Madden 12 News Post

Madden NFL 12 to Kick Off Another 3-Year Plan

07:59 AM - April 14, 2011 by brza37

Multiple sources are reporting that Cam Weber, EA's General Manager of Football, is touting a new 3-year plan for Madden, starting with Madden NFL 12.

Didn't Ian have a 3-year plan for an in-depth franchise mode and "Everything you see on Sunday" that was supposed to be fulfilled with Madden 12? Hopefully, he didn't leave because some suits or this new GM put MUT, Gameflow or the Need for Speed type Autolog feature ahead of Ian's vision.

Let the speculation begin...

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# 21 SageInfinite @ 04/14/11 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RiderGH


	IDK man, I cant believe they are throwing the "3 year plan" out there again. This is the most overused gimmick on this generation of consoles. its almost unbelievable that this company is still fumbling around trying to put out a quality NFL game, I mean seariously what is the issue tiburon?

That is the same question I have been asking myself lately. Like what is it?

# 22 PH1LLYSFINEST13 @ 04/14/11 10:55 AM

3 yr plan eh? Let me know when its been 2 yrs. Why would they admit this? Its like saying , were going to put out this unfinished game , but wait till next yr.

# 23 mvb34 @ 04/14/11 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BezO


	Doubling the size of the development team sounds good. I always thought they could use more hands on deck. 3 years is a long time though, especially since I've already been waiting 5-6. I don't know if it's my age, other interest, games not meeting my expectations, but I might not be playing video games in 3 years. I hope this 3-year plan includes re-doing the AI, animations / player interaction & defensive play calling. The word "features" always scares me when it comes to Madden.

I'm with you!! heck I hoping to great text sim football game them I'm definitely out ...

# 24 ryan36 @ 04/14/11 11:26 AM

I think it's always a rolling 3 year plan, as in ...we're planning 3 years ahead. Not "we're starting over and it'll take 3 years to get good"

# 25 Herky @ 04/14/11 11:29 AM

I hope to God that franchise mode isn't going to take a back seat again.

Madden's vision puzzles me a great deal. With Ian now gone and the uncertainty of who else is leaving I have a bad feeling about the direction of Madden. The series has been out long enough on current gen consoles and the improvements over time have been slow. Having team members leave in the middle of the development cycle may not hurt much this year, but next years Madden will certainly tell the tale of their vision.

# 26 RedZoneD25 @ 04/14/11 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryan36


	I think it's always a rolling 3 year plan, as in ...we're planning 3 years ahead. Not "we're starting over and it'll take 3 years to get good"

Glad to see I'm not the only one who took the same message.

# 27 Senator Palmer @ 04/14/11 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveDQ


	Madden needs a visionary, someone to step in with realistic goals and then move toward achieving them. They need to stop meandering around message boards and lay off these silly teaser scenarios. There's a guy on Twitter claiming that if he gets so many followers he'll release another photo of Madden 12. We don't need that. The Madden team doesn't need that. It's chasing the wind on both ends. Sound bytes, Hidden white board messages, mysterious videos hinting towards possible features...All these things need to simply go away. I don't know much about Madden's current GM (Cam Weber), but perhaps his comment about a 3 year plan is to introduce his goals for the franchise. Maybe so, but please stop with your ground men hinting and raising speculation about your product. this link that Chase provided does give a good outline of what they are introducing in M12, so I give them credit there: http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/1/madden-nfl-playbook Outline what your vision is. Create realistic goals that are achievable. Present it in a clear and readable way so that those who are legitimately interested in the depth of your game aren't going around on a treasure hunt trying to discern what a picture of cheerleaders means.

I agree with the sentiment. Enough with the teasing and the gameplaying -- most of us are adults and the end result has more oftentimes than not led to jeers when when we're delivered something that's less than what we were led to believe.

Just lay it out to us straight or don't say anything at all. Making an announcement about an announcement without laying out any hard specifics is pretty ridiculous to me at this point.

# 28 RGiles36 @ 04/14/11 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryan36


	I think it's always a rolling 3 year plan, as in ...we're planning 3 years ahead. Not "we're starting over and it'll take 3 years to get good"

Exactly...that's what I was trying to imply. I'm not sure how people equate this to franchise being ignored in M12. I'm confident that's not the case.

# 29 roadman @ 04/14/11 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveDQ


	Here's a "point" the GamePro article makes: "Among other things, Tiburon plans to focus on "investing heavily in the core gameplay." That includes making sure that player behavior is flawless from "whistle to whistle," Weber said. In other words, players may finally stop running through walls after scoring touchdowns." I quote this to show how pointless the shallow article is. First off, if you quote him as saying from whistle to whistle the intention is to have flawless behavior, don't bring up something that would happen after the whistle. Hold their feet to the fire and say something like, "Players may finally be able to execute consecutive hit tackles." That may be nit picking, but it just goes to show how shallow all of this is. That article is very poorly written, and just proves Gamepro is not digging deeper.

Don't blame Gamepro. The GM is just talking in generalities, not specifics. If xyz magazine dug deeper, they would just hear, "no comment."

# 30 Senator Palmer @ 04/14/11 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djordan


	This scares me from the gamepro article.. So we should expect Madden to be sub par this year...

This bothers me even more

Quote:


	Weber is doubling the size of the core football development team, and also plans to invest heavily in the franchise's web infrastructure over the next few years.

Ordinarily, I would say that just because there is an emphasis on web development doesn't mean that offline is going to be slighted, especially with a larger development team, but we've seen what we've seen.

# 31 spankdatazz22 @ 04/14/11 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveDQ


	Madden needs a visionary, someone to step in with realistic goals and then move toward achieving them. They need to stop meandering around message boards and lay off these silly teaser scenarios. There's a guy on Twitter claiming that if he gets so many followers he'll release another photo of Madden 12. We don't need that. The Madden team doesn't need that. It's chasing the wind on both ends.

Agree wholeheartedly. If they're going for substantive change they can't have it both ways, continuing with the hype things they do and coddling the communities telling them what they want to hear.

I think the 3yr plan news won't mean anything to the general public, but think it's pretty big for those of us that like discussing every little detail and how the game is perceived. It does sort of undercut M12's release by having an open admission the game isn't where it needs to be and will take 3yrs to fix. I wonder if this'll be the year reviewers use that as reasoning to tee off and judge it as they should've been the past 5-6yrs. Also I don't see how Madden gets singled out and NCAA isn't included. I didn't play NCAA, and perhaps it's that much different than Madden. But it seems to me they're fundamentally the same game, and would seem to share some of the same core problems. But I don't doubt it's the more refined game, as it was last gen.

It'll be interesting to see what the vision is for the game. At this point the game needs to be where it should be - getting it back technically to where it was last gen shouldn't be viewed as an accomplishment.

# 32 Garrett67 @ 04/14/11 11:48 AM

Its great to have goals but they don't really have meaning unless they're completed.

I'm almost 44, I might not have 3 years LOL

# 33 illwill10 @ 04/14/11 11:49 AM

As long as Franchise is the main priority and improved drastically first, I am okay with their direction.

# 34 RGiles36 @ 04/14/11 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spankdatazz22


	Also I don't see how Madden gets singled out and NCAA isn't included. I didn't play NCAA, *and perhaps it's that much different than Madden.* But it seems to me they're fundamentally the same game, and would seem to share some of the same core problems. But I don't doubt it's the more refined game, as it was last gen.

I don't think that it's all that different. At all. I always have a scratch-my-head moment when people praise NCAA and belittle Madden. There are marked differences, but not enough to say one game is lightyears ahead of the other.

# 35 CM Hooe @ 04/14/11 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryan36


	I think it's always a rolling 3 year plan, as in ...we're planning 3 years ahead. Not "we're starting over and it'll take 3 years to get good"

Given that licensed sports video games operate different from every other kind of game in the industry where there MUST be a release every twelve months (otherwise they are not economically viable), I feel like that's the only feasible way to do it.

Other games get plenty more time behind the idea table and under-the-hood work before they are expected to be released. They're afforded that luxury by not having to deal with a real-world counterpart league which is beginning a new season.

# 36 Senator Palmer @ 04/14/11 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spankdatazz22


	Also I don't see how Madden gets singled out and NCAA isn't included. I didn't play NCAA, and perhaps it's that much different than Madden. But it seems to me they're fundamentally the same game, and would seem to share some of the same core problems. But I don't doubt it's the more refined game, as it was last gen.

After NCAA 10, the NCAA team made an announcement about about going back to the drawing board and delivered a great game out of the box with '11. NCAA is on the uptick and on solid ground as far as direction in my opinion. Not perfect by any means, but when compared out of the box, NCAA played a game of football that was lightyears ahead of the unbalanced game that Madden dropped last August. The tackling, line interactions (run blocking and d-line play) weren't even close.

It's very telling about where NCAA is when it was stated that the final patch for Madden would try to mimic the tuning of NCAA 11 in order to balance the gameplay out.

# 37 brza37 @ 04/14/11 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spankdatazz22


	Also I don't see how Madden gets singled out and NCAA isn't included. I didn't play NCAA, and perhaps it's that much different than Madden. But it seems to me they're fundamentally the same game, and would seem to share some of the same core problems. But I don't doubt it's the more refined game, as it was last gen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgiles36


	I don't think that it's all that different. At all. I always have a scratch-my-head moment when people praise NCAA and belittle Madden. There are marked differences, but not enough to say one game is lightyears ahead of the other.

Gameplay and graphic-wise the games are pretty similar. But NCAA gets praised for its replayability because NCAA's Dynasty mode does blow away Madden's Franchise mode both offline and online. Dynasty mode isn't perfect though and could use a lot of improvement (like a CH2k type Coaching Carousel) but it does keep people involved alot longer than Franchise mode.
Custom Stadium Sounds is another feature that helps with immersion that has been in NCAA for years but not in Madden. Even Road to Glory which really pales in comparison to 2ks My Player or The Show's RTTS is still much better than Superstar mode. But that stuff is just extra. I think the main reason for the NCAA love is the difference between Dynasty and Franchise modes.

# 38 Armor and Sword @ 04/14/11 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brza37


	Gameplay and graphic-wise the games are pretty similar. But NCAA gets praised for its replayability because NCAA's Dynasty mode does blow away Madden's Franchise mode both offline and online. Dynasty mode isn't perfect though and could use a lot of improvement (like a CH2k type Coaching Carousel) but it does keep people involved alot longer than Franchise mode. Custom Stadium Sounds is another feature that helps with immersion that has been in NCAA for years but not in Madden. Even Road to Glory which really pales in comparison to 2ks My Player or The Show's RTTS is still much better than Superstar mode. But that stuff is just extra. I think the main reason for the NCAA love is the difference between Dynasty and Franchise modes.

Nailed it right there. NCAA 2011 will be in my sports rotation for at least another 2 years. Deep replay value. I also think overall a better looking game, and tighter gameplay. Plus I love the unpredictability of the college game.

# 39 CM Hooe @ 04/14/11 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WakeUp


	words

Of course there's the law of diminishing returns; adding more coders to a project isn't a silver bullet, as the new coders have to get up to speed with the codebase before they can even begin to be functional with it. That could take a month by itself for each coder.

And I'm curious as to how you came to your conclusions about EA Tiburon's hiring policies; how much interaction have you ever had with the company to ever get a bead on this?

# 40 GGEden @ 04/14/11 12:18 PM

Good post, WakeUp.

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