Madden NFL 12 to Kick Off Another 3-Year Plan

[roadman]

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."

[Senator Palmer]

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.

[Segagendude]

As a Browns fan, I shudder when I hear "3 year plan"....

They've had one since their return in 1999.....

Oh joy. Oh bliss.

[spankdatazz22]

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.

[Garrett67]

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

[illwill10]

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

[RGiles36]

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.

[CM Hooe]

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.