6 ms·

Sales of games like this always amazed me. It seems like every year somebody tweaks a yaml config with the player details and hits build - voilà brand new game

Sales of games like this always amazed me. It seems like every year somebody tweaks a yaml config with the player details and hits build - voilà brand new game is out, time to shell out another $60.

siva7 5y ago
FIFA is basically a cash cow unprecedented in gaming. Unfortuantely for EA that cash has to be "equally" split with FIFA.
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago
  I'd actually disagree here. Like, multiple mobile games make upwards of 1bn+ per year, and I'd strongly suspect that a bunch of the other sports franchises make similar amounts of money. Yes, FIFA is probably the best known globally, but that doesn't mean that they make the most money.
  - siva7 5y ago
    You're right, i should have been more precise
pg_bot 5y ago
Madden hasn't changed in a decade and it still tops the sales charts every year. It has to have the best economics of any game franchise in existence.
- kasperni 5y ago
  American football is a niche sport outside of the US. I've never heard of anyone playing Madden or seen it on any top sales lists.
  - tzs 5y ago
    But the US is a really big market. Something can be a niche everywhere else and still make a ton of sales. Madden has cumulative sales, according to Wikipedia, of 250 million copies. The FIFA series has cumulative sales of 325 million. I'm having a hard time finding consistent annuals sales numbers. Random Googling suggests each new FIFA year sells around 24 million, and each new Madden year around 5 or 6 million. But Wikipedia says Madden was at cumulative 100 million in 2013, which combined with them saying it is 250 million now, gives an average of over 18 million a year. Maybe the numbers I found on annual sales were only counting sales of whatever was the latest version? In that case, if a significant number of people who buy Madden X do not do so until after Madden X+1 comes out that could explain it. Madden X could sell 6 million to the people who want the latest version, and then another 12 million in subsequent years to people who wait until it is a bargain bin game.
    - kasperni 5y ago
      Sure it can generate tons of sale, but "best economics of any game franchise in existence."... [1] contains some numbers, Madden is probably placed around number 30 if you look at only the numbers for video games. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media...
that_guy_iain 5y ago
From my experience with the NHL franchise. If you're a casual or light player of the game you probably won't notice a difference except for the time rosters. But if you play the game on a regular basis you will also notice the new feature or the thing they've improved. If you play FIFA 2015 and then play FIFA 2022 you'll notice a massive difference yet people will have been saying for years that they don't change anything. That is because every year they improve a single aspect of the game. The main revenue source for these games isn't even the actual game. It's the online experience where I've heard stories of people paying thousands for their online team.
- boomboomsubban 5y ago
  Also from my experience with the NHL games, things change at a snails pace and not always for the better. It's been a few years since I've played one, but I remember the same buggy moves being possible for multiple years and then strange quality of life decreases in various seasons modes. I quit when the gacha team stuff was starting. I'd hope the whales led to huge game improvements, but I wonder if they actually used that money to make huge changes would they just piss off their fanbase?
- myyra 5y ago
  Some of us still play NHL94.. http://www.nhl94online.com/ http://www.nhl94online.com/
  - that_guy_iain 5y ago
    That game is how I got into ice hockey.
- Bilal_io 5y ago
  > But if you play the game on a regular basis you will also notice the new feature or the thing they've improved. If you play FIFA 2015 and then play FIFA 2022 you'll notice a massive difference yet people will have been saying for years that they don't change anything. That is because every year they improve a single aspect of the game. I think that's the point people are trying to make. If you're making a very small change,why are you charging people for the full price again? They could push an update for a small free each year. And resell the game for full price every 4 years.
tut-urut-utut 5y ago
If the only value proposition of the game, as compared to competition, is to have real team and player names and their real up-to-date stats, then it's only fair to pay properly for that business advantage. 250M per year seems fair to me. If they don't want to, I'm sure there'll be another company willing to pay that amount for their game can be called “FIFA 2022”. AFAIK, oil companies also has to pay for the right to extract oil from the ground to the owner. Why would this case be different.
- djmips 5y ago
  Sounds more like extortion. EAC built this franchise from the ground up since 1993 and FIFA had nothing to do with it other than four letters.
  - tut-urut-utut 5y ago
    One can argue that exactly those four letters is what made this franchise successful. FIFA in the game name give it “official” branding, which they would never have otherwise.
  - dejw 5y ago
    and now EA is milking teenagers with builtin gambling mechanics. there's always a bigger fish and in this case I am happy to see that. Didn't FIFA also have an exclusive contract which prevented PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) from acquiring licenses for team names?
    - fredoralive 5y ago
      Buying exclusive rights to teams / leagues to cripple the competition is a fairly standard EA play. However it is important to note the exclusive contracts are between EA Sports and the teams / leagues, not FIFA. The main things FIFA brings to the table for EA is the name, and the World Cup competition. EA clearly things they aren't worth as much as FIFA wants for them, hence the current wrangling. If the deals falls through then "EA Sports FC" (or whatver it ends up being called) will still have all the teams / leagues locked up. So a theoretical FIFA game from someone else would presumably still have the same disadvantages as Pro Evo etc.
djmips 5y ago
That's an ignorant take. The game has a lot of work put in every year to all aspects.
tephra 5y ago
I'm a somewhat frequent player. While yes player updates are a part of it there's is more. Firstly players and rosters usually gets updates throughout, so if I open my FIFA 21 now it would certainly update rosters. In new titles usually we'll get some new leagues (nice for people who wants to play a team/league in their country). IIRC in FIFA 22 you can create your own team now (waited for that one for a long time). Worth noting that stuff that people want like a much better player career mode seems to never be updated.
- dncornholio 5y ago
  All your comments validate the parents post though. Nothing but yaml and UI tweaks :)
  - tephra 5y ago
    Apparently they also did some very detailed motion capture on individual players. Without access to the codebase of course I (or you/parent) don't know how much code they had to change of course but if the game is better I'll happily pay for it to enjoy it.
TheCondor 5y ago
Do they pull more from that than they would a pure subscription model? $10 a month and it continuously updates stats, adds new players, etc..

Sales of games like this always amazed me. It seems like every year somebody tweaks a yaml config with the player details and hits build - voilà brand new game is out, time to shell out another $60.

siva7 5y ago

FIFA is basically a cash cow unprecedented in gaming. Unfortuantely for EA that cash has to be "equally" split with FIFA.

disgruntledphd2 5y ago
I'd actually disagree here. Like, multiple mobile games make upwards of 1bn+ per year, and I'd strongly suspect that a bunch of the other sports franchises make similar amounts of money. Yes, FIFA is probably the best known globally, but that doesn't mean that they make the most money.
- siva7 5y ago
  You're right, i should have been more precise

pg_bot 5y ago

Madden hasn't changed in a decade and it still tops the sales charts every year. It has to have the best economics of any game franchise in existence.

kasperni 5y ago
American football is a niche sport outside of the US. I've never heard of anyone playing Madden or seen it on any top sales lists.
- tzs 5y ago
  But the US is a really big market. Something can be a niche everywhere else and still make a ton of sales. Madden has cumulative sales, according to Wikipedia, of 250 million copies. The FIFA series has cumulative sales of 325 million. I'm having a hard time finding consistent annuals sales numbers. Random Googling suggests each new FIFA year sells around 24 million, and each new Madden year around 5 or 6 million. But Wikipedia says Madden was at cumulative 100 million in 2013, which combined with them saying it is 250 million now, gives an average of over 18 million a year. Maybe the numbers I found on annual sales were only counting sales of whatever was the latest version? In that case, if a significant number of people who buy Madden X do not do so until after Madden X+1 comes out that could explain it. Madden X could sell 6 million to the people who want the latest version, and then another 12 million in subsequent years to people who wait until it is a bargain bin game.
  - kasperni 5y ago
    Sure it can generate tons of sale, but "best economics of any game franchise in existence."... [1] contains some numbers, Madden is probably placed around number 30 if you look at only the numbers for video games. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media...

that_guy_iain 5y ago

From my experience with the NHL franchise. If you're a casual or light player of the game you probably won't notice a difference except for the time rosters. But if you play the game on a regular basis you will also notice the new feature or the thing they've improved. If you play FIFA 2015 and then play FIFA 2022 you'll notice a massive difference yet people will have been saying for years that they don't change anything. That is because every year they improve a single aspect of the game. The main revenue source for these games isn't even the actual game. It's the online experience where I've heard stories of people paying thousands for their online team.

boomboomsubban 5y ago
Also from my experience with the NHL games, things change at a snails pace and not always for the better. It's been a few years since I've played one, but I remember the same buggy moves being possible for multiple years and then strange quality of life decreases in various seasons modes. I quit when the gacha team stuff was starting. I'd hope the whales led to huge game improvements, but I wonder if they actually used that money to make huge changes would they just piss off their fanbase?
myyra 5y ago
Some of us still play NHL94.. http://www.nhl94online.com/ http://www.nhl94online.com/
- that_guy_iain 5y ago
  That game is how I got into ice hockey.
Bilal_io 5y ago
> But if you play the game on a regular basis you will also notice the new feature or the thing they've improved. If you play FIFA 2015 and then play FIFA 2022 you'll notice a massive difference yet people will have been saying for years that they don't change anything. That is because every year they improve a single aspect of the game. I think that's the point people are trying to make. If you're making a very small change,why are you charging people for the full price again? They could push an update for a small free each year. And resell the game for full price every 4 years.

tut-urut-utut 5y ago

If the only value proposition of the game, as compared to competition, is to have real team and player names and their real up-to-date stats, then it's only fair to pay properly for that business advantage. 250M per year seems fair to me. If they don't want to, I'm sure there'll be another company willing to pay that amount for their game can be called “FIFA 2022”. AFAIK, oil companies also has to pay for the right to extract oil from the ground to the owner. Why would this case be different.

djmips 5y ago
Sounds more like extortion. EAC built this franchise from the ground up since 1993 and FIFA had nothing to do with it other than four letters.
- tut-urut-utut 5y ago
  One can argue that exactly those four letters is what made this franchise successful. FIFA in the game name give it “official” branding, which they would never have otherwise.
- dejw 5y ago
  and now EA is milking teenagers with builtin gambling mechanics. there's always a bigger fish and in this case I am happy to see that. Didn't FIFA also have an exclusive contract which prevented PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) from acquiring licenses for team names?
  - fredoralive 5y ago
    Buying exclusive rights to teams / leagues to cripple the competition is a fairly standard EA play. However it is important to note the exclusive contracts are between EA Sports and the teams / leagues, not FIFA. The main things FIFA brings to the table for EA is the name, and the World Cup competition. EA clearly things they aren't worth as much as FIFA wants for them, hence the current wrangling. If the deals falls through then "EA Sports FC" (or whatver it ends up being called) will still have all the teams / leagues locked up. So a theoretical FIFA game from someone else would presumably still have the same disadvantages as Pro Evo etc.

djmips 5y ago

That's an ignorant take. The game has a lot of work put in every year to all aspects.

tephra 5y ago

I'm a somewhat frequent player. While yes player updates are a part of it there's is more. Firstly players and rosters usually gets updates throughout, so if I open my FIFA 21 now it would certainly update rosters. In new titles usually we'll get some new leagues (nice for people who wants to play a team/league in their country). IIRC in FIFA 22 you can create your own team now (waited for that one for a long time). Worth noting that stuff that people want like a much better player career mode seems to never be updated.

dncornholio 5y ago
All your comments validate the parents post though. Nothing but yaml and UI tweaks :)
- tephra 5y ago
  Apparently they also did some very detailed motion capture on individual players. Without access to the codebase of course I (or you/parent) don't know how much code they had to change of course but if the game is better I'll happily pay for it to enjoy it.

TheCondor 5y ago

Do they pull more from that than they would a pure subscription model? $10 a month and it continuously updates stats, adds new players, etc..