EA scraps Madden '09 on PC

55 Comments by Scott Jon Siegel Apr 2nd 2008 5:30PM
Filed under: PC, Sports

American Football fans will have to turn to one of of their consoles or portables to get their next Madden fix, as Peter Moore has revealed EA's cancellation of Madden '09 on PC, citing "serious business challenges" in releasing sports titles on home computers.

The title will still appear on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, DS and PSP, leaving PC Madden fans feeling a bit left out. Moore notes that Madden '09 is not the only PC title receiving the axe, and that it represents a larger decision by EA Sports to cut back on their number of PC releases. It's unknown if EA will continue to release future versions of Madden on the PC, or if this is the end of Madden on the PC altogether. Luckily, gamers can still experience the latest iteration of EA's flagship sports franchise on a plethora of platforms. Just not on the computer.

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, madden, madden-09, peter-moore, petermoore

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Zertoss: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:37PM

"'serious business challenges' in releasing sports titles on home computers"

Couldn't find any magic DRM that stops piracy without screwing the consumer, could you?

Neebs: Apr 2nd 2008; 7:20PM

You think that matters to them?

DangerMouse: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:39PM

madden is serious business

Zertoss: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:48PM

TIME PARADOX

Zertoss: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:49PM

That was a POST PARADOX. Should've been a reply to Jeff. Now the humor is destroyed.

Jeff: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:39PM

Before anyone says it: no. This is not because of people pirating those games.

It is because PC-gamers are an older, more mature, and more intelligent demographic that don't buy shitty sports games. And yeah, I am an elitist-- but someone had to say it.

But I guess the two people on PC who want Madden would have pirated it. Here's to a victory for EA, who won't waste money, and PC gamers... who can have the honor of one less shitty game being released on their platform.

Nein: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:45PM

Actually PC is the MOST kiddie platform...

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7559&Itemid=2

People like you are also proof of this.

But mark my works, beginning of the end for PC gaming. You won't even be getting ports soon.

milestailsprowe: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:55PM

HORRAY A SMART PERSON HAS COME OUT!!!!
I agree really why buy a football game unless you dont have 20$ for a footballa nd enough friends for a real game with REAL PEOPLE

Jeff: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:51PM

My next comment addresses what little point you were trying (I think?) to make.

And actually, as soon as developers stop making shitty PC-ports, I think part of the problem is solved. Lots of games don't work well on PC, and thus won't sell well on PC.

The PC market doesn't need to be flooded with a million games like the console market does. We tend to all buy the very good games, and play them for years. This is why Valve and Blizzard continue to do well on the PC market.

You can argue that the PC market is dying. I would argue that PC gamers are telling developers "we don't want your garbage". Only the best titles sell well on PC-- don't bother to release the rest.

And everyone forgets that in a few years, the PC that your mom buys for $300 will be a more powerful system than the ps3 and xbox 360.

Sora267: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:56PM

In order to pirate it, wouldn't someone have to buy it and upload it to some torrent site first? So if both of the people who want it would pirate it....They can't because one of them would have to buy it.

milestailsprowe: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:58PM

with the XBOX 360 controller that problem of not working with M/Kb went out the window but really its just that like you said certain games arnt for the PC auidence

ScottyGEE32: Apr 2nd 2008; 7:01PM

"And everyone forgets that in a few years, the PC that your mom buys for $300 will be a more powerful system than the ps3 and xbox 360."

That's such a strong argument! What can I do? Nooo!
Rather than playing good console games *now* as I have been for awhile, are you saying I should wait a few years to play some PC games *later*?

I think I'll take my more powerful console now actually.

John: Apr 2nd 2008; 7:06PM

Aw Jeff, we know PC gamers who post on gaming blogs are all in for quality, and not quantity. I know it. I am PC/console gamer myself, but rest assured we are not the majority just because we hear about us more often in sites like this one, and as much as we would like to see 'Big Publisher drops lil-PC' as a win, it is not. It just goes to further show how the PC gaming market is slowly dying.

tmacairjordan87: Apr 2nd 2008; 7:41PM

jeez pc gamers sure are snotty and cranky nowadays. Then again I guess I would be too if I had to wait 2 years to play the best worthwhile current games.

Have fun with....WoW? Mass Effect? (ya know, the one we console gamers have been done with for a couple months now)

Have fun waiting a year plus for GTA 4 too. Oh don't worry about me I'll be having plenty of fun on the day it comes out. Feel free to come over and watch me play!

Jeff: Apr 2nd 2008; 8:06PM

I'd argue that this years best games were: Unreal Tournament 3 and Sins of a Solar Empire.

The first of which came out earlier foR PC, and the latter which will never see the light of day on a console.

I'm not bitter. I was actually kind of joking around and insulting Madden. Everyone just gets testy when it comes to the PC versus consoles argument. All the fanboys can unite against a single foe!

mrelusive: Apr 2nd 2008; 9:23PM

I don't understand why people post lists of "exclusives" the consoles get in news posts like these. You got Mass Effect, I got The Witcher. You got Gears of War, I got Crysis.

News flash: Every platform has exclusives. I think we all know that...

Synner: Apr 3rd 2008; 9:50AM

The funny thing is these console douchebags have been saying PC gaming is fading uot, dying or otherwise going away somehow for going on 25 years... Which console was it that stayed popular for 25 years?

LaughingTarget: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:39PM

EA to console gamers: "We think you suck, so we'll continue to insult you by releasing Madden every year. We love the PC, so we can't sully its good name by putting such crap on it."

Kodros: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:40PM

Article: EA scraps Madden '09
Me: Awesome! Kudos to EA for not ass raping customers by charging them $60 for the same game but with upgraded stats.

Article: on PC
Me: Fuckers

bsm0f0: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:46PM

lol ... thankfully EA purged the only title I desired from them ... NCAA Football on the Wii. GG fuckers ... GG.

Quentin: Apr 2nd 2008; 10:37PM

Umm, the PC version of Madden was actually going for $40 at the time of release.

doubleyewdee: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:42PM

This is not a good sign for the serious side of PC gaming. When big players like EA start scrapping PC games entirely, especially for hyper-profitable franchises, it's a sure sign that the 'hardcore' PC gaming market is in quite the slump.

It doesn't help that I don't personally know anyone who plays PC games except for casual titles (Solitaire and whatever Flash or PopCap have to offer at any given time) or MMOs, yet many of those same people own one or more current-gen consoles and play them multiple times a week. Sure, that's purely anecdotal, but it seems like a bad harbinger given how prevalent PC games were for me in years gone by. Not to mention I work with computer professionals, so it's not like they're the "give up on getting a working rig" crowd.

eldee: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:44PM

The pc gaming market has been 'dying' for about 15 years now, if headlines are any indication.. but as you can see, it's still here.

Jeff: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:47PM

The PC market has always been a niche market. While your point is valid-- when big shots like EA abandon us, we are kind of screwed. But Crysis and Hellgate: London say "EA hasn't abandoned PC."

Developers just need to wise up. Some games just won't sell well on PC-- don't bother wasting your time releasing them!

PC is a VERY casual market (the sims), or a hardcore FPS/RPG/RTS/MMO market. There is not much in between.

doubleyewdee: Apr 2nd 2008; 6:00PM

I don't think I said 'dying.' I don't think it's dying, but it's narrowing in focus (not a bad thing!).

As for Crysis (or UT3, to look at a different publisher) the sales even there just aren't terribly encouraging. Look at a top-rate FPS like RFOM, Halo3, or CoD4 and its sales numbers and DLC viability on its respective service(s) and compare that to the big-name FPSes on the PC. I'm pretty comfortable in saying that CoD4 360 alone is handily outselling CoD4 PC.

Although some game types (RTS, maybe MMO) are just better with the PC interface a lot are not really provably improved/better, including and especially the FPS. Sure, I prefer FPS on a PC to FPS on a console for control, but with the right design and the understanding that controllers aren't as capable as mice in delivering precision input you can still walk out with a super high quality FPS that millions of people love. In contrast, the last non-niche FPS that garnered serious attention (and playtime) on the PC was probably either an older UT variant or RTCW. Most people just shrugged and moved on to the console world for their multi-player fix, largely because things "Just Work" there.

And if I'm a company and I get 90%+ of sales on consoles where a ton of the multiplayer experience is covered for me by the console, why would I bother implementing all the requisite multiplayer code on a PC too, at significant expense, when the revenue stream just isn't going to justify it.

Jeff: Apr 2nd 2008; 6:15PM

Well, your point is valid: a game that sells 2 million on a console might sell only 500k on PC.

So then it comes down to: is the profit from 500k of sales worth the process of porting the game? Of course it is.

Moreover, that's also a result of piracy, which I won't deny. It IS a serious problem.

Ralod: Apr 3rd 2008; 12:27AM

Well about Crysis, remember the numbers after the holidays stated it did sell a million plus copies. It was just a slow starter it seemed in the first few weeks of its release.

I am sure it is 1.5 mil at least by now.

As for Madden. Eh who cares. Sports games have never done great on PC, at least not for a long while. When Blizzard, or Valve, or stardock, or any one of 50 other developers say they are moving off PC then I will worry. But When it's EA Sports, that made one game 5 years ago for the PS2 and has been giving it a graphical update each year? Nah, no worries here. Pc gaming is pretty good right now as far as I can see.

eldee: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:43PM

fine by me.. '08 was buggy as hell

Fox318: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:46PM

Isn't their an open-source football game that allows for custom teams and playerlists?

Could have sworn I heard of one...

deaftly: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:50PM

PC is teh doomed!

cold school: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:50PM

Yeah us PC gamers hate playing what amounts to the same game year after year. Our big brains need something new and fresh.

/boots up WoW/

mberkowitz: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:55PM

could now hopefully they will make a faithful game that does not have framerate issues. Madden was sooo much better/more fun on PS2

rTwelve: Apr 2nd 2008; 5:57PM

HOHO, it seems PC is no longer the place for helpful football folks.

I mean you gotta wab afg ffsdaf ghfsj h;glk;dfg jhj

and that's what it's all about!

wootman: Apr 2nd 2008; 6:03PM

"is not the only PC title receiving the axe"
WHAT?!
"represents a larger decision by EA Sports to cut back on their number of PC releases"
yay.

Leobebes: Apr 2nd 2008; 6:17PM

Since they are releasing Madden 09 on the Wii and the PS2 you can forget to see a revamped graphics engine for the PS3 and the 360 thanks cheapskates!

Mr Khan: Apr 2nd 2008; 6:27PM

Hmm, i thought the contract with the NFL to net them that monopoly required them to put it out on all relevant platforms, which the PC definitely is

Or did i remember that wrongly?

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force): Apr 2nd 2008; 6:30PM

EA NOT publishing on an existing platform? That's news!

Poisoned Al: Apr 2nd 2008; 6:37PM

First of all, as it's been said before, PC gamers are not into sports games. Lets face it, the average frat boy can't afford a games rig.

Second, it's AMERICAN football. I know Americans find this hard to grasp, but NOBODY outside the US gives a flying fuck in a high wind about American Football. I mean other American sports can cross borders, but not American football.

So that's a limited market in a limited market. Yeah, I would pull the plug too.

Jeff: Apr 2nd 2008; 7:27PM

That's a good point. The PC market is much stronger outside of the US.

Where nobody gives a fuck about football. Well, where everyone loves football-- just not the right kind =P

duerra: Apr 2nd 2008; 6:44PM

Well that's just great. EA gets a monopoly on the NFL and proceeds to give a notable group of gamers no options for an NFL fix. That screams of abuse, to me. Use it or lose it, EA!

Choc: Apr 2nd 2008; 7:06PM

Ok,

So now the NFL have a problem. They exclusively gave EA a licence to build the product on the understanding that EA would do certain things.

Now this has happened, does this mean the NFL can licence out the PC rights to another developer? Surely it can because otherwise, the NFL are idiots and don't know how to write an exclusivity contract properly

theclaw: Apr 2nd 2008; 8:00PM

This is what I've been complaining about. Companies are not giving me a choice to play the games I want on PC.

Instead, I have to use a console or handheld for them.

Shawn: Apr 2nd 2008; 8:24PM

EA is admitting that PC Gamers actually have witts, and not lemmings who buy the same game over and over like console gamers. Quite insulting actually.

Geoff: Apr 2nd 2008; 8:25PM

Although it's barely a drop in the bucket, it's worth noting that this also means no Madden for the Mac. The new Intel Macs finally received a Madden 08 port, in the form of the PC version + Cider, an OpenGL wrapper/translator. So no PC version = no Mac version as well.

That was quick.

GK0871: Apr 2nd 2008; 8:36PM

In a way, I'm kind of disappointed. But, they weren't coming with the new Madden anyways. I guess I'll play it on the Ps3 than. I would really like to see the next gen Madden on PC.

joseph morgan: Apr 2nd 2008; 8:39PM

I am a p.c. gamer and i am very happy with madden 06 on my p.c. i have played 07 and 08 on ps2,ps3 and xbox360 and none of them look as good or play as good as 06 on the p.c. Since madden has no competition they have not had to better the game every year and that has lead to nothing more then stats and roster updates which i can do on the p.c. version myself. cosoles are for idiots with to much money to spend. I have gone down that road in the past and I am much happier spending my three to four hundred dollars each year making my p.c. more powerful rather than wasting it on a console that will be useless in 2 years just to play the same rehashed games that were better on the p.c. 5 years ago. for example doom on the p.c. blows away that crappy ripoff called halo

Quentin: Apr 2nd 2008; 10:48PM

I'm not shocked that EA made this decision. While Madden still sells, it's not the juggernaut that it used to be. Too many average PCs probably can't play the damn thing anyway. Now that Madden is no more on PC, could similar EA Sports franchises such as NBA Live and Tiger Woods face a the same fate? "Live" believe it or not has a wider international appeal than Madden (they release the game with different covers featuring international stars overseas) and to an extent the world appeal for Tiger Woods is big.

Maybe this is a start of a trend of EA going towards the more profitable consoles. Spore is getting a release on other systems, right? As for me, I have outgrown Madden on the account that it is waaaaaaay too complex. (and this is coming from someone that UNDERSTANDS how the NFL rules work)

Aj Collins: Apr 3rd 2008; 12:22AM

Percentage of PC gamers that care:
0%

Really, if you want madden on the PC, just buy '08. So what if it doesn't have the current weight of one player, it's still the same game and you saved about $40 for the same thing.

Henry E.: Apr 3rd 2008; 12:34AM

I do pc gaming and console gaming. I naturally prefer console gaming, and one main factor is, i don't have to upgrade or spend $1,500+ for a good laptop to last me for 4 years. Also, being in college, money is tight, so upgrading for games is way too expensive. I enjoy pc gaming such as starcraft, and i am definitely excited about starcraft 2. but until then, it's ps3/psp.