The M11 Cycle

[carnalnirvana]

i could care less for m11, EA really had me thinking 10 would have been a good game.

if i play after the first patch and DB's still play D ahead of the WR this game is gone gone gone....

[Frank784]

Quote: Originally Posted by Argooos

It is shocking that a game like this suffers from lack of staffing. There should be full developer teams for each feature of the game (superstar, offline and online franchise) as well as a team for general gameplay and one for presentation. There should be people whose entire focus is fixing issues with already existing features and improving on them. There should be another separate group working on new features. Heck, there should be a totally separate group working on building a new game engine for Madden 12 or 13. When will companies like EA learn that the best way to make money is to invest in employees. If you hire enough people to get the job done right and you keep them happy then you will produce a superior product and thus make more money. Must greed ruin everything I enjoy?

I just saw your post. I definitely agree. I am shocked that EA doesn't have the staff that one might imagine they would have. Madden is EA Tiburon's 'bread and butter' and takes in an excess of $300 million. I think one would assume that the game would be afforded the best of the best. I was really disappointed that the roster update came out on Friday, and we had to wait until Monday for the Online Franchise update. (Only three days I know, but they left us hanging with no word on the release, and Online Franchise is the new feature that has been highly touted for this year's edition) All I saw were about 20 tweets in John Madden's "man cave" and them asking about referee placement, and things of that sort

There were untold thousands of us waiting for that OF update and they put it off until after the weekend. I'd imagine that they work like any of us, M-F 9-5, the problems can't be so deep that I can't imagine working as a team every day, these problems can't be solved.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Frank784

There were untold thousands of us waiting for that OF update and they put it off until after the weekend. I'd imagine that they work like any of us, M-F 9-5, the problems can't be so deep that I can't imagine working as a team every day, these problems can't be solved.

John's man cave is located in California. Tibouran's man cave(Madden) is located in Orlando, FL.

I'm assuming that since it's a cross-country flight and they were guests of Madden for consulting purposes, that the OF update wasn't released till Monday.

Just my hunch and speculation, though.

Edit- So much for hunches and speculations. I was partially right and was partially wrong. I'll admit it.

[RyanMoody21]

Quote: Originally Posted by Frank784

Madden is EA Tiburon's 'bread and butter' and takes in an excess of $300 million. I think one would assume that the game would be afforded the best of the best.

Few things really amazed me more than knowing that one of the major Mo-Cap guys was paid $600 for 2 days service. By his own admission (and Ian's too) he was responsible for alot of moves, including the "elite" skill position guys.

[Pringles]

you guys have some valid points but madden 10 is 10 times better than madden 09. madden 10 is closer to 2k5 than any other game put out.
i dont know why everyone gets bent over the game not being like all pro 2k8 sure there are a few good things about it like the ball replays and the ball being the right size the line blocking the field pass the replay angles the running animations wich show a rb shifting his weight from left side to right that looks more natuaral than madden. wait that is alot of things oops maybe 2k is better
lol no have you ever tried to take control of a player on defence and move from left to right or front to back the animations and the player movement sucks madden series got that right at least

my guess is 2 things for sure next year 1 the running animations are going t be fixed 2 the football will be the right size and everything else will be polished fixed and more depth to franchise mode

i just dont see how you can expect developers to completly over hall a game in 1 year it takes time to get it were we all want it to be i have faith that the patches will come out and we will all be happy as for the shelf life it gives you all winter and spring to play.

[Ian_Cummings]

Quick responses to the original topic:

- People working on title updates: though they are working on Madden 10, are actually working on Madden 11 as well. Remember, all these fixes get rolled into the next year. I don't look at patches as lost time personally.
- I know people are frustrated that the title update has taken a while to come out, but such is life. There is nothing any of us can really do about that but wait...I am hoping it's out next week.
- Seeing that I was out of town I have no clue how or why the OF rosters weren't done at the same time as the other roster update. I'm looking to make sure this doesn't happen again. I hate that you guys had to wait...our apologies.
- An every other year cycle is impossible with us. A game like COD (with Infinity Ward/TreyArch)...they're using a core shared gameplay and rendering engine and re-creating all the content from scratch. We are constantly changing the gameplay stuff...so it's not like the other team could share all that stuff...we need to build incrementally...not enough time to build it all from scratch every year.

I'm not going to comment on our team size, but I look at the substantial amount of changes we made from 09 to 10 as an example of what can be done in one year. I know there are plenty of people around here that will discount that work because other issues still frustrate them, and that's totally your right...and that really sucks to me that we weren't able to fix EVERYTHING. But I think most can see that once we have the vision pointed in the right direction, we can really make a lot of great stuff happen, even in one year.

[Tyrant8RDFL]

Quote: Originally Posted by MattIntellect

No, it sounds like something that they had to do so that they won't lose the NFL license doing the same thing that 2K did when they sold ESPN NFL 2k5 for only $20.00. The NFL will not be happy if Madden sells for less regardless of how poor or good the product is and the amount of development time. Once again, business is all about finding many ways to make money and one could argue that it cost more to make games these days.

Matt I'm just curious , and I do not mean to jump all over you in a bad way, but why do you feel you have to defend Ian and EA so much? It just puzzles me how you try every angle possible to defend EA and Ian for the development of Madden.

I know you have gone strong during the development of Madden telling everyone that Madden was going to be the 5h1t this year,and you wasnt alone. I even thought this was going to be the year and even soften up on Ian, but Matt at some point you have to just admit it and speak the truth. It's ok to say "man I thought it was going to be a solid game but EA didnt deliver on what they promised"

Once I received my rented copy of Madden and played it. All I can say is "Thank god I rented this" I know you fought for so long and hard defending them, that maybe you feel you cant turn back, but homie you can. You are the consumer and don't owe EA anything.

To me it is not ok with how EA goes about releasing a flawed product and patch it later. It is wrong to the consumer. How can anyone not see this????

This is to everyone that wants to defend Madden and sorry if I sound harsh, but EA just upsets me. Well Tiburon division does.

Madden is a bad product and now matter how you try to defend it. The product is horrid. Ian is not someone I trust unfortunately, along with the rest of his team. They are suppose to hype the game, if they want to keep their jobs. They must make money and absolutely must get a high amount of pre orders on the game. Pre orders are huge for projection numbers as to how well the game will sell.

I worked for EB games and pre orders numbers are huge for their business and the game developers business. The company will say and do everything in their power to get you to pre order the game or buy it on release day. This includes saying what ever they have to say to get the product sold. Ian and EA are in this business and in turn use the same practice. They are no different. So you really need to not be so quick in believing everything they say. Please be careful and understand they have a job to do.

Now the amount of money that they paid the NFL for the license and into the development of the game. They really need to see how high the pre order numbers are. They really need to make a profit on this game, so they will hype the heck out of the game.

Do you really think that someone from EA would come out and say. "Hey the game is releasing next month but it will have a few major bugs, but don't worry we will have it all patched up in a couple of Months. Unfortunately no, and they simply can't. They would never admit that, if they did then the game would not sale at all during its release date, and people will get fired.

In closing I just feel that EA with it's Madden franchise has fallen apart. They made a horrible decision changing engines when they weren't ready. They made a bad decision when they wanted to make great graphics, and sacrifice solid gameplay, A.I , and animations.

Now we the consumer are at a point where in order to play a NFL football game we have to come to a compromise with EA and buy a flawed product and pay them a full $60. This is so wrong in so many ways, but thank god that no one is a exception to the this great phrase.
"every dog has his day" sales every year for Madden are proving it.

Quote: Originally Posted by CowherPower

He's not saying to get the people from COD...do something SIMILAR to what that franchise does. COD 2- infinity ward COD 3-Treyarch CODMW-infinity ward COD:WAW- Treyarch CODmw2- infinity ward

Activision right now is by far the smartest company in gaming, and for the simple fact that they will actually think on what is the best approach in making a solid title.

What they do for the COD franchise is amazing and produces high quality titles for its consumer. Paying them $60 for a game feels like a great bargain

[Figment]

Madden isnt the only ones rushing a half finished game out the door then patching it later. It has all happened with the evolution of gaming and now all games come out incomplete either with patches needed or offering downloaded content for the game. Just a few years ago these things weren't an option and the gaming companys would push back their release date just to make sure they had a good product. But madden has always had an incomplete game so on the bright side atleast with online gaming and patches we have the opportunity to get them fixed instead of having to wait another year.