everyone) by the ESRB and has an MSRP of $59.99 for the Xbox 360, $49.99 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, $39.99 for Nintendo GameCube, PSP, and PC, $29.99 for Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. Madden NFL 07 Hall of Fame Edition has an MSRP of $69.99 for the Xbox 360 and $59.99 for the PlayStation2. In Europe, Madden NFL 07 launches on PS2, Xbox, NDS, PC, PC Downloader August 25 and on Xbox 360 and PSP September. For more information check out www.madden07.com.

Talkback

NeodymiumSeptember 01, 2006

In other news, there are at least two million idiots.

CalibanSeptember 01, 2006

Neodymium, does that mean you aren't getting Madden 07 Wii? be prepared to join the hordes of madden idiots patiently awaiting for you, not really!

King of TwitchSeptember 01, 2006

2 million in a vegetative state, this is a humanitarian disaster

KaironCarmine Red, Associate EditorSeptember 01, 2006

So this is what it feels like to be a hardcore traditional gamer and watch the Japanese Top 10 sales chart week after week with Brain Age pwning hardcore traditional games like Megaman or Valkyrie Profile.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

The OmenSeptember 01, 2006

Quote
In other news, there are at least two million idiots

Go play Naruto geek! (the series which coincidentally has more 'cash-ins' than any franchise ever)

RizeDavid Trammell, Staff AlumnusSeptember 01, 2006

Actually, I'm minorly interested in the new.... forgot the name, but it's a mode where you play one player on the team through a season (or seasons) rather than playing the whole team. If you play an offensive guy, then you're on the bench watching while the defense plays etc. Not only does that sound interesting, but it should also dramatically reduce the game's learning curve as you'd only be able to play one position at a time.

TJ SpykeSeptember 01, 2006

The sad thing is that at least half of those bought the game just because of the name "Madden" and would have done so no matter how bad the game is. It's these mindless gamers who also bought Madden 2005 instead of the much superior ESPN NFL 2K5.

TrueNerdSeptember 01, 2006

Slow news day, huh? Could PGC also report that I received my third season of Arrested Development from Amazon today? I think that's about as interesting to the readers here. And hey, at least the news would about something of quality! Ha ha!

BigJimSeptember 01, 2006

Newsflash: Monopoly on NFL license makes a company money.

Next.

18 DaysSeptember 02, 2006

I HAVE NO DAMN RESTRAINT

FaithinchaosSeptember 02, 2006

Other headlines: "Fabricated figures spurn hand-wringing festival at luxury links golf tournament"
"Crack the whip and call it capitolism"
"Looking for 2 million gamers that smell like pizza and beer?"
"'Record setting online activity? I didn't just make that up, I swear!'-Todd Sitrin"
"EA kills puppies, squirrels in front of school children"

animecyberatSeptember 02, 2006

Well I never get a new madden game the first week because the price always goes down latter in the season. I would wait till Wii Madden comes out though but i ams till skeptical how it will controll. But on theother hand all I did was describe to seom friends of mine (all PS fanboys hardcore) how the controller should work for madden and NBA Live and they are starting to actually consider the Wii where as before they all wanted Ps3 no matter how much it cost.

Chode2234September 06, 2006

I actually like to play madden, and aparently lots of other people do too. It has its place, but it saddens me that EA has the NFL license and shut out the 2K series. I do like Madden more than 2k, but competition is good. Now if only they could make a decent DS version....

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