Madden NFL 11 News Post

Madden's Current Gen Has Not Been a Success

12:21 PM - February 7, 2011 by RaychelSnr

To say that the Madden series has been a success this console generation would be an overstatement of the decade.

Think back to the year 2004, a year that could be summed up as nothing short of a football gaming utopia. NFL 2K5 aside, EA's Madden 2005 set the bar for all successive iterations in the series. The game was the perfect blend of polished gameplay, solid presentation, and new and innovative features like defensive playmaker controls. Madden 05 had football gamers glued to their consoles for months to come.

Fast forward to 2006 when the now infamous Madden "next-gen" trailer was released, and the hype surrounding Madden's move to the Xbox 360 and PS3 was at a fever pitch.

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# 61 scores87 @ 02/10/11 11:24 PM

Although I am not a fan of the Art style madden on wii ain't bad since it uses the old engine

# 62 Hendrick4life @ 02/12/11 08:31 AM

Now many people can say that Madden has taken a EA Sports "NASCAR" Type turn, where the developers just got burned out releasing a game every year and only updating the rosters and race tracks.

Same thing here. The developers are releasing things to quickly. Take a year off, release a roster update every year and every two years a full game. What is so hard about that? It would save them money all while making the game more efficient. I see no problem with 'FREE' D.C.

While im not a Madden guy, I think that the company can do well with the game. Lets just hope competition comes back soon in the form of a former big football king.

# 63 roadman @ 02/12/11 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hendrick4life


	Now many people can say that Madden has taken a EA Sports "NASCAR" Type turn, where the developers just got burned out releasing a game every year and only updating the rosters and race tracks. Same thing here. The developers are releasing things to quickly. Take a year off, release a roster update every year and every two years a full game. What is so hard about that? It would save them money all while making the game more efficient. I see no problem with 'FREE' D.C. While im not a Madden guy, I think that the company can do well with the game. Lets just hope competition comes back soon in the form of a former big football king.

Only one thing wrong with that idea.

The NFL liscense demands a yearly release.

# 64 lordnate @ 02/12/11 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hendrick4life


	Now many people can say that Madden has taken a EA Sports "NASCAR" Type turn, where the developers just got burned out releasing a game every year and only updating the rosters and race tracks. Same thing here. The developers are releasing things to quickly. Take a year off, release a roster update every year and every two years a full game. What is so hard about that? It would save them money all while making the game more efficient. I see no problem with 'FREE' D.C. While im not a Madden guy, I think that the company can do well with the game. Lets just hope competition comes back soon in the form of a former big football king.

It wouldn't save them money, because they are now taking two years of production to make one game instead of one year of production to make one game. The only way it would even be neutral to the current set up, is if they charged $60 for the roster update.

Probably the best thing, would be if they weren't so hell bent on removing features from the game. If the feature is already in, keep it. If the feature is popular, expand it. If the feature is unpopular, add an option to turn it on/off in the options menu and default the feature to off.

Just look at these features that were all on next gen consoles. QB Vision, Lead Blocker Control, Play Maker Control (covers several features), and Player Weapons. Then look at older features. Play Creator, Custom Play Books, Bluff/Hide/Show Blitz, Man/Zone Align, Man Shading, Individual Coverage Adjustments, etc.

I didn't buy Madden 11, because Madden 10 seemed watered down to me and Madden 11 didn't offer anything different. I did play one of the my friends in a game of Madden 11 and to me it felt like a slightly polished version of Madden 10. Nothing was added that really changed how you play the game or what you could do within the game, unless you want to use Ask Madden 2.0 (aka Game Flow).

# 65 blklightning @ 02/12/11 05:38 PM

good article. and that's why i haven't bought madden in over 3 years.

# 66 andy82 @ 02/18/11 07:21 AM

People are forgetting that gameplay isn't the only problem (granted its a big problem). When you look at images of Madden, it looks fantastic, out of this world realistic. Once you see it moving, it's ugly, why? The animation is horrific, the running is hilarious, the tackling looks stupid, generally, robotic and awful, and to be brutally honest, I don't think there's another sports game on the "next gen" systems that has such painfully bad animation.

NBA Elite isn't the only EA Sports game that need another year of development, and with the looming lockout, this would be the perfect time for EA to step back and finally fix a game that has been broken over six editions. Obviously they won't, but we can live in hope...can't we?

# 67 carnalnirvana @ 02/18/11 08:29 AM

when i listen to the podcasts i get the feeling that the devs really believe that madden is the best sports game out

tech wise i see why they are really porud of the job they are doing,

football gameplay= they failed

tech= excellent job,

# 68 jesmith29 @ 02/21/11 04:54 PM

Remember when the tag line for EA was, "IF IT'S IN THE GAME, IT'S IN THE GAME!" Oh how I miss those days.

I hadn't played Madden since 06 and bought into the hype and demo for 2011. I adjust the sliders, but got really tired of having to tweek them after every patch. I've always wanted a better description on what exactly the sliders effect. Finally traded Madden in for PES 11.

I don't expect video games to be 100% like real life, but there are issues with Madden that are not addressed each year. I also agree with the post's that state Madden needs to figure out what kind of game it is. Arcade or Sim.

# 69 illwill10 @ 02/21/11 09:13 PM

IMO, I think current gen was more focused on Casual gamers. The main focus the last few years was online and features that make the game simpler.

# 70 bh446066 @ 02/22/11 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadman


	All I was pointing out to people that you just can't assume everyone has disposable income to throw around. No need to go to extremes. Different strokes for different folks.

I have to agree here. I have the extra money to throw down if I wanted to buy a second system, but with a family and kids, I would NEVER.....NEVER spend that $$ on a game console, much less so I could play just 1 game on it. I'm just glad when I bought one I chose the PS3 so I can enjoy The Show

# 71 Vikes1 @ 02/22/11 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flamehead


	I traded Madden '11 in last week toward another title. I've never traded Madden away this early and I'm not missing it at all. There are so many other great games coming out right now (both sports and otherwise) that I can't even keep up with them all.

I remember quite awhile ago, one of the Madden devs mentioned about actually having competition, by way of other games out there. Thinking back...the dev did imo, make a very valid point.

Like you said Flamehead...there are just so many great games to choose from, to spend your time [and money] on at this point. Like you...I too have chosen to spend my time playing a different title. I'm hoping that one day soon, Madden can be favorably compared to some of the best thought of sports games out now. The Show, NBA2K, FIFA, NHL, etc...

# 72 Hova57 @ 02/22/11 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by illwill10


	IMO, I think current gen was more focused on Casual gamers. The main focus the last few years was online and features that make the game simpler.

i don't think it was geared more than it was just a mash of ideas thrown on disk from previous developers. Now they are trying to go back to making improvement year by year, but the lack of true innovation and improvement to a point have set them back and now they are playing catch up from six years ago, couple that with cuts in staff . They are doing the best with limited resources.

the current restructing was a good idea this way titles can share tech and info instead of being their own entities and selfish with their tech and info to a point.

# 73 coogrfan @ 02/24/11 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andy82


	NBA Elite isn't the only EA Sports game that need another year of development, and with the looming lockout, this would be the perfect time for EA to step back and finally fix a game that has been broken over six editions. Obviously they won't, but we can live in hope...can't we?

It's not so much a case of "won't" as much as "can't". EA's deal with the NFL requires them to release a Madden title on the current gen systems every year. Failure to do so would result is EA facing some seriously stiff financial penalties.

# 74 coogrfan @ 02/24/11 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by awesomeo


	Madden has been junk ever since David Ortiz left. Madden 08 had a ton of problems, but at least it didn't have robo qb or anything of that other trash. Cummings and his team have put the madden franchise down the tubes.

There's always one in the crowd.

...

# 75 cree ross @ 02/25/11 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andy82


	People are forgetting that gameplay isn't the only problem (granted its a big problem). When you look at images of Madden, it looks fantastic, out of this world realistic. Once you see it moving, it's ugly, why? The animation is horrific, the running is hilarious, the tackling looks stupid, generally, robotic and awful, and to be brutally honest, I don't think there's another sports game on the "next gen" systems that has such painfully bad animation. NBA Elite isn't the only EA Sports game that need another year of development, and with the looming lockout, this would be the perfect time for EA to step back and finally fix a game that has been broken over six editions. Obviously they won't, but we can live in hope...can't we?

I totally agree

# 76 Footballfullback @ 03/03/11 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eski33


	Nice blog but this whole topic has been beaten to death. You didn't mention anything new that has not been said or written in the past five years. From my standpoint and a longtime gamer (have played every rendition of Madden since its Apple II days) Madden isn't a failure. To gamers, yes, the game has not lived up to a certain level of expectation especially on consoles that are to have more power. From an economic standpoint, people are still buying Madden. If Madden is so bad, how is it making so much money? Simple -- There are people out there who find the game fun. I am on the fence. When the 360 / PS3 era came about, my expectations mirrored everyone else's. I couldn't wait to see what EA would do with more graphical power and with consoles having HDD as a norm, EA was sure to break out all the stops. Instead, what we got was a stripped down game that didn't have nearly the features the PS2 / XBox versions had. Since that time, the Madden series improved little by little each year. Madden 09 and 10 were great games with Madden 10 taking visual leaps over its predecessor. The problem with Madden is that there are people want it to fail that they spend every waking moment looking for bugs, glitches, issues, etc. and blogging, writing in forums and recording videos that go straight to YouTube for all to see. I understand why people do this. They want competition back which is a great thing. In looking at what the NCAA 11 team did, this has to push the ante for the Madden team because NCAA 11, although not perfect, is one of the best console football games to date. It is visually pleasing as well as the online dynasty has to be one of the best multi-player features ever (outside of BAP in NHL). To compare Madden to a game like Backbreaker is almost criminal. First, to say a developer with fewer resources created a revolutionary physics engine is a tad slanted. Keep in mind that the developer of Back Breaker developed the physics engine first THEN creaeted a football game as a way to show it off. They aren't a football game developer who created a great physics engine. Also, your blog makes it seem as if they created this physics engine in one development cycle which isn't the case. NatualMotion was working on that physics engine for years and it took almost as long to release BackBreaker. I have no issues with the physics engine that is currently utilized in Madden and NCAA. Only those that cannot get past the simple fact that these are games and they will never fully emulate reality will continue to be "unhappy" with the state of Madden and other games.

Football games themselves are fun. And we can't say madden itself isn't because we don't know how it bears against other well made football games.

And isn't the whole point of this article about the gamers view? It isn't a success to the gamers and that's what matters to the consumers. Only EA cares about the sales, gamers want a well polished game. game that hasn't been polished since 2005=failure in our eyes and that's what matters to us. After all, this article wasn't written by an EA exec.

# 77 roadman @ 03/03/11 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by It Must Be The Shoes


	"We HAVE TO release a game every year or we'll be in trouble with the NFL" seems a little too self serving. EA has figured out how to push 4-6M units per year at $60.00 per unit sold regardless of the quality of their product. That's a whole lot of money. EA is going to release a game every year whether their contractual obligations require them to or not.

The cost of the liscense figues into cost, overhead, salaries, R & D, adverting, marketing, cost of making the game, etc.... You just can't take 4-6M units per year times $60.00 and come up with "that's a whole lot of $. That whole lot of money has been greatly reduced after all the costs.

# 78 SpeedyMikeWallace @ 03/03/11 04:58 PM

I'm sorry, but 5 million units sold @ $59.99 is nearly $300 million. I don't care what their costs are, they're making "a lot of $".

# 79 roadman @ 03/03/11 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpeedyMikeWallace


	I'm sorry, but 5 million units sold @ $59.99 is nearly $300 million. I don't care what their costs are, they're making "a lot of $".

You can't just dismiss cost and throw it away from the equation. That isn't the way business is run.

Then why is their stock so low on the market?

People have this impression that EA is making $ hand over fist, but according to their stock price, they aren't.

# 80 SpeedyMikeWallace @ 03/03/11 07:36 PM

When you're making $300 million annually off of a single title, you can pretty much count costs as negligible in the grand scheme of it. There's no possible way those kinds of sales are netting the title anywhere near negative. Even if they give 15% to the retailers and paid everyone that worked on the game $300,000, they'd still be making the kind of money most studios would dream of making.

Madden's success alone isn't going to make much a difference for the ENTIRE company. EA is a massive company with multiple studios and subsidiaries working under the Electronic Arts "umbrella". Madden isn't even their biggest sports title, FIFA is.

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