This isn't news. It's just amusing. But it's so outlandishly amusing, that it's well worth your time.
If you were to mention the biggest releases of August, you'd probably put Madden NFL 10 and Batman: Arkham Asylum at the top of the list. Some of you savvy game searchers might add Raven Software's Wolfenstein to the list, but it'd be a distant third…or fourth, or fifth. We really do have high hopes for the latter title, but in reality, it has almost zero chance of outselling the heavy-hitting Madden entry. But do you know what will happen if it does ? According to the latest Twitter update from Raven designer Manveer Heir, he has offered to pay for your copy of Wolfenstein if the Nazi and undead-infested shooter somehow manages to sell more copies than EA Sports' blockbuster in the month of August. The official NPD numbers will dictate the final tally, you have to follow Heir on Twitter, this only applies to August, and there's a limit of one copy per customer. He says if you keep your receipt and Wolfenstein outperforms the competition, he'll reimburse you.
C'mon. You gotta admit; this is just plain hilarious . It's a great marketing tactic; although there's almost zero chance of this happening, it's still bound to gain some attention. Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow coerce all those who plan to wait in line at midnight for Madden to buy Wolfenstein instead? The incentive is they'd get that game for free . Hell, maybe they could buy both games at the register, and everyone else could just buy Wolfenstein . Whaddya think?
Related Game(s): Wolfenstein
I'll buy everyone a copy of Wolfenstein too if it outsells Madden!
Never going to happen.
If it outsells Madden, Raven is boned. Hilarious marketing though, and im really looking forward to Wolfenstein.
Last edited by NoSmokingBandit on 8/12/2009 10:03:37 PM
haha, no kidding. That means ZERO profit for their company on the game. Ouch.
Heir is probably ordering copies of Madden by the truckloads to make sure it doesn't happen…but wait, there's a Wolfenstein game? lol
Do people even like Madden?
umm, hold on let me check…*looks back at the Madden lines*…YES!
Yes, Enough so that they buy it every year…
You have to understand, people, that the popularity of such a stop/start and from the outside boring game as American Football mysifies practically the entire world outside it's native continent. Which means that Madden games outside of the US sell like death flavoured crisps.
Even RES and FIFA sell better , by comparison, in the US(because of the Mexican/Latino/Italian/German etc mmigrant populations) than Madden can in, say, the EU.
For the first time ever, IIRC, I didn't know any of my English mates who bought the Madden game so I think, if anything, Gridiron's popularity is on the wane outside of the US-we used to get lots of live NFL games in the 80's/90's but now it's only on satellite/paid for channels over here so I don't think the future's bright. Ourside of the US we don't always get just ow big the US Football season is-and by association Madden either and I feel the PES/FIFA axis is the nearest thing to it gamewise-annually released when a player update would be better most years til they actually properly updated the engine/gameplay.
I realise the offer will be NPD only, mind, as here in the UK I expect it wold be pretty tight-though I suppose the fans of Wolfenstein could be even fewer than the fans of Madden in the UK-certainly I've heard tons of US barmen this year! They always get huge abuse when the footies on and they call it "soccer"-even now.
@mastiff – hate all you want on "real football", the fact remains that the Super Bowl is the single biggest television event worlwide every year.
EA makes 90% of the Madden sales in the U.S., which makes it's Madden sales numbers all the more impressive.
I think about buying it now, not because he may pay for it, but just because he said he may.
Now it's def not gonna happen, everyones just gonna wait and hope that it comes out for free… bad marketing idea I say, but I'm still picking up a copy
Er, that's not how it works, no one would be able to wait for it to be free. You have to buy the game first and it's essentially like a rebate, you get the money back later on if it succeeded in what it was meant to do, not if you join in afterwards.
I remember playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein on PC when I was 7 or 8…was my second M-Rated game after Max Payne ^.^
It was hella fun, and boy, did I handle the experience maturely ^.^ (no nightmares man! cuz my cousin had lol).
I'll be one of the ones picking up Wolfenstein instead of Madden. And I'd like to see Madden fall short of predictions. With no competition anymore, EA has just sat and pretty much pumped out the same game year after year. And with them charging extra for various things in the game, I don't see them selling as many as before. I've always enjoyed Wolfenstein more anyways. Even if it is another shooter, which is one genre we really need a break from.
Mate, Konami have competition from EA with FIFA and they rarely change much-it's the curse of the yearly sports game where, unless they have real innovations/beytter gameplay or a new engine they'd be better with a roster update to download-but we idiots keep on paying for the cack!
At worst we should only pay a fraction of the cost of a proper game when all they do is update the managers and playing staff or tweak a mode or two!
mastiffchild, Geobaldi was referring to the Madden series from EA, not FIFA.
Pipedreams.
I rather buy Wolfenstein instead of Madden because football is better on tv or outside.
I know Madden is a huge seller in the USA but is that the only place this game is popular? Outside the USA I can see Wolfenstein easily outselling it.
thats pretty funny.
while it most certainly wont happen, its a good way to help boost sales in wake of games like madden and batman – even if only slightly.
amusing attempt, i really do hope this game does well…
i think it would have been a bit more effective if they had said this earlier, but a small boost is better than no boost i guess.
I will eat my wholly scarf if that were to occur… poor bastards!
Q!
"i am home"
lmao.
wolfenstien is my most anticipated title for the month.
but only because i hate madden games, and batman AA isent out here till september 3rd.
i wish sigma 2 and operation flashpoint dragon rising would hurry up and come out.
if there both not out by october 1st im not getting them, ill be to busy with uncharted 2.
I'd have preferred a tweet about how awesome this game will be.
i am buying all three this month.
This way lots of people will buy Wolfenstein and encourage others to do so, at the end it will not match Madden and then Raven won't payback anyone.
🙂 🙂
That has about as much a chance of happening as monkeys flying out of my a$$.
Still very amusing. I hope the Wolfenstein game is worthwhile. Definitely waiting for reviews before even renting it.
haha thats probally not going to happen, and if it does then they are screwed.
BatMan and Final Fantasy Dissidia are all my wallet will allow.
Whoa, nice original Batman Avatar Mr West. Anyway, Madden is the same thing every year with different box art. When will people wake up and see how repetitive and boring the franchise is. Great if you like playing football games but frankly, they just look like snoozefests. Madden generally sells on the ps2 like crazy so good luck Wolfenstein.
That's rich.
The game looks good but I'm saving my money for Demon's souls, Uncharted 2, GT5(please), and maybe I'll get the new R&C for Christmas.
Huh, look at that all exclusives.
Last edited by vicious54 on 8/13/2009 4:16:16 PM
guys…please don't fall for this…