EA's Next-Gen Plans Start With a Dangerous Beginning - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

EA's Next-Gen Plans Start With a Dangerous Beginning Stuck

Posted on May 22, 2013 at 10:25 AM.

(17)

We all remember the magic Madden movie which set this entire generation of Madden up for failure -- that pre-rendered trailer set graphical and gameplay expectations so high, it ended up being a generation ahead of its time.

In essence, the next-generation of Madden in that 2005 trailer was actually the next-next generation of Madden.

To quote a famous pop artist (loosely), "Oops, they did it again."

The Ignite Engine Trailer which was debuted yesterday featured target renders and not actual gameplay footage, a fact not surprising at all but also somewhat puzzling. Surely EA knew that they had led themselves down this road before right? Surely EA knows that a lot of the ire on Madden is simply about what many consumers feel are broken promises and unreachable expectations created at the dawn of the prior console generation, right?

It is quite likely that Madden, FIFA, NBA Live, and UFC will look very similar to what the Ignite Engine trailer managed to show off yesterday, as most of what we have saw from next-gen consoles does tend to indicate that type of visual fidelity is likely coming -- we even saw what looked to be familiar animation stiffness within the video.

It's doubtful EA has flubbed up on the scale that they did with Madden's launch on the 360 -- as the graphics do seem very feasible in most every way, but they have once again created hype off of a trailer which may not fully represent the product they eventually ship.

This is a problem for EA, for consumers, and for everyone. The criticism will be defeaning if the new Madden on next-gen consoles is incomplete in any way and if the Ignite Engine fails to, well you know, ignite the Madden fan base.

The good news is, we will have actual gameplay to digest at E3 in just a couple of weeks, so until then let the speculation wander.

What did you think of the Ignite Trailer?

Comments

# 1 believeinnow @ May 22

If we haven't already learned that we shouldn't trust Trailers, than it's clearly shame on us. Thankfully though, EA has stated up-front that the in-game action was pre-rendered, so there are no surprises. The key should be those three vignettes they released which actually shows the technical side of things. There are some really interesting things in store.

The biggest facet is that all EA SPORTS games will be made using the same engine. That is crazy and awesome! If they can use that to build team and individual sports, it opens the door to so many cool things.

2K has never been whiling to talk about their engine for NBA 2K and/or MLB 2K and PES uses the Fox Engine, which was build for Metal Gear, so this is huge. I can't wait until NHL uses it for 15.

# 2 phantomremix @ May 22

I thought the graphics looked a bit cartoon for all NBA, FIFA, Madden and UFC. look at the trailer again or the screen shots. The game play was ridiculous though. I liked that they talked about feeling more emotion in the game and the sidelines being more a live. Those are huge things. I personally think, improve the lighting a bit, improve the textures of the stadiums, the crowd and the sideline personnel and focus on game play, game play, game play. I remember Madden on Xbox having so many options and Madden 25 are JUST now getting some of those options. I hope they don't start from scratch again and giving us a bare bones game that is barely playable...

# 3 onac22 @ May 22

NO NHL no sale.

# 4 The_Wise_One @ May 22

At least the last generation Madden video looked good. This looked terrible. Stadiums and crowds looked awesome but the movement was just silly. Uhhh I fear the worst.

# 5 SmittyD81 @ May 22

Bottom line, we need to see this game run in real time to make any REAL guestimations of what the game may look like. We'll more than likely see more at E3, so I take the trailer with a grain of salt.

# 6 RogueHominid @ May 22

One thing I thought was funny was that the RT/LDE/LOLB instant-whip animation was still in the rendered trailer. On the whole, I wasn't really blown away by the images for Madden. I like the FIFA and NBA images better.

# 7 Reed1417 @ May 22

When I saw it I was like "Nope" I remember that first 360 trailer too well to even get hyped off this one. I need to see it run on the actual systems first.

# 8 CubFan23 @ May 22

So tired of the EA smoke and mirrors show! Show us some actual gameplay.

# 9 inkcil @ May 22

Bottom line is that EA offered this trailer up. We didn't ask for this, we want to see gameplay. So the question is, then why did they offer this up? The answer is simple: to hype up the game and get us excited. But if the trailer is not exciting, then yes, there will be criticism, and rightfully so.

# 10 Feldman011teen @ May 22

If we get shafted on game modes, EA should cash it in.

# 11 wallofhate @ May 22

I'm skeptical on the fact that they will show actual footage at e3. The reason I say that is this cgi trailer they showed I figured was a down the road look on how (when they finally harness all is power of these next gen systems) will look like. I would be totally blown away if the 1st iteration right out the box looks anywhere close to that. Even the call of duty ghost wasn't a monumental jump in graphics imo. Side by side comparison definitely showed a difference but it wasn't like night and day as this trailer is compared to the Madden of old. I have a wish that I'm wrong but I'm not getting my hopes up

# 12 TjJunior @ May 23

They do this for every console release, whats new? Lets not forget EA Sports 2000 cyberathletes!

# 13 sooperb @ May 23

I just had a big argument about this yesterday that those vids were NOT how the product will look. I had to show him that Madden 06 trailer which was basically a flat out lie.

# 14 Sandhu246 @ May 24

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I just saw the other trailers for Madden 25 with some gameplay and it looks the exact same as Madden 13 from what I saw.