You see nothing wrong with EA violating their own mission statement of 'if you see it on Sunday'? You see nothing wrong with Ads that have absolutely nothing to do with the game?

Other games present Ads as part of the game, to enhance the gaming experience by representing Ads you'd see in the game or during it's presentation. These Ads are typically displayed on a banner or a billboard, or the score during quarters / halves, or when displaying stats. Madden did not adhere to any of these valid mechanisms for utilizing Ads in a game. Worse, they through it on there in a place that distracts gamers from the game, ruining the experience.

Immersion is completely lost when a popup Ad that has absolutely nothing to do with the game breaks their eye contact with the rest of the game. It's the absolutely worst use of in game Ads ever in a game.

I see this is a blatant: "we don't give a **** about your experience, we're 100% just in it for the money"

Of course they're a company trying to make $'s, but IMO this will result in more $'s in lost sales than it makes them in advertising revenue.

Have they missed the last 10 years where everybody on the internet agreed popup ads are annoying as all hell? (and just NOT effective?)

Exactly rondoman. I'm not opposed to Ads when they are used as we see them in a game such as on stat displays, or on banners on the side of the stadiums. These are realistic and fit well with the game and the presentation we are used to seeing. The popup Ad doesn't enhance the gaming experience, it detracts from it, and if you read the posts on this forum and others, it down right angers many gamers.

completly disagree. Not only are they not that big of a deal, but its obvious that you have a vendetta against EA. I do agree with you that the ads don't really have much to do with the game and could be incorporated better, however youre just ranting about a small ad that means nothing, and in no way whatsoever gets in the way of game play. Just trade the game in. Madden made its biggest improvements this year, and i hope much of what is in maddens gameplay comes to NCAA11. your taking it way too personal bro.

Hey geezmeister, I fail to see how expressing my frustration with the popup Ad conveys a vendetta against EA. I am a little confused though. You say you completely disagree, and then you say you agree the Ads could be incorporated better.

Let me ask you this - if I trade the game in, what is my other choice for a NFL game? I appreciate the suggestion, but trading the game in simply isn't a possibility if I want to play a NFL game. I have only one choice, and that's Madden. That's why EA has such a huge responsibility to the gamers, and resolving big issues such as the Overlay Ads. You can say it's not a big deal, but it truly is a huge issue for a LOT of gamers, just search the web for it or even visit other forums and you'll see thread after thread complaining about it. As the ONLY option for NFL gaming, EA really needs to put their gamers first and address this issue for them.

its one box dude, it pops up on occasion for a few seconds man.. most of the time i dont even notice. but why are we B & M'in about this? i mean if its a way to add additional money to their pockets, so be it. this is a game to make MONEY folks.. the more the better. and if they feel that this is a way to do it, then whateva.. and besides, what ad has anything to do with the sport really, except to advertise tickets and official crap? madden is a captive audience of over 100 million folks. then you multiply it by the ones that are playing their buddies, online, the folks watching their buddies, millions of folks captured for at least 20 minutes.. advertising gold!! and all you do is slip a small box ad every so often? now if you had a vehicle with this kind of resource.. wouldn't you sell ads?

Again, you're missing the point Computalover, it's not the fact that they are selling Ads, it's how the Ad was employed. Yes, I would sell Ads, and do everything I could to capitalize on it, but I would also do it in a manner that enhances the experience, not detracts from it, and I certainly wouldn't violate the mission statement for the game 'if you see it on Sunday'.

To be honest, EA's entire marketing strategy for Ads is flawed. They need to move towards getting users to go online. That means providing viable web based content, and then selling Ads there. Why? Because the payout on a clickthrough is literally worth hundreds of thousands of impression Ads. This is where I look at their Product Managers and wonder if they truly understand their space.

Not true at all shigogouhou. Ads should only be added to 'enhance' the gaming experience, not for the sake of simply introducing Ads into the game (this is true for all games, not just Madden). Does a commercial make the game more authentic from a visual standpoint? I don't think so, not at all. I'm not seeing commercials if I'm at the game. However, I do see the banners on the field, on the stadium in various places, and many times on the scoreboards. And even from a broadcast standpoint, commercials are not part of the NFL presentation, but part of the stations programming. I'm fairly certain Madden is attempting to represent a NFL game, not a televisions programming itenerary.

What no one seems to notice is that there is a glitch with some of the ads which brings them up EVERY SINGLE TIME the banner appears. And I don't mean an different ad every time; it's the SAME AD over and over. Now, I don't like the ads, but I could live with them if they would only come up, say, once per possession. And as long as the ad would change each time, that'd be tolerable. But that's not the case right now. I realize not everyone had come across this glitch, which is why those people don't see the big deal about the in-game ads. But trust me, no matter how much the ads don't bother you, anyone would get tired of seeing the same ad over and over and over and over. If they could just patch this problem, all would be well.

I didn't realize them popping up every single time was a glitch. I just figured that's the way they work. That's what's happening when I play the game. When an Ad starts popping up, it shows up every single play for the entire game, no matter what. Only way to stop it is to exit the game and go back to the Dashboard and start the game up again, praying they won't rear their ugly head again.

Granted, I'm assuming it's a glitch, since it doesn't seem to happen with every ad; just with most of them. Most notable: I had the Twix ad come up 37 straight downs before I had to turn the game off and start again. I also had the Grilled KFC ad come up for 28 downs before I stopped the game. But get this; just last week, I played an entire game (5 min. quarters) and had only three ads come up the whole game--each one different. I thought the problem was fixed, right? Nope! Went back the next day, had a Samsung ad pop up 18 straight downs before I had to stop. So, it's gotta be a glitch....doesn't it?

@shigogouhou: If we're going by the "if it's on Sundays" thing, I don't remember seeing pop up ads on the score banners. I watched all the games this Thanksgiving. Not once did I see an a pop-up ad.

That said, for some reason, I don't have this problem. No idea why, maybe it's because PS3 works differently (the photo looks like X360, so I'm assuming that's the platform the OP is on), but I can count on one hand the number of times this has happened.

I don't disconnect my PS3 or cancel connecting to EA's servers.

I put the banners on Minimal (Visual Feedback options) and that might have done it. I always have it set to that, and when I make a new profile, I make sure to set it, so maybe that's it.

It is annoying when it happened - in fact, that's how I found that someone did the Minimal thing. It annoyed me so I went searching for ways around it.

EA needs to stick to ads like Sprint Drive Summary and what not. Those happen on Sunday during game broadcasts. Put them in the stadiums as well as that's part of the environment of the game. Just do away with the popups.

Exactly KBLover, the Sprint Ad is a good example of an Ad well placed, that adds to the experience. That popup Ad though, just ruins it. Others have reported that it's a bug when it starts popping up on every play. Unfortunately when I'm logged in, that seems to be par for the course. When the Ad shows up, it's on each and every single play.