Friday, August 19, 2005

Stunning News Story

Here's an excerpt from a story over at IGN:
August 18, 2005 - Forget whatever mild controversy might have surrounded the critical reception of Madden NFL 06: the game is selling big. Electronic Arts announced today that the title sold 1.7 million copies -- taking into account all platforms -- in its first week of release, easily setting the record for first-week sales in the sixteen-year history of the series.

EA is understandably excited by the sales. "Gamers were demanding the best Madden NFL Football ever this year and the response at retail indicates that we delivered the game that everyone wanted," said Marketing VP Todd Sitrin. "Consumers have voted with their dollars, and the vote is in -- this is the best version of Madden NFL Football ever."

Heh. Oh, people "voted", all right. Just like in Soviet Russia where in every election there were two choices: the candidate and "no". Remarkably, all candidates were elected.

That's not to disparage the quality of Madden this year--I haven't spent enough time with the game, other than fiddling with sliders, to make an assessment--it's just that the marketing spin cracks me up. I mean, once you've eliminated the competition, SHOULDN'T you break your own sales records? This is like the rich kid bragging about winning a race after his daddy buys him the fastest car.

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