I saw this on Joystiq
EA & ESPN get greedier, offering Madden pay-per-view preview: EA and ESPN are inviting you to plunk down $20 and watch a pay-per-view preview of Madden NFL 07 beginning on August 4, 18 days before the games official release. Anyone who's actually planning to pay the price of admission please do us a favor ... smack yourself! 'Nuff said.
While my first reaction is one of amazement (I should clarify... I'm in awe of EA's cocky-ness), I have started to wonder if EA and ESPN have a gathered demographic information which informed the companies that, "HEY! People will buy stuff that is about our stuff!" Somehow they predicted that they would get a good return on the money it took to produce this hour show... and I do know people who own a console system and ONLY buy Madden games. This has to be their market.
Anyways, I wonder why they didn't take this idea to the next level. Have two of the best Madden Players play a long game against each other, but get ESPN to actually commentate during it. Even have the Sports Center people create a half-time show for it. I don't really pay much attention to football (nor the video games), but I probably couldn't help but be curious about watch a simulation game get the same treatment as the real deal. That would probably be worth $20.
As it is now... $20 + 60 minutes of hype = pretty trashy marketing ploy in my book.
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