Head Coach is worth saving

[Herky]

Does this have anything to do with the claim that the developer from Head Coach who did the franchise is signed on for Madden 2010 to revamp their franchise?

[claystone]

It's ashame because they have just (4) items to fix for the game to be great IMO.

1. OL/DL Interaction: Fix the OL from cutting DL on pass plays.

2. Personnel Change: Have the DC AI call the right formations to match up with each other opponents personnel.

3. CPU Sub: Fix the cpu so they sub their players. Right now they don't sub anyone.

4. Playcalling: Fix the OC/DC playcalling. It seems they call 5 to 6 plays a game, not taken adavantage of more plays. Even if they are a Higher level OC/DC and plays are mastered.

If this was patched, I would be very pleased. The draft is another issue.

[claystone]

The biggest down fall for us is the draft is limited. In 2k5 you can go on forever, but here you can't because the have a certain amount of rookies. So once you do the 4 path drafts, you know all the players already.

My suggestion is don't scout players too much, or you'll know too many when doing a new franchise again.

[DGetz]

Quote: Originally Posted by samboz19

To not bring back this franchise is absolutely unacceptable EA. Seriously...EA never takes into consideration what the fans and customers have to say. It more or less comes down to a bunch of corporate BS.

I hate to sound rude but I think that's just plain incorrect. The fans (of football and/or video games) and customers have been heard and what they've apparently said is, "keeping this franchise alive is going to cost your company money."

Don't get me wrong, if there is a Head Coach 2010 (or 2011, or 2012, or 2013, etc), I'd be at the store to get it on the release date. But the reality is that there just don't seem to be enough consumers out there to make developing and producing the game make sense for EA. Sure there are people out there who love it passionately, but that doesn't do EA a lot of good unless we all go out and buy six copies of the game.

[bcruise]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

I'd have to find the quote, but Phil Frazier made it pretty clear that the head coach line was dead.

I hate to be "link or it didn't happen guy" because I know you're a reputable poster, but I'm searching through Phil's posts and I'm not seeing anything like that. Was it on the EA boards or somewhere else other than OS?

[samboz19]

Quote: Originally Posted by DGetz

I hate to sound rude but I think that's just plain incorrect. The fans (of football and/or video games) and customers have been heard and what they've apparently said is, "keeping this franchise alive is going to cost your company money." Don't get me wrong, if there is a Head Coach 2010 (or 2011, or 2012, or 2013, etc), I'd be at the store to get it on the release date. But the reality is that there just don't seem to be enough consumers out there to make developing and producing the game make sense for EA. Sure there are people out there who love it passionately, but that doesn't do EA a lot of good unless we all go out and buy six copies of the game.

Your not being rude at all, actually I appreciate your honesty and the decorum in which you handled your response. I understand your point of view for sure. The problem is that when EA finally comes out with a game that is actually worth a damn it appears it is going to be dropped. Basically EA caters more to the younger crowd too much anymore as it is and I can understand why as kids are the ones who really play the video games. Head Coach is more of a game for adults really.

I was just ranting because its like damn...I just finally get back into an EA game and it has to be the one that is possibly getting the Axe.

I mean...this is the first game I have really gotten into in a long time. When I was younger I was major gamer, but as you mature and get older (no I am not exactly old either, but old enough to make that statement) you just don't have as much time...other priorities take precedence.

Cheers!

[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by bcruise

I hate to be "link or it didn't happen guy" because I know you're a reputable poster, but I'm searching through Phil's posts and I'm not seeing anything like that. Was it on the EA boards or somewhere else other than OS?

EA boards, referenced somewhere in the Madden boards... I'll look for it when I get home from work.

[cutter73]

Depends on what happens with the Madden franchise as to how much I'll worry about Head Coach being discontinued.

If they basically overhaul the franchise system in Madden and replace it with what is in HC I don't see a big deal. I could care less what name is on the box. It may even be the only viable option for a game like this.

I mean, if only a few people are buying HC, it can't continue long even if they do another game or two. And I just do not see how sales will improve. The kind of player who buys this game is in the minority.

However, where it's not financially sound to produce and distribute a seperate game, it could be a very sound financial move to port over the HC as the franchise mode in Madden. It won't cost the company as much as producing a seperate game and doing all the marketing and distribution for it. But they could see a spike in the profits of Madden if they do the transition right.

The fact is this game didn't sell well. The profit margin was minimal at best. But EA knows there is a market, however small it is, for this kind of game. They also know people generally don't like the franchise mode in Madden. If they use HC as a model for franchise mode in Madden, and they do it well, then they probably know that they will pacify current Madden customers while at the same time they will likely get the same amount of sales as they did with both games because HC players will jump back into the Madden fold. I've always thought the two games were going to be combined. EA has done very little work on the franchise mode in Madden for ahile now.

I think they figured that they would let HC fill that void and if it took off, fine. I think they figured that if it didn't take off, they'd just use it as the model for the franchise mode in Madden. The entire system would already have been implemented in HC, and it's much much more cost effective, as well as less of a strain on time considerations to simply port everything over rather than have to build the franchise mode from scratch while at the same time having to work on Superstar mode and all the other modes in the game. Having a development crew working full time on HC and nothing else meant a much faster development in the long run.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think EA was hoping the game would take off and they'd wind up with two commercially viable franchises. It is all about money after all. But when it didn't, I think this was their fall back plan.

EA is a business. Yes, greed plays a large part in that, but because of that same greed, I can't see a company just letting go of any profits they can get. HC may not have sold well, but it made some money somewhere along the line. It would take very little effort to convert HC over to the franchise mode in Madden, would cost probably much less than releasing another HC game seperately, and would likely spike EA's sales for Madden enough to make it worth their while.

Just my thoughts on things mind you. I just can't see why any company would just let go of any profits they could make. It doesn't make financial sense to just drop all the work they did with HC and start on a new franchise mode in Madden from scratch. It's too easy and cheap to just port it over and maybe make a few small improvements.

In the end, if Madden franchise mode does use HC as a model, and they keep the same level of depth with a couple improvements, which would be cheaper than any other option for the company, I won't miss the HC series. I'll give Madden a try via rental, and if they did it right, I'll just buy it.