After a start to the year that saw dramatic declines in sales with UFC Undisputed 2010 and Tiger Woods 11, NCAA Football 11 was able to buck the trend by growing by 8%. Now the official numbers from NPD have arrived for Madden 11 and tell a similar tale. Overall sales for the game rose 12% year-over-year.

The 360 version actually fell slightly dropping 7K to 921K. However the PS3 has almost completely closed the gap by jumping to 893K. That is a rise of 26% there and accounts for the entirety of the sales increase for Madden 11. Total sales of 1.814 million in August for Madden 11 compares favorably to the 1.593 of Madden 10 and 1.643 of Madden 09.

It was the same thing with NCAA Football 11 receiving its boost from the PS3. No surprise in either case, as EA Sports marketed the games heavily with the prominent PS3 packaging. Despite the 360 consistently outselling the PS3 it seems to be picking up more of the sports market as more PS2 converts make their way over. The 360 side has remained stagnant on most yearly sports games over the past few years.

There are several factors that seem to have contributed to the rise in sales. The first that has to be considered is the effect of Madden 10. That game had strong word of mouth and seemed to reestablish the series’ credibility. In large part sales of yearly sports titles are indictments on the previous release or confidence towards a series.

Madden 11 also had some very influential pre-order deals. Walmart offered a gift card, Amazon offered off a future game purchase, and Gamestop provided 20K coins (.67 value). Also there is the “Online Pass” which pressures people into buying new rather than used with online play access. Post-release there were sales to account for that reduced initial cost in order to draw more consumers in. Essentially the game was never “full price” and that makes for a tempting purchase considering how much value Madden traditionally provides. The game also had a very strong marketing campaign that connected the emotion of the game with the upcoming NFL season.

Though reviews were actually down from Madden 10 and word of mouth seems weaker this year than last, it was a strong package to present including the way in which it would be attractive to the more casual gamers. There is no evidence though that actually succeeded as the reason for higher sales, and in turn it may have alienated some long time fans of the series. We probably won’t see whether that resulted in long term damage until next year, though if sales are weaker through the holidays that would be a sign (sales rose in those months last year). This year it has to be considered that a larger group of consumers that would have traditionally waited may have rushed out for it because of the deals and “Online Pass” situation.

EA is likely very pleased with the first month’s sales rising in a time where the gaming market has been down, when they probably would’ve been alright with a slight drop. The company is raking in additional revenue through initiatives such as the “Online Pass” mentioned earlier, Madden Ultimate Team mode, and various boosts and DLC.

The third patch and third tuning set for NCAA Football 11 is available on the PS3 yet currently it still has not arrived for the 360. It is unknown how long the 360 side will be waiting after it missed its announced release yesterday. The most immediate issue being corrected with these updates is the pump fake glitch while also fixing the QB spy glitch, adding in-season player progression, and making gameplay tweaks via the tuner.

Unlike the previous updates though this one is prompting largely negative reaction, with defensive issues and low recruit ratings/sliding team ratings cropping up through the years in Dynasty mode. Hopefully some of those things can be addressed in the next tuning release because this is almost certainly the final patch. Check out the complete details of the patch and tuner set here and leave your thoughts on the changes in the comments!

The first highly anticipated patch for Madden 11 arrived today for the PS3 and 360. The patch brings back in the classic pre-play controls that were removed and replaced with the “Strategy Pad”. It also adds in “Madden Moments Live” which will present new moments throughout the year for purchase. Those represent the most significant developments from this patch while one intended to address issues and improve gameplay is being targeted to release by the end of the month. Continue on for the full details on this patch and leave your thoughts in the comments!

Pre-Play Functionality
• You asked for it, you got it! Pre-play functionality makes its return to Madden. A new menu option called, “Strategy Pad Shortcuts” is available. When turned on, you will see the hot routes, coverage audible, and shifts menus using the same buttons as Madden NFL 10.

Ultimate Team Improvements
• You can now view your opponent’s lineup in Ultimate Team
• New item tiers added

Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• Breast cancer awareness mode is now available for play. You can access it by scrolling right from “Play Now”. In addition, franchise games that take place in October (in Franchise mode, not next month) will be given this theme. The Madden team is proud to support the NFL in the fight against breast cancer.

Miscellaneous
• Scouting has been added to Online Franchise games
• Fixed overtime rules for preseason and regular season in Franchise mode
• Online Franchise: Fixed a feedback issue when commissioners attempted to add friends via Online ID
• Tie breakers for divisional winners now work correctly in Online Franchise
• Fixed issues resulting from challenging a play after using Supersim
• Fixed a feedback issue where the game wasn’t informing players when their selected storage device had insufficient space, which could cause data loss
• Fixed a feedback issue related to the tracking of tie breakers for division clinchers
• Fixed a menu pop up problem when an opponent resumes, calls timeout, or uses a challenge while a player has the Friendly Quit pop up on screen
• Multiple game stability fixes implemented
• Miscellaneous gameplay balancing (with more coming in title update #3)

Presentation
• Multiple lighting tweaks for improved stadium lighting
• Numerous improvements to player models and uniforms – including Titans AFL, Jets throwbacks, Vikings alternates, Jaguars uniforms
• Many camera shot improvements improved & tweaked for cut scenes
• Fixed a warping animation on the placekicker during FG and extra point attempts

Server Side
• Added penalization to quitters and awards to users to help address quitting in Ultimate Team head to head games
• Added various Game Reporting improvements for unranked games and Online Franchise. Also included various game stat fixes
• Fixed an issue where too many boosts were being deducted for each OTP game
• Fixed an issue where posting a card for auction would incorrectly show the length of the contract
• Fixed an issue with Ultimate Team injuries so that injured players will correctly come out of depth charts and lineups at the end of a game, and players will not be able to enter new games without addressing injuries and readjusting depth charts
• Fixed an issue where Ultimate Team coin rewards were incorrect for quitters