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Madden 09 News Post

Well as I post this it’s officially been exactly two weeks since Madden officially launched, and wow it sure has been a busy time for us. I truly hope everyone is enjoying the game, and I wanted to drop an update on some things we’ve been working on for our 2nd patch. We feel that without a doubt this encapsulates the top issues we’re hearing from the forums and community leaders, and hope that this list truly makes Madden NFL 09 the ultimate sports game for you.
  1. Kicking play disconnect: If two opponents play a game with two different camera angles, in any situation where a game winning or tying kick was to be made, a disconnect could occur. “ActionCam” forces the game to go into slow-motion to add drama to these late kicks, but unfortunately the Classic camera does not, thus forcing the “disconnect”. This has been fixed…and FYI all cameras will still be able to be used after the patch.
    Workaround until the patch: If possible, ensure that you and your opponent have the same camera type chosen before starting an online game.
  2. Stability issues in the play call / halftime highlights / postgame highlights screens (especially in Franchise mode after training games): This was a hard one to track down as not everyone was seeing it , we did find the issue however with some Instant Replay / cache corruption, and have a fix ready for patch 2.
    Workaround until the patch: Save and re-boot after any point where you have entered the game. We learned that the likelihood of this issue appearing is magnified after multiple loads into and out of the game engine. From what we’ve seen so far, people that have tried playing only one game at a time (or even one Franchise training session at a time), and saving/rebooting afterwards, have had zero crashes.
  3. Stability issues with Madden IQ end of game popup: This has been fixed.
    Workaround until the patch: Always choose “No” at the Madden IQ end of game popup.
  4. “WR direct snap” exploit: Cheesers found an exploit to direct snap to a WR for easy short yardage gain. Not only are we fixing this play (i.e. we aren’t removing it), we are also going to be re-setting records for anyone with a winning record that has been found to be using this play.
  5. Franchise Progression / Regression (or lack thereof): The lack of higher numbers was a tuning value that I think everyone agreed was just too low. This has been juiced up so you should see more realistic progression now.
  6. Edited players don’t progress: Players were not progressing after their jersey number (or pretty much any other attribute) was edited. This has been fixed.
  7. Stability issue when exiting Madden ’93 in CE version: This has been fixed.
  8. Deep ball glitch: Some enterprising gamers found a way to throw a deep ball while crossing the LOS and hit a receiver wide open at a decent rate. We addressed this by making sure the DB will no longer break on the ball when the QB crosses the line while throwing.
  9. CPU running out of bounds: This bug appears when the CPU tries to switch hands while running to the sidelines. This is fixed for patch 2.
  10. Penalty sliders ineffective: A common complaint from the hardcore community was the lack of effect from the penalty sliders. We increased these substantially for patch 2.
  11. Field degradation: Another common complaint was the lack of field degradation. Our effect was very subtle, which was also getting overshadowed by our lighting and post effects, so we increased this effect for the patch.
  12. Stability issue with the Eagles and a full ring meter: We found and fixed a rare issue where the gamer could run into stability issues while using the Eagles in mini-games with a ring meter that was completely full.
  13. Play call screen hitch: We found and fixed a bug that was causing a noticeable hitch when exiting the play call screen
  14. Prevent Defense issue: We found and fixed an issue where defenders sharing a deep zone/prevent assignment would loosen their coverage (because they thought the other guy was covering for them), which allowed the receiver to get behind them even though they were in Prevent.
  15. Brett Favre stats: With the late addition of Brett Favre, we were not able to get his Career and Season statistics into the game for the roster update. This has now been added for patch 2.
  16. Defensive Preplay Mis-cue: We found and fixed an issue where defenders would leave their man wide open in a Cover 3.
  17. CPU quick-snap: A very common complaint on the forums was the speed at which the CPU snapped the ball. We added a random length of time (no less than 5 seconds) for the CPU to wait and even make pre-play adjustments.
  18. Online playbook switch: We fixed a small annoying little issue where playbooks were re-setting to the defaults after the playbook select popup was closed.
I hope this makes everyone quite happy. :-)

The patch is being tested as I write this and will be sent off for verification in the morning, so we are targeting less than a 3 week turnaround from today for this to hit the general public. (Woohoo!) We will also make sure to provide updates as the patch progresses through the 3rd party approval process. As a side note, as of this moment there have been no changes to database schema, so you won’t have to re-start your Franchise or delete any files.

It makes us very stoked to be able to make this many changes for a patch, and do them based directly on community feedback. There are always going to be folks that are upset if what they felt was a top issue wasn’t addressed, but I’ll state again (as I have before) that we have to keep balancing this work against Madden NFL 2010. The longer we keep going on patches, the less we can add to the following year’s product. On a side note, there is also a Franchise stability issue that we have been investigating, and we are working feverishly to get this figured out. We will update on that issue as soon as we can. As for the items above, I personally feel that we have hit a very good balance of top items because many of these issues can actually detract from an enjoyable experience, which is obviously the last thing we want.

And now that this patch is nearly out the door, I figured I’d drop some more good news… We have officially started building the TOTALLY FREE “Sim Madden Gamer” DLC pack, which includes Accelerated Clock, a “Classic” Controller Configuration, CPU Sliders, and Community Gamerpics for 360. I’ll state again that there’s no promise that this goes through, but we have nearly every one of these features actually ‘done’ internally, so now we have to figure out how to get Microsoft and Sony to allow us to release them.

Thanks everyone – keep the feedback coming, and let's keep this train a-rollin'!

Ian Cummings
Senior Designer, Madden NFL 2010

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
# 381 Behindshadows @ 08/30/08 08:43 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by boooey
yup.. agreed.. and we shall see what happens in a few months if those claiming to have no issues start freezing up all over the place.

I just love how people only think about themselves, and not the broader problem here..
I tried not to say anything 4 pages ago, but seriously how many times do you have to mention freezing, I mean seriously we get it. Your game is freezing....sorry to hear that ...clear the cache or exchange your copy.

Majority of use aren't having that problem, other issues yes. But none that makes the game unplayable. Even the kids on the 2ksports boards don't spam up the threads with the same whine over and over again, when 2k5 had all those issues with it, and a patch took 2 months to come out.

Seriously the patch is coming out, be patient and please stop posting about this freezing crap. Its not going to discourage other people. You act like you just want some one to jump in with the same issue so they can keep posting about it.

IAN made very clear what the patch will contain, so lets wait a couple of more weeks and see what happens.

Thanks.

The mod just elaborated on maturity and about posting the same mess over and over again.


To everyone expecting a perfect game every year, it will never happen, and it hasn't happened on no game that's out yet. Every game has bugs and always will, programming is complicated. And unless some of you can do better and are in these developers shoes, give them a break. They have deadlines just like any other business.

Whether it be Sony, Nintendo, 2k or EA no one has showed me a perfect game with no bugs yet.

Thank God we can patch games this day and age. And also be thankful they even have the decency to patch these games instead of leaving these issues lingering.

Peace.
 
# 382 Lunchbox @ 08/30/08 08:57 PM
Sweet.

Now I can fix the player equipment that is annoying me and they'll still progress.
 
# 383 Skyyplum @ 08/30/08 09:09 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluengold34
I can honestly say as a Mod, I do not look for anyone to kiss EA's backside or any other other developer's backside. I only ask is that they are treated with respect. The same exact respect that we ask for the developer's of The Show in that forum.

By the way, it's the same exact respect that I also ask you to show your fellow posters, and that you get in return. I simply ask that if you have a problem, you handle it with dignity and maturity........and that seems to be a big problem a lot of the time.

The majority of the people who complain about this board being "EA friendly" are the same one's that post " Man, I got !@#$% out of my money, man EA is a piece of a !@#$%#.

Seriously, what does that bring to the conversation, if you have a problem that hasn't been mentioned before, mention it. If you have a gripe, let it be known. All we ask is that you keep it in the proper forums and that there are not a 1000 of the same post's with their own threads.

One final comment..............this board isn't EA friendly, 2k friendly, or Sony friendly. It's simply a site that ask you to be respectful and mature with your post and the way you treat people. If you have a problem with that, or can't conduct yourself in that matter......then please, don't be here.


So, you want myself and others to show respect to developers of a company that thinks so high of themselves and doesn't care about its customers? I hate stooping down to their level but after multiple calls to EA's customer support, and questions on the EA forums getting nowhere I get really upset as I'm sure any fellow level headed highly educated human being would.

Since next gen consoles have come out EA hasn't given us a fully working Madden game yet. Last year they had franchise freezing issues, and they never fixed them. How can a company get away with selling something that only works half the time? Plus even after multiple bbb complaints EA still denies some of the issues that have been posted by many. For example, a week after I filed a bbb complaint EA emailed me telling me that I was the first one to report an issue with franchise issue, WHAT? If thats not lying, I don't know what is.

You say this board is not friendly to any developers but you stick up for them when customers show their disappointment, how is that not being friendly. Maybe if some mods showed these companies some attitude once in a while maybe they would change the way they do things. Maybe your one of the lucky ones that got a copy of Madden that doesn't freeze when you try to play 2 games in a row in franchise, or doesn't disconnect you from an online game frequently causing a high dnf % and the best part about that is EA has said they are looking into punish players with a high dnf %, wtf? A majority of the dnf is caused by their horrible servers and were gonna get punished because of that?

Its not a matter of respect and disrespect, its a matter of right and wrong and EA is very wrong and anyone sticking up for them isn't seeing the horrible business ethics of EA.
 
# 384 Millennium @ 08/30/08 09:34 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyyplum
So, you want myself and others to show respect to developers of a company that thinks so high of themselves and doesn't care about its customers? I hate stooping down to their level but after multiple calls to EA's customer support, and questions on the EA forums getting nowhere I get really upset as I'm sure any fellow level headed highly educated human being would.

Since next gen consoles have come out EA hasn't given us a fully working Madden game yet. Last year they had franchise freezing issues, and they never fixed them. How can a company get away with selling something that only works half the time? Plus even after multiple bbb complaints EA still denies some of the issues that have been posted by many. For example, a week after I filed a bbb complaint EA emailed me telling me that I was the first one to report an issue with franchise issue, WHAT? If thats not lying, I don't know what is.

You say this board is not friendly to any developers but you stick up for them when customers show their disappointment, how is that not being friendly. Maybe if some mods showed these companies some attitude once in a while maybe they would change the way they do things. Maybe your one of the lucky ones that got a copy of Madden that doesn't freeze when you try to play 2 games in a row in franchise, or doesn't disconnect you from an online game frequently causing a high dnf % and the best part about that is EA has said they are looking into punish players with a high dnf %, wtf? A majority of the dnf is caused by their horrible servers and were gonna get punished because of that?

Its not a matter of respect and disrespect, its a matter of right and wrong and EA is very wrong and anyone sticking up for them isn't seeing the horrible business ethics of EA.
Alright, a couple of things:

1 - We do not sit back and watch game developers get bashed. Whether they are EA, SCEA, 2K, any of them. You stated your opinion, it only needs to be put out there once.

2 - These developers are on this site to make their game better based off the feedback from this community. Say what you want, but I can see where they post from. The majority of the time they are not posting from work, but from other locations. That is on their own time. They care about their games, and some of the main things they are putting into the patches are direct results of community interactions.

3 - You have stated your opinion. Let it go. You can give constructive criticism regarding some of the issues, but this is your warning to drop your agenda. Any further bashing without some kind of backing will result in the loss of access to ALL EA forums for you.

Now, for everyone. Back on the topic of the patch.
 
# 385 Skyyplum @ 08/30/08 10:19 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guillotine 1
Look, I don't think anyone here is looking for a perfect game. I think we are all mature enough to understand that is unrealistic. However, what we are getting tired of asking for is a game that does not ship broken and needing to be patched.

Think about this, if you met me for the first time and I showed up with a bunch of patches all over me...wtf would you think? You'd swear something was wrong with me. Think I'd get many women to date me with a bunch of patches all over me?

As a customer, if I speak frankly about the many flawes this game has then i'm a ***** & a hypocrite according to some. Still, this game does not feel, play, or look like NFL games on sunday, Thursday, & Mondays. Other then the uniforms what are we really getting?

I was one of those guys that played only Madden strickly for years, until I bought ESPN 2K5. I was crushed by all the realism, atmosphere, presentation, commentary, etc...it was like a big brother sitting me down and going "Look kid, this is how it's done"...and when I came back to the boards to tell everyone I got shot down, flamed, and ousted for it.

So heres what I'm failing to understand. Why is it so taboo to critisize EA? Why do threads get locked, IP's get banned, and posters get blacksheep treatment? i thought that was censorship? i understand that forums have rules, and i understand the reason for those rules.

Are you people aware of the fact that these forums serve as the only public entity in which EA Sports can be held accountable for the problems with this product? These forums serve as the only medium in which they can be publically questioned or challenged for what have clearly been highly questionable decisions & practices. We've been told for years that the OL would be fixed next year, or that they fixed it. We've been told for years that gang tackling is in the game.

We've been told for years that suction blocking has been removed. They have been telling us for years that cut blocking & pancakes would be fixed. How long have we heard them tell us that they fixed the run blocking?

I think the there is a disconnect between what they think we want & what we say we want. I think they are trying so hard to be not like the NFL broadcasts we see on T.V. that they are ignoring the fanbase to do so. Every year the game is the same, with minimal changes. They think that is good, lots of fans disagree...and in all honesty I mean no disrespect to OS or to EA. Just telling it like it is. Like I said Madden NFL '09 is a good game, not great, but good.

Thank you, that was good stuff.
 
# 386 d_max @ 08/30/08 11:04 PM
These patches sound fantastic. Unfortunately I won't have xbox live any time soon, is there another way for me to acquire these patches?? You can PM me with the answer if you want as I will probably lose track of my post in this huge thread, haha...

Thanks
 
# 387 servo75 @ 08/30/08 11:24 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by mva5580
I get the unfortunate feeling inside that DLC isn't going to happen because of some hang-up between MS and EA on whether or not this should be free. MS will most likely want EA to charge for it, and then EA is in the situation of having to look greedy because they're going to charge for things that should be in the game from the beginning.

Having them patch all of that stuff AND release a free DLC pack with all of those additions sounds way too good to be true.
Who gives a damn what M$ & $ony think?? Why do you need their permission to release the DLC?
 
# 388 SoxFan01605 @ 08/30/08 11:49 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by servo75
Who gives a damn what M$ & $ony think?? Why do you need their permission to release the DLC?
Well, my understanding is the hangup with DLC is that it is on their (MS and Sony's) respective servers. This means all releases go through them-same as patches-for testing, potential troubleshooting, etc. It makes perfect sense, but I'd echo the concerns of the previous poster about the $ issue.

I remember a while back with some games (ironically one of them being Madden 07) an issue where companies were complaining MS was trying to dictate costs of DLC. This back and forth went on for a bit between EA and MS, each blaming the other. I would think, given the apparent desire to appease the more discerning Madden fans, EA would simply find a way to compensate MS if that became an issue (to avoid the potential PR hit). This would be something handled by someone at a higher level than those who communicate with us however. This may mean less of a concern for what, in reality, is a very small percentage of the Madden community.
 
# 389 SoxFan01605 @ 08/31/08 05:04 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ravens52bears54
And her lies the main problem with patching. While I think these patches are great to fix game concerns what about the thousands upon thousands of people that are not connected online? They are screwed. They paid $60 for an admittedly broken game. Some of these issues people are talking about are glaring issues that never should've made it through Q&A.



Like SoxFan said M$and Sony have the final say so. And while it seems that Sony is more content with letting the developers pick the pricing (no I'm not starting a flame war, I'll give a few examples...) M$ has been publicly critcized by the developers themselves for gouging prices. Does anyone remember the debacle with Gears of War? I don't claim to be an Epic expert but from what I've read they apparently seem to be a very customer focused company. They wanted to release their first DLC map pack for the game for free but M$ refused to let them because they knew what a cash cow the game was. The two sides argued for quite a bit but because M$ had the final say it was there decision to make. Once the info about the argument leaked they had to save face a bit so they agreed to allow the maps to be free after a six month (or something like that) time frame. Epic decided to release Unreal Tourney 3 on the PS3 first because they felt they could reach the customers better that way. So far they have released a map pack that is still totally free.
Another recent example is with the Draft Tracker and Stat Tracker downloads for the EA Fantasy Football add-on. Initially the Draft Tracker was free on PS3 and later changed to .99 cents. The Stat Tracker is also .99 cents. How much are they on the 360? $5 each. Now you tell me how that discrepancy makes any sense?

I could go on all day about how overall M$ doesn't give two craps about the consumer but I leave it at this. And before anyone attacks me I own both a 360 and a PS3, and a Wii for that matter. I just call it like I see it.
You're absolutely right, and it was things like this that I referenced. MS has been accused by several gaming companies for trying to gouge the prices. I fully understand the "he said/she said" aspect to it but, generally speaking, where there's smoke- there's fire. All of this is moot of course if Sony is cooporative, as I'm fairly sure MS wouldn't push the money issue (if there will even be one) THAT far. Fair or unfair, this is a business with multiple parties involved...the least of which is the consumer (that's not meant to come of as cynical as it may sound, but there is only so much that we, and even Ian really, count for in those types of scenarios). Anyway, all this is just speculation until something more concrete is confirmed.
 
# 390 Bat @ 08/31/08 07:05 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluengold34
Well, maybe it's not possessed then. Hopefully someone can confirm they got it also with the 360, or not.

Anyways Brother, I appreciate you taking the time to check at least.
Weird I had the same thing happen tonight. I got on Madden and it made me download a update. I already had the first patch, and haven't cleared my hd or anything.

The only thing I did differently was play GOW for the first time in a VERY long time and it too made me download a update.. so dunno. If my machine just craves them.
 
# 391 bdawkins20 @ 08/31/08 07:45 AM
My apologies if this has been posted in this thread, but I did not have the time to sift thru 47+ pages of posts -When are the patch(es) for Madden 2009 due out?

Thank you.

Have an enjoyable Holiday!
 
# 392 BenjiA @ 08/31/08 08:56 AM
I need that patch NOW!!
 
# 393 brendanrfoley @ 08/31/08 11:33 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ravens52bears54
I missed the info on the DLC for Madden. What is it allegedly supposed to consist of?
It's in the first post of this thread, my friend.
 
# 394 italianguy @ 08/31/08 12:35 PM
I'm not sure what has happened but playing Madden, I've noticed balls being off target more and more as they are not pin point when thrown, anyone else notice this? Even on deep balls I'm seeing my qb over throw the wr at times. I'm seeing this which is nice cause it's a variety and it's making me think twice before chucking it deep.
 
# 395 BenjiA @ 08/31/08 03:52 PM
Question:

When the patch is out do we have to start over our franchise or can we advance with our current? Does the patch fix all the things in our current franchise like for example player progressions? I edited some player's numbers and equipment and now they won't progress. Will they progress again when the patch is installed? I really don't want to start over my franchise!

Please someone answer!!
 
# 396 LosWorld @ 08/31/08 04:43 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BenjiA
Question:

When the patch is out do we have to start over our franchise or can we advance with our current? Does the patch fix all the things in our current franchise like for example player progressions? I edited some player's numbers and equipment and now they won't progress. Will they progress again when the patch is installed? I really don't want to start over my franchise!

Please someone answer!!
You'll find your answer in the original post.

We have too many people on this board who are like my wife...she calls for help before seeking the answer herself. I will now refer to you all as "she".
 
# 397 BenjiA @ 08/31/08 05:01 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by LosWorld
You'll find your answer in the original post.

We have too many people on this board who are like my wife...she calls for help before seeking the answer herself. I will now refer to you all as "she".
you should honor your wife...
 
# 398 Qb @ 08/31/08 05:24 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by LosWorld
I will now refer to you all as "she".
I realize you're probably just joking around, but with all the crap that is said in this forum, some may not see it that way.

PS - As for your point, I understand completely...
 
# 399 SoxFan01605 @ 08/31/08 06:12 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ravens52bears54
I missed the info on the DLC for Madden. What is it allegedly supposed to consist of?
The plan is for it to include accelerated clock, "classic" controller configuration, and CPU sliders. There may be more (I didn't go back and read Ian's post) but it's a pretty sound list IMO.
 
# 400 ab2c4 @ 08/31/08 07:36 PM
This is about MS possibly having a problem with EA offering the DLC for free. If it turns out to be that, can't EA put this content on a DVD and make it available to whoever wants it? Such as, you could call EA and they would mail you the disk, or they could distribute the disk to Gamestops, Walmarts, BestBuy's, etc?

I know it would cost EA money to do this, but it is their game and they really should fix it.
 


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