Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

[LorenzoDC]

Quote: Originally Posted by DIESEL

I'm more interested in seeing what the guys who left end up doing. It's apparent EA has no interest in making major changes to the gameplay in Madden. I can't say that I blame them as they still sell a ton of games every year. I don't expect Ian to come out and burn bridges with EA, but hopefully he will talk to someone in the media about his experiences with Madden.

I'd be surprised of he sings off key, no matter what. On the one hand, he can be surly and snippy, but on the other, he's not going to give himself a rep as an employer's future PR pain in the ***.

He's one of the better known game developer personalities out there, for better or worse, but he's young and he won't go out of his way to blow up his career by ****ting on the place that gave him his biggest platform for career development and resume fodder.

[supermati]

Ian was one of a kind in regards to community interaction. Best of lucks!

[kjcheezhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by coogrfan

That's one theory. Imo it's simpler than that--this generation's Madden series was compromised from the outset. This was significant because it meant that the team responsible for developing the initial Madden 06 (360) (i.e. the basic code that would be the foundation for all of EA's next-gen football titles for years to come) had to do so with only limited knowledge of how the final 360 hardware actually worked. I'm not saying that MS's failure to deliver beta dev kits on schedule was the sole cause of all of the problems we've seen with EA's next-gen fb titles. There were some very questionable initial design choices made as well, decisions that repeatedly forced the development teams of the subsequent Madden's to spend a fair amount of their time trying to find workarounds for the mistakes made in the past. I am saying that this generation's Madden got off to a dreadful start, one from which the series has never fully recovered.

Well let's say it's both. While I agree with you that Madden got off to a rocky start when they rushed to deliver Madden 06 on a short cycle, they also had to make much higher payments to the NFL that same year which I believe cut into the development funds.

Also as people often point out, this game is not developed on 1 "engine". Every year they choose which ones of the multiple "engines" to rip out and redo. By the 5th development cycle (Madden 11) there should be almost no trace of the slapped together abomination that was Madden 06 code.

Some more reasons I believe my theory to be true:

1. EA now typically spends two or three times as much on marketing and advertising as it does on developing a game. A game like Madden has no comparable game like it and no alternative football game. This is simply funds that are being denied to the development team.

2.EA is a company that is unstable financially. I don't believe they see a benefit to dumping large amounts of money into Madden development. Football fans will purchase even if the game is subpar. A more practical approach is to get the gamers to pay additional funds for things like Madden moments and AFL packs. What EA is really out to do is increase the amount of casual gamers. They make the game quicker, simpler and more arcade to try to achieve that goal.

3. People always point out, the Madden series is improving but just not fast enough and lags behind the Show and NBA2k. Could it be that those games just have more funds for their developers to work with?

4.Ever noticed how the game improvements always seem half baked? For instance, they add Gus Johnson but he sounds broken and Chris calls him "Tom". Ian himself came on after 11 dropped and said they needed new equipment but spent the money for the sound budget securing the rights to the stadium songs we hear in Madden 11 instead. This tells me there are times when Ian is being shortchanged in his attempts to improve the game.

5.Those same stadium sounds were held out of Madden 10. Again, I don't believe this is Ian's fault. I think EA made a poor decision and chose to deny those things to us because they felt they already had enough improvments to sell Madden 10.



These types of business moves will tie the hands of any designer whether it is David Ortiz, Ian Cummings or some new replacement. That's why I don't believe Madden will see a major change if Ian leaves.

Sorry for the long post. If you got this far, thanks for reading.

[Afrikan]

I did not like the direction Ian was taking the series....I disagreed with cutting back the player models, field, lighting...and what ever to achieve "60fps"....even though the animations looked worse than the ones from 30fps.

there were alot of things I did not like about the series these past few years, compared to Madden 07.

that all being said, I still hope for the best for Ian Cummings and his new position.

on my end, I'm very excited for the future of Madden...and NFL Football gaming. IMO it can't get any worse....and if that is even possible, it would be interesting to follow.

[green94]

Quote: Originally Posted by ms24forever

Maybe he was typing with his elbows?!?

This is hilarious.

[xylocaine]

Madden has been controlled by the suits for a long time. My guess is Ian had ideas to make the game great but kept hitting the wall the suits put up.
Madden the game is not longer important to EA it's madden the revenue generator. They bought themselves a monopoly, then pump up the hype and advertising, then the remaining budget goes into development.

I wish Ian the best, 2K this is your time to shine. With EA being sued, and losing Ian and others, another FB game could come in and really shine.

[bigsmallwood]

Interesting news....So I wonder how long before Madden is fixed now....smh #GoodLuckIan

[Smoke6]

Part of me is upset, but hopefully we get someone in there with an "i dont give a you know what" mentality and just gives us what we been waiting for gameplay wise. Know one has hit it out of the park yet and I hope it comes soon. At this point now, all I am really hoping for is DLC in the form of there revamped ONLINE FRANCHISE and i will be content. Slap a $20 price Tag on it and call it a day and continue to give us an roster updates as usual.

Spend this extra year developing a great foundation and just keep building on it.