In Madden's case though, the wheel is uneven with tons of holes in it and pretty much needs to be reinvented.
That seems to be the problem. I could be wrong, but from what I gathered in the past, the Madden team doesnt really start working on the next years Madden until 3 months or so after the previous game is released. So if they start working on it in November, and they are basically done by mid March, thats only 4 1/2 months that the game is really being worked on in terms of new additions and major changes, and with a game like Madden who has so many issues...thats not much time at all.
Like I said...that could be wrong....just swore I heard someone from EA they started around November or so.
In the end though, this year could be the year that tells me whether or not Ill ever buy Madden again. So many promises made over the last 2 years. Last year EA blew it....if they do it again, I will never buy another EA product again (aside from things created by BioWare, which are actually good).