It seems that Electronic Arts is admitting that the sales of Madden NFL 10 were discouraging and didn’t live up to the goals that the company set for the franchise this year. As with many other things around EA, we expect an overhaul for Madden NFL 11 that is said to be an innovative new take on the franchise.

It seems that the company initially found its footing with the early numbers of copies sold in the first month with 2.2 million copies sold. Sales seemed to tank after that when compared to previous years. While pre-orders for the game seemed to indicate that it was going to sell well, it just wasn’t so, with sales described by one of our sources as essentially flat this year for the franchise.

It seems that EA has been having a lot of trouble building titles that deliver what their core audience wants. This has not gone unnoticed by EA who seems to be working hard to not only re-invent popular franchises, but to also put in the additional work necessary to make them better. While we believe that it is far too early to know how much of an effect a re-focus of effort will have on sales, it is obvious that some of the recently released titles have fared a little better, such as Need for Speed Shift, which seems to have re-energized the franchise.

Several upcoming releases from EA look very promising, including Battlefield Bad Company 2, which looks to regain some of the players lost to other FPS franchises. Only time will tell, but certainly it will take time for EA to learn from the mistakes that they have made and focus on a higher level of quality to get customers once again energized about buying their titles.