It's a double edge sword. The community wants fresh information, but if the presented doesn't meet expectations, torches and pitch forks are ready to come out.
It just kind of hit me now ... ... Broken promises leaves a bad taste ... Team Madden should probably keep quiet on 3 year plans until they have actually completed year 3 of the feature, and are fully working at 100%. Don't mention anything about true step, living worlds, more catch animation, passing inaccuracies, halftime shows, better run blocking schemes, better coverage, better awareness, organic multiple meaningful consecutive hit tackles, working penalties, a working challenge system, variable dynamic presentation, proper replay angles, etc. etc. etc.
Let the game speak for itself.
If a product is great, it'll speak for itself. Don't need to hold the gamers' hand and tell him or her what's great about it. Let the game speak for itself.
Pushing an idea still straddled in phase 1 or 2 will only stir up negative connotations. Telling us that X is in the game but is poorly implemented because it's still in infancy and "we're still working on it" leaves a very bad taste. Blow the gamer away when true step actually affects all 22 players. Blow the gamer away when a real legitimate immersive pre halftime and post game show is complete and follows a real broadcast. Blow us away when WR/DB interactions are golden. Blow us away when signature animation are captured properly. Blow us away when there are multiple styles at various positions. Blow us away when animations are fluid, organic and realistic.
Let the game speak for itself. Let the game blow us away when everything represents football and represents everything we see on network TV, NOT EA Madden football, NOT EA Madden TV. Just football and all it's glory.
The gamer shouldn't have to pick up a controller and "feel" the difference. It should be visually apparent immediately. Do we question if football is football when watching the NCAA and NFL football on our HDTV every week?
Here's a short 30 second NFL football clip. Do we need to see the entire game to know that it's football? Entire game footage should not make a difference. Side note: That replay angle is terrible by the way.