Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

[jpdavis82]

This was a very interesting quote by Rex Dickson Creative Gameplay Designer for Madden 25, today in his podcast with Rich Grisham.

Rex said one of the main misunderstandings about the dev process, is they do not get the direction from executives. They come in for reviews and review the software. Not one time did one of the execs come in and tell them "I want you to do this." It doesn't come from marketing either, the marketing and PR dept doesn't come in and tell them to do something because it will sell to the masses. It comes from the millions of gamers, community forums, game changer program, etc.... Rex addressed the Madden team being lazy, said it couldn't be further from the truth, team is committed to doing whatever it takes to get it done. Understands they are under scrutiny due to the exclusive license. Realizes it's going to take another year or two to get where they want to go. Wants to encourage people to look at the direction of this franchise since Cam Weber came here. New leadership team, new direction. Rex said it will be another year or two before we get this fully turned around. Look at the gameplay improvements this year and last year, trying to cover legacy issues, double down and focus on gameplay, while they also cover new features and new innovations like the IE last year. Hope to keep seeing a improvement in Metacritic rating, want to be a 90+ rated title every year.

[Skyboxer]

I thought I seen in one of the new posts today that they took something to the marketing dept "for approval" ....
or did I misread that?

Edit:
Found it.....from your cliff notes post

"Run Free was not originally going to be a big feature until Victor Lugo got with Rex and Cam about having precision modifier tied to it. They took it before the marketing team and they approved the feature."

[splff3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

This was a very interesting quote by Rex Dickson Creative Gameplay Designer for Madden 25, today in his podcast with Rich Grisham. Rex said one of the main misunderstandings about the dev process, is they do not get the direction from executives. They come in for reviews and review the software. Not one time did one of the execs come in and tell them "I want you to do this." It doesn't come from marketing either, the marketing and PR dept doesn't come in and tell them to do something because it will sell to the masses. It comes from the millions of gamers, community forums, game changer program, etc.... Rex addressed the Madden team being lazy, said it couldn't be further from the truth, team is committed to doing whatever it takes to get it done. Understands they are under scrutiny due to the exclusive license.

Sorry JP, but I don't believe this for one minute. For one, several devs have used the phrase "get approval from marketing" when discussing and implementing features over the years. I always understood why they would need approval from marketing for discussing features, but I never understood why they needed approval for implementing features ........... until one dev cleared it up. I think it was Ian or someone like that back when the devs were on the site. I'll try to find the post. Until I do tho, they pretty much said they have to look at how they can/will market a feature before it's implemented. I know for a fact Ian said a feature or two was scrapped for marketing reasons. All this was awhile ago so it's a daunting task to go back and find all of this stuff, but if there is someone else that has been around for awhile I'm sure they can attest to this.

As for the execs, my boy AJ pretty much said their input ruins the game. I've known AJ (on the internet) for a long time and see no reason why he'd lied about this. Honestly tho, I could care less about marketing and/or the execs influence as long as Madden is a good game when it's released.

[Sheen_O_Mack]

Quote: Originally Posted by Skyboxer

I thought I seen in one of the new posts today that they took something to the marketing dept "for approval" .... or did I misread that? Edit: Found it.....from your cliff notes post "Run Free was not originally going to be a big feature until Victor Lugo got with Rex and Cam about having precision modifier tied to it. They took it before the marketing team and they approved the feature."

Both quotes seem to contradict each other, but it could have meant to be that the marketing team approved of it to use as the back of the box feature not that they approved of it to be in the game (which I would assume a marketing team would have no say in what goes in the game).

At least I'm hoping that it was the previous dev team that was the issue and not the executives at EA.

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sheen_O_Mack

Both quotes seem to contradict each other, but it could have meant to be that the marketing team approved of it to use as the back of the box feature not that they approved of it to be in the game (which I would assume a marketing team would have no say in what goes in the game). At least I'm hoping that it was the previous dev team that was the issue and not the executives at EA.

That's exactly it. The executives Francis whatever his name is and Andrew Wilson, are the ones Rex said never told them what to put in the game. This could be as simple as John Ricitello may have told the devs what to put in the game and the new guy Francis isn't doing that. Taking the feature before marketing he said was about them supporting it as a main feature. He never talked about taking the new blocking it infinity 2 before them. It's all part of the process, bottom line, if you believe Rex, they aren't being told what to put in the game anymore.

[kehlis]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

That's exactly it. The executives Francis whatever his name is and Andrew Wilson, are the ones Rex said never told them what to put in the game. This could be as simple as John Ricitello may have told the devs what to put in the game and the new guy Francis isn't doing that. Taking the feature before marketing he said was about them supporting it as a main feature. He never talked about taking the new blocking it infinity 2 before them. It's all part of the process, bottom line, if you believe Rex, they aren't being told what to put in the game anymore.

This is the FIRST time we've heard any indication that this is true in how many years???

I'll go with what we've heard over the past 10 years and to be quite frank, the angle that makes more sense than anything else.

[Sheen_O_Mack]

Quote: Originally Posted by kehlis

This is the FIRST time we've heard any indication that this is true in how many years??? I'll go with what we've heard over the past 10 years and to be quite frank, the angle that makes more sense than anything else.

You're still going with it even though there has been a recent change in leadership?

Don't get me wrong with Maddens past everyone has every right to be skeptical, but I'll judge Cam and these guys on the product that is on the shelves and not based on what was done before they took over.

[kehlis]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sheen_O_Mack

You're still going with it even though there has been a recent change in leadership? Don't get me wrong with Maddens past everyone has every right to be skeptical, but I'll judge Cam and these guys on the product that is on the shelves and not based on what was done before they took over.

Yes I am, my apologies.