Known Errors with Madden 10 release

[KensaiKatai]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

Agreed that a lot of things pop up after release that we didn't know about. We hate that as a development team, but the amount of man-hours spent in the game on in the first day of Madden's release dwarfs the amount of work we spend the entire year on the game as a team. We are aggressively pursuing ways to make sure big issues don't appear - the early community day was one such example this year...a 'beta' test is something we always want to look into for the future (couldn't happen for Madden 10 unfortunately...we didn't have enough time in the plan to get this done). I have however been sort of loosely planning a thread or post to go ahead and set expectations and talk about some of the key areas/features we weren't able to address or areas we as a team think still need improvement. As I've said before there are quite a few features that did not fit in our official schedule but we were hoping to pull off some superhuman efforts to get them into the game. So as we final the game and I can say with certainty what features did or did not make it into the shipped/disc build of Madden 10, I want to share that with you guys so it's not like you're surprised by reading a review or when you put the disc in. Let's be clear - there are areas that we know will not make people happy with some of the news we release. No game is perfect, and though I feel we have made some MAJOR strides to Madden this year, there are also some areas that I am not totally satisfied with. It's the hardest part about finaling video games - having to finally give up and accept that feature X isn't making it - but the good news is that since the interaction between the team and the community has been so strong this year, the hope is that everyone can see what DID accomplish, and balance that against what didn't make it in, realize that we are all moving in the right direction, and still enjoy Madden NFL 10 since we all think it's one hell of a great game. There is no doubt that some people will be unhappy, and I just know we can't please everyone all the time (especially with this gigantic user-base), but I think we all agree that it's best that we get it out into the open and talk about why certain decisions were made and then we can all kind of collectively talk about the best solutions moving forward. I would say we as a team aren't doing our jobs very well if you have no clue why major wishlist feature X wasn't added to the game, and you can only speculate that "ZOMG the Madden team is a bunch of idiots, they don't even watch football, 2k5 rulz, blah blah blah". Launch is going to be fun.

thanks Ian, seriously, your level of honesty and candid approach to how you deal with the consumer shows me how incredibly professional you and your team are towards making this the best madden ever..we all know it won't be perfect, we just want to help make it as good as it can be!!

[tonynyy]

Nice Ian, when should we expect this kind of info?

[lolfalconsbeatu]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

Agreed that a lot of things pop up after release that we didn't know about. We hate that as a development team, but the amount of man-hours spent in the game on in the first day of Madden's release dwarfs the amount of work we spend the entire year on the game as a team. We are aggressively pursuing ways to make sure big issues don't appear - the early community day was one such example this year...a 'beta' test is something we always want to look into for the future (couldn't happen for Madden 10 unfortunately...we didn't have enough time in the plan to get this done). I have however been sort of loosely planning a thread or post to go ahead and set expectations and talk about some of the key areas/features we weren't able to address or areas we as a team think still need improvement. As I've said before there are quite a few features that did not fit in our official schedule but we were hoping to pull off some superhuman efforts to get them into the game. So as we final the game and I can say with certainty what features did or did not make it into the shipped/disc build of Madden 10, I want to share that with you guys so it's not like you're surprised by reading a review or when you put the disc in. Let's be clear - there are areas that we know will not make people happy with some of the news we release. No game is perfect, and though I feel we have made some MAJOR strides to Madden this year, there are also some areas that I am not totally satisfied with. It's the hardest part about finaling video games - having to finally give up and accept that feature X isn't making it - but the good news is that since the interaction between the team and the community has been so strong this year, the hope is that everyone can see what DID accomplish, and balance that against what didn't make it in, realize that we are all moving in the right direction, and still enjoy Madden NFL 10 since we all think it's one hell of a great game. There is no doubt that some people will be unhappy, and I just know we can't please everyone all the time (especially with this gigantic user-base), but I think we all agree that it's best that we get it out into the open and talk about why certain decisions were made and then we can all kind of collectively talk about the best solutions moving forward. I would say we as a team aren't doing our jobs very well if you have no clue why major wishlist feature X wasn't added to the game, and you can only speculate that "ZOMG the Madden team is a bunch of idiots, they don't even watch football, 2k5 rulz, blah blah blah". Launch is going to be fun.

that makes a lot of sense, i guess its just time for me to pray that the Rocket Catching got tweaked -- and just not one of those things that were to tough to solve within the year...

[stux]

Known issues shouldn't make it to the disk.

Any MAJOR or freezing issue shouldn't make it to the disk.

[steelers1216]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

Agreed that a lot of things pop up after release that we didn't know about. We hate that as a development team, but the amount of man-hours spent in the game on in the first day of Madden's release dwarfs the amount of work we spend the entire year on the game as a team. We are aggressively pursuing ways to make sure big issues don't appear - the early community day was one such example this year...a 'beta' test is something we always want to look into for the future (couldn't happen for Madden 10 unfortunately...we didn't have enough time in the plan to get this done). I have however been sort of loosely planning a thread or post to go ahead and set expectations and talk about some of the key areas/features we weren't able to address or areas we as a team think still need improvement. As I've said before there are quite a few features that did not fit in our official schedule but we were hoping to pull off some superhuman efforts to get them into the game. So as we final the game and I can say with certainty what features did or did not make it into the shipped/disc build of Madden 10, I want to share that with you guys so it's not like you're surprised by reading a review or when you put the disc in. Let's be clear - there are areas that we know will not make people happy with some of the news we release. No game is perfect, and though I feel we have made some MAJOR strides to Madden this year, there are also some areas that I am not totally satisfied with. It's the hardest part about finaling video games - having to finally give up and accept that feature X isn't making it - but the good news is that since the interaction between the team and the community has been so strong this year, the hope is that everyone can see what DID accomplish, and balance that against what didn't make it in, realize that we are all moving in the right direction, and still enjoy Madden NFL 10 since we all think it's one hell of a great game. There is no doubt that some people will be unhappy, and I just know we can't please everyone all the time (especially with this gigantic user-base), but I think we all agree that it's best that we get it out into the open and talk about why certain decisions were made and then we can all kind of collectively talk about the best solutions moving forward. I would say we as a team aren't doing our jobs very well if you have no clue why major wishlist feature X wasn't added to the game, and you can only speculate that "ZOMG the Madden team is a bunch of idiots, they don't even watch football, 2k5 rulz, blah blah blah". Launch is going to be fun.

i agree 100% with this post ian. no game is perfect, but madden 10 will be awesome, i can tell. i just hope it lives up to the expectations. thats what makes people happy, what is expected, what was said that was gonna be good, is good, and what is going to be bad, is bad, thats all it is. I HONESTLY THINK THAT 'MADDEN NFL 12' WILL BE THE BEST MADDEN EVER. IT WILL HAVE EVERYTHING, I CAN JUST TELL.

and one more thing ian. will madden 10 have flak jackets, i really want these to get in, even it comes later through a DLC or madden shop

[lendog691]

Well at least they know how important it is to alot us, just so there are no major bugs or game killers but right now i'm looking more foward to Madden the i have been in years.

[Colladie]

Quote: Originally Posted by stux

Known issues shouldn't make it to the disk. Any MAJOR or freezing issue shouldn't make it to the disk.

+1

Major issues should not occur, but sometimes issues arise when the game goes gold and the dev team cannot do a thing.

[Bgamer90]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

Agreed that a lot of things pop up after release that we didn't know about. We hate that as a development team, but the amount of man-hours spent in the game on in the first day of Madden's release dwarfs the amount of work we spend the entire year on the game as a team. We are aggressively pursuing ways to make sure big issues don't appear - the early community day was one such example this year...a 'beta' test is something we always want to look into for the future (couldn't happen for Madden 10 unfortunately...we didn't have enough time in the plan to get this done). I have however been sort of loosely planning a thread or post to go ahead and set expectations and talk about some of the key areas/features we weren't able to address or areas we as a team think still need improvement. As I've said before there are quite a few features that did not fit in our official schedule but we were hoping to pull off some superhuman efforts to get them into the game. So as we final the game and I can say with certainty what features did or did not make it into the shipped/disc build of Madden 10, I want to share that with you guys so it's not like you're surprised by reading a review or when you put the disc in. Let's be clear - there are areas that we know will not make people happy with some of the news we release. No game is perfect, and though I feel we have made some MAJOR strides to Madden this year, there are also some areas that I am not totally satisfied with. It's the hardest part about finaling video games - having to finally give up and accept that feature X isn't making it - but the good news is that since the interaction between the team and the community has been so strong this year, the hope is that everyone can see what DID accomplish, and balance that against what didn't make it in, realize that we are all moving in the right direction, and still enjoy Madden NFL 10 since we all think it's one hell of a great game. There is no doubt that some people will be unhappy, and I just know we can't please everyone all the time (especially with this gigantic user-base), but I think we all agree that it's best that we get it out into the open and talk about why certain decisions were made and then we can all kind of collectively talk about the best solutions moving forward. I would say we as a team aren't doing our jobs very well if you have no clue why major wishlist feature X wasn't added to the game, and you can only speculate that "ZOMG the Madden team is a bunch of idiots, they don't even watch football, 2k5 rulz, blah blah blah". Launch is going to be fun.

With me, I usually don't start seeing issues until maybe 2-3 weeks after the game is released and then when I notice one thing, I notice another, and another, and another.

It might be the case with Madden 10, but I'm pretty sure that they will be much more minimal compared to previous years due to the testers that you got and also the effort that you guys put into the game. Anyone thinking that the game will be 100% (and that 2k5 was) is being unrealistic and honestly, will never be satisfied. I'm more of a "realistic expectation" type of person so you won't see me bash things like 90% of the people on game forums seem to do. I get pumped for games but the hype for me is created by what I know about the game already when for most its built up by what they think that they know and that's how many set themselves up for dissapointment imo.

Anyways, I'm just hoping that madden 10 will be the first madden this gen that I will play all year around until 11 comes. If it is, then I will finally say that madden has reached the level that it was known for last gen. I mean, based on the things I know already about the game, the game looks TONS better than what we have been getting this gen and I can't wait for E3 to come since I have a feeling that it's going to take my excitment over the top