Madden 09 News Post

Madden NFL 09 Goes Gold

03:55 PM - June 25, 2008 by Steve_OS

EA have sent over a Press Release announcing that Madden 09 has "gone gold". What does this mean? Well traditionally it means that the game is ready to ship. In this case it is simply an excuse for EA to build some additional hype around the game. Given EA's tight development schedule and its planned ship date of early August, the game would currently be sitting with first party developers (Microsoft and Sony) as their internal test teams do their best to find as many compliance issues as possible. Its not ready to ship yet, but unless MS or Sony tell EA they must fix a bug, nothing else will be touched. The good news however is that the EA Producers have already made it clear that they want to patch the game sooner rather than later.

EA also sent over some new Madden 09 screenshots and some videos.

Madden NFL 09 screenshot gallery - Click to view

Game: Madden NFL 09Reader Score: 7/10 - Vote Now
Platform: NDS / PS2 / PS3 / PSP / Wii / Xbox 360Votes for game: 88 - View All

Madden NFL 09 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 texbuk84 @ 06/25/08 03:57 PM

this is great news. at least if some bugs are found in the game they will be able to get them out sooner than later which would lead to people not complaining so much(hopefully)

# 2 ewto16 @ 06/25/08 04:26 PM

Sigh.....it seems to me that EA should have spent an extra 3-4 weeks actually testing and finishing some things in the game, rather than going gold 7 weeks early. How does that benefit anyone??

Those that say they can patch stuff now, should realize that EA is SUPER slow about making and releasing patches and the patch process itself is probably about 2 months, due to having to get it certified by Sony and MS. If there was still stuff to fix, and I'm sure there is, it would have made much more sense to spend another month fixing it before going gold.

This just gives me another reason to complain when I play Madden and can see it was tested one time by one monkey that knows nothing about football, much like Madden 08 was.

It is impossible to argue that the game wouldn't have benefitted from another month of development/testing. No wonder EA always says "We didn't have time" when we wonder why something wasn't included in the game. They cut their own development cycle short by a month.

# 3 mastershake88 @ 06/25/08 04:33 PM

so if it go gold. when will this thing get shipped?

# 4 mastershake88 @ 06/25/08 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ewto16


	Sigh.....it seems to me that EA should have spent an extra 3-4 weeks actually testing and finishing some things in the game, rather than going gold 7 weeks early. How does that benefit anyone?? Those that say they can patch stuff now, should realize that EA is SUPER slow about making and releasing patches and the patch process itself is probably about 2 months, due to having to get it certified by Sony and MS. If there was still stuff to fix, and I'm sure there is, it would have made much more sense to spend another month fixing it before going gold. This just gives me another reason to complain when I play Madden and can see it was tested one time by one monkey that knows nothing about football, much like Madden 08 was. It is impossible to argue that the game wouldn't have benefitted from another month of development/testing. No wonder EA always says "We didn't have time" when we wonder why something wasn't included in the game. They cut their own development cycle short by a month.

my words exactly...all i have to say is prepare for the threads to come in the hours after the game...

# 5 thmst30 @ 06/25/08 04:35 PM

I'm guessing those screenshots are from a much older build. Because the Saints and Cowboys helmet logos are still oversized in those screens.

# 6 drlw322 @ 06/25/08 04:38 PM

it would be nice that they could've fixed the celebration before it going gold

# 7 kmart2180 @ 06/25/08 04:46 PM

I dont understand the whole month early thing. Why not keep working to make things better rather than have a game sitting in boxes with a month to go to release. To me it makes no sense in making the game final now. All this time could be spent fixing bugs, or searching for them.

I hope that this means they are building the patch with fixes in hopes to have it come out with Madden 09 on same day.

# 8 TVNation53 @ 06/25/08 04:50 PM

Why not put out a patched product to begin with. It appears year after year EA and Madden are well aware they are putting out a game with either bugs or incomplete to where it becomes the norm to expect a patch to make the game play they way it is supposed to. At what point as consumers do we say this is unacceptable, it is like going to the hardware store buying a bucket with holes in it and then waiting for a month to receive patches to fix the bucket IMO this is ridiculous.

# 9 ewto16 @ 06/25/08 05:00 PM

Grass looks like *** in that picture with Bolden.

# 10 o 99 PROBL3MS o @ 06/25/08 05:05 PM

Yea and whether one is a fan of 2k or not, this exclusive license is what allows this. We are still waiting on features that the 2k guys had in their game on the last generation of systems. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that one day we get what we want.

# 11 King Gro23 @ 06/25/08 05:19 PM

How Can it go gold when I seen clear cut bugs in the lastest celebration and Insider movies on ign. EX- The 2 yellow security guys that are on the left hash marks (or right) of the field during a play. The Insider video Jacksonville QB David Garrard #9 has 3 false start penalties in the game because of fake snapping. Idk I just dont get why you would not want to examine and go through a thorough inspection of your game with 7 solid weeks of developing time. ALSO with this going Gold now wont the rosters be from around Late May or possibly June1st-5th??/

# 12 Solidice @ 06/25/08 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by King Gro23


	How Can it go gold when I seen clear cut bugs in the lastest celebration and Insider movies on ign. EX- The 2 yellow security guys that are on the left hash marks (or right) of the field during a play. The Insider video Jacksonville QB David Garrard #9 has 3 false start penalties in the game because of fake snapping. Idk I just dont get why you would not want to examine and go through a thorough inspection of your game with 7 solid weeks of developing time. ALSO with this going Gold now wont the rosters be from around Late May or possibly June1st-5th??/

IGN has an older build i would guess.

most games are "final" 1 1/2 to 2 months from release. its not anything new. Microsoft and Sony(I'm guessing nintendo is the same way) are very picky are their testing and take along time to do them.

# 13 ewto16 @ 06/25/08 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solidice


	IGN has an older build i would guess. most games are "final" 1 1/2 to 2 months from release. its not anything new. Microsoft and Sony(I'm guessing nintendo is the same way) are very picky are their testing and take along time to do them.

Not true in any way. Most games go gold like 2 weeks before they are released. MS and Sony just test to make sure it doesn't break the console and meets their standards for Live and PSN.

# 14 Solidice @ 06/25/08 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ewto16


	Not true in any way. Most games go gold like 2 weeks before they are released. MS and Sony just test to make sure it doesn't break the console and meets their standards for Live and PSN.

the difference is most companies don't announce anything until after the certs have been done and a few weeks before release.

if Ea did it different this year, than thats that, but most games are wrapped or near wrapped up around 2 months before release.

# 15 PAPERNUT @ 06/25/08 05:36 PM

Not sure how I feel on this now, but if we see bugs like the turnover issue we had last year or something else that completely ruins the game, we may look back on this and wonder why nothing was done with this time. They may have a plan as well with the updates and such, so only time will tell I guess.

# 16 yamabushi @ 06/25/08 05:36 PM

Shipping with bugs and glitches, and in need of a patch.....
Was anyone, seriously, expecting anything else?

# 17 Solidice @ 06/25/08 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yamabushi


	Shipping with bugs and glitches, and in need of a patch..... Was anyone, seriously, expecting anything else?

nope.

you pretty much summed up every game that has been made by any company.

# 18 pastapadre @ 06/25/08 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yamabushi


	Shipping with bugs and glitches, and in need of a patch..... Was anyone, seriously, expecting anything else?

You expected a game to ship without any glitches? That will never happen. And while the game will get patch (or a few of them) nothing has been identified that makes the game in "need of a patch". So far it is only things that will improve the game.

It is definitely curious though the announcement was made now, it doesn't make much sense to me for a number of reasons.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solidice


	the difference is most companies don't announce anything until after the certs have been done and a few weeks before release. if Ea did it different this year, than thats that, but most games are wrapped or near wrapped up around 2 months before release.

Yeah exactly. But what this announcement is saying is that the game has gotten through certification already and is set to be mass produced. Either that, or they've now got a different definition of what going gold means.

I'm attempting to get some form of clarification soon.

# 19 King Gro23 @ 06/25/08 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solidice


	the difference is most companies don't announce anything until after the certs have been done and a few weeks before release. if Ea did it different this year, than thats that, but most games are wrapped or near wrapped up around 2 months before release.

Thinking about the whole situation that makes that most sense, cuz if you go gold 2 weeks prior then cert it would be uncertified on release

# 20 Phobia @ 06/25/08 05:51 PM

I sure hope those pics are old build because like stated before the cowboys logo is for sure to big. I could not tell about the saints logo but this does not look good to send out old build pics. Why not send out finial build pics????

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