August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

[Cre8]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

If EA had competition, this would not be the case.

Yawn... Not to be a jerk, but just because we all think this doesn't mean we have to keep saying it. Ya know? I think at this point it is implied in every negative remark, even my own.

I like to play the preseason games in Madden, the same week as my 9ers real preseason games. Those weeks leading up to the start of the regular season could also help EA find bugs or glitches that us regular gamers find...that for some reason, their testers usually miss. So for all you know, we can have a broken game 2-3 weeks into the regular season.

You have a good point, but I think Madden has had major issues go unpatched until week 8 or 9. (Remember the Madden 08 Franchise bug that caused you to run out of players in free agency during franchise mode?... that went until late October or November, unpatched)

I think one thing that will help is the tuning system they are putting in just like NCAA 11 had last year. Otherwise, this is a common occurence now that we have online gaming as common-place. A LOT of games are coming out full of bugs that never would have been in XBOX or PS2 games simply because there was no room for error.

As an example, when I was in college there was a due date for a paper - no questions...period... I would put my heart and soul into that paper for the day it was due. If it wasn't turned in on time, I got a zero.

In high school, I had teachers that would give students a due date and then push it back if they were slacking and only take a few points off the paper for each day it was late or lacking in quality.

This current generation of game development has really taken a step back from college level to high school or even junior high level as far as quality presented on the 'due date'.

[Agent 007]

I think this is mostly due to NCAA

[ryan36]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

now we get two handfuls.

there's a joke here somewhere I'm sure of it

[Herky]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

Smart move on Madden's part. For those who think waiting until the end of August is bad, just remember Madden used to come out in November back in the Seaga Genesis/Super Nintendo days.

[illwill10]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

I like the move. It gives NCAA more time to get sales. It gives Madden to see the bugs and glitches in NCAA and fix them before they come out. Up-to-date rosters

[Palo20]

I don't like it. I'd rather have my hands on the game before the start of the regular season.

[kjcheezhead]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

I call BS. By the 2nd week of August, preseason is underway, fans are drafting their fantasy teams and everyone is starving for football that counts. Also, one of the reasons 2k5 was successful was because it released before Madden 05 and people like me chose to buy it to hold us over til Madden released.

The is another reason for the date change. It's looking like the NFL and NFLPA are going to play chicken with each other and won't sign until the regular season is truly threatened. Fans that are angry that the NFL hasn't signed a deal by the second week of August aren't going to be rushing out to buy NFL products like Madden. By waiting til the 30th, it gives more time for a deal to get done and EA wouldn't have to release to an open boycott of their game.

Keeping it from now on just continues to give the developers a full year to work on the game and we'll see if that actually holds true when it's time to release Madden 13.

[AndrewGW88]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

Do you mean the last week of august or that august 30th is the only day it will ever be released on?

Madden NFL 12 would be releasing on August 30 rather than August 13.

[ODogg]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

I like this move because it will help NCAA sell more I think and that's a great thing. Plus I always did think the two football games were released too close together. With that being said I'll still probably be keeping an eye out for an early copy of the game.

[Hova57]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

I'm just hoping it leaves more time for debugging , and getting patches and tuners together. I like back in the day when madden was released closer to the season. This isn't new they used to release it in late August.

[ODogg]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

I'm just hoping it leaves more time for debugging , and getting patches and tuners together. I like back in the day when madden was released closer to the season. This isn't new they used to release it in late August.

Unfortunately it won't change anything in that regards because the debug/patch time will probably not changed.

[RedZoneD25]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

Unfortunately it won't change anything in that regards because the debug/patch time will probably not changed.

Well I'm sure they wouldn't have it sitting ready to ship for two weeks. The game usually goes gold a month before release, which gives them a little extra time if they choose to work on something minor.

[roadman]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

Well I'm sure they wouldn't have it sitting ready to ship for two weeks. The game usually goes gold a month before release, which gives them a little extra time if they choose to work on something minor.

Phil mentioned it gives them extra time to polish it up.

[ODogg]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

Phil mentioned it gives them extra time to polish it up.

Yeah, they will extend the dev time, not the debug time with the extra time. And remember they only actually get extra time with it this year (aug 13, 2010 to aug 30, 2011), because starting next year the dev cycle will be the same (aug 30, 2011 to aug 30, 2012)...

[bukktown]

Re: August 30 Will Be the New Release Date for Madden This Year and Beyond

Madden NFL 12 would be releasing on August 30 rather than August 13.

Right. I get that M12 will be Aug 30. But the title implies that all future Maddens will release on Aug 30. Which would be odd IMO because release days usually don't happen on a Saturday.