[ianlast]

So the consensus seems to be that the Madden name still carries alot of brand name recognition and product awareness.

I dunno, lately I've been questioning the whole idea of brand name recognition, especially in a relatively niche market like NFL football video games. I just figured people recognized EA as the only developer of these games, and thus would buy whatever they churned out (regardless of its name). Maybe what I've neglected is that people don't recognize it so much as 'EA's product' as they recognize it as 'the newest Madden'.