Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

[Steve_OS]

EA have sent over a Press Release announcing that Madden 09 has "gone gold". What does this mean? Well traditionally it means that the game is ready to ship. In this case it is simply an excuse for EA to build some additional hype around the game. Given EA's tight development schedule and its planned ship date of early August, the game would currently be sitting with first party developers (Microsoft and Sony) as their internal test teams do their best to find as many compliance issues as possible. Its not ready to ship yet, but unless MS or Sony tell EA they must fix a bug, nothing else will be touched. The good news however is that the EA Producers have already made it clear that they want to patch the game sooner rather than later.

EA also sent over some new Madden 09 screenshots and some videos.

[texbuk84]

this is great news. at least if some bugs are found in the game they will be able to get them out sooner than later which would lead to people not complaining so much(hopefully)

[ewto16]

Sigh.....it seems to me that EA should have spent an extra 3-4 weeks actually testing and finishing some things in the game, rather than going gold 7 weeks early. How does that benefit anyone??

Those that say they can patch stuff now, should realize that EA is SUPER slow about making and releasing patches and the patch process itself is probably about 2 months, due to having to get it certified by Sony and MS. If there was still stuff to fix, and I'm sure there is, it would have made much more sense to spend another month fixing it before going gold.

This just gives me another reason to complain when I play Madden and can see it was tested one time by one monkey that knows nothing about football, much like Madden 08 was.

It is impossible to argue that the game wouldn't have benefitted from another month of development/testing. No wonder EA always says "We didn't have time" when we wonder why something wasn't included in the game. They cut their own development cycle short by a month.

[mastershake88]

Re: Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

so if it go gold. when will this thing get shipped?

[mastershake88]

Re: Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

Sigh.....it seems to me that EA should have spent an extra 3-4 weeks actually testing and finishing some things in the game, rather than going gold 7 weeks early. How does that benefit anyone??

Those that say they can patch stuff now, should realize that EA is SUPER slow about making and releasing patches and the patch process itself is probably about 2 months, due to having to get it certified by Sony and MS. If there was still stuff to fix, and I'm sure there is, it would have made much more sense to spend another month fixing it before going gold.

This just gives me another reason to complain when I play Madden and can see it was tested one time by one monkey that knows nothing about football, much like Madden 08 was.

It is impossible to argue that the game wouldn't have benefitted from another month of development/testing. No wonder EA always says "We didn't have time" when we wonder why something wasn't included in the game. They cut their own development cycle short by a month.

my words exactly...all i have to say is prepare for the threads to come in the hours after the game...

[thmst30]

Re: Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

I'm guessing those screenshots are from a much older build. Because the Saints and Cowboys helmet logos are still oversized in those screens.

[drlw322]

it would be nice that they could've fixed the celebration before it going gold

[kmart2180]

Re: Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

I dont understand the whole month early thing. Why not keep working to make things better rather than have a game sitting in boxes with a month to go to release. To me it makes no sense in making the game final now. All this time could be spent fixing bugs, or searching for them.

I hope that this means they are building the patch with fixes in hopes to have it come out with Madden 09 on same day.

[a4reak]

Re: Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

wow look at Boldin

[TVNation53]

Why not put out a patched product to begin with. It appears year after year EA and Madden are well aware they are putting out a game with either bugs or incomplete to where it becomes the norm to expect a patch to make the game play they way it is supposed to. At what point as consumers do we say this is unacceptable, it is like going to the hardware store buying a bucket with holes in it and then waiting for a month to receive patches to fix the bucket IMO this is ridiculous.

[FootballDetails]

Re: Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

I hope that this means they are building the patch with fixes in hopes to have it come out with Madden 09 on same day.

That's an interesting idea.

[ewto16]

Grass looks like *** in that picture with Bolden.

[o 99 PROBL3MS o]

Re: Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

Yea and whether one is a fan of 2k or not, this exclusive license is what allows this. We are still waiting on features that the 2k guys had in their game on the last generation of systems. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that one day we get what we want.

[King Gro23]

Re: Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

How Can it go gold when I seen clear cut bugs in the lastest celebration and Insider movies on ign. EX- The 2 yellow security guys that are on the left hash marks (or right) of the field during a play. The Insider video Jacksonville QB David Garrard #9 has 3 false start penalties in the game because of fake snapping. Idk I just dont get why you would not want to examine and go through a thorough inspection of your game with 7 solid weeks of developing time. ALSO with this going Gold now wont the rosters be from around Late May or possibly June1st-5th??/

[Solidice]

Re: Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

How Can it go gold when I seen clear cut bugs in the lastest celebration and Insider movies on ign. EX- The 2 yellow security guys that are on the left hash marks (or right) of the field during a play. The Insider video Jacksonville QB David Garrard #9 has 3 false start penalties in the game because of fake snapping. Idk I just dont get why you would not want to examine and go through a thorough inspection of your game with 7 solid weeks of developing time. ALSO with this going Gold now wont the rosters be from around Late May or possibly June1st-5th??/

IGN has an older build i would guess.

most games are "final" 1 1/2 to 2 months from release. its not anything new. Microsoft and Sony(I'm guessing nintendo is the same way) are very picky are their testing and take along time to do them.