Madden NFL 13 News Post

EA Sports & NFL - Tracking Player Movement, Looking to Revolutionize Madden Ratings

04:08 PM - December 28, 2012 by Steve_OS

During Thursday Night NFL football games, the NFL has been tracking player attributes, such as speed, acceleration, movement direction and jump height with chips embedded into shoulder pads of various NFL players. According to Polygon's, Samit Sarkar and Madden "Ratings Czar" Donny Moore, this data could be released to EA Sports to "potentially revolutionize" player ratings.

It probably won't happen any time soon, since the NFL is only tracking a handful of players, but it's fun to speculate.

Source - NFL tracking player movement data that EA says could 'revolutionize' Madden ratings (Polygon)

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Member Comments

# 1 Sturzinator @ 12/28/12 04:36 PM

That's some great news and bodes well for the future.

On the flip side, even the most useful information left in the bumbling hands of EA will most surely result in abject disappointment.

Here comes the hype for M14.....

# 2 SickDL @ 12/28/12 05:20 PM

Thats pretty sweet

# 3 splff3000 @ 12/28/12 05:40 PM

Forgive me, but I have 0 faith in the possibility of EA using this technology correctly. It sounds cool tho.

# 4 LovejoyOTF @ 12/28/12 06:47 PM

ALL ABOARD!

# 5 splff3000 @ 12/28/12 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LovejoyOTF


	ALL ABOARD!

LMAO, I don't know why, but this has me dying over here lol.

# 6 JerzeyReign @ 12/28/12 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sturzinator


	That's some great news and bodes well for the future. On the flip side, even the most useful information left in the bumbling hands of EA will most surely result in abject disappointment. Here comes the hype for M14.....

And this sums up my feeling about this article as well lol.

By the way, great use of the word 'abject' - it has now become my 'Word of the Week' lol

# 7 DUDERMAN @ 12/28/12 11:21 PM

This is far less encouraging when you read the rest of the Article.

Quote:


	"It sounds like a really exciting possibility," Donny Moore told Polygon over email. He also said he had not previously heard about the technology.

Quote:


	But the NFL is currently tracking data only for "handfuls of players," according to CBS Sports, which wouldn't be nearly as useful for the Madden developers.

Quote:


	It remains to be seen whether the NFL will expand the tracking program league-wide. And the initiative is in its infancy, so it would be a few years at least before the league might begin to provide data from it to third parties.

# 8 SageInfinite @ 12/29/12 01:45 PM

Everyone pretty much said what I was thinking. Tiburon has so many great tools and resources, but something always gets lost in translation with them. There's never a smooth transition implementing ANYTHING into Madden.

# 9 kingsofthevalley @ 12/29/12 02:12 PM

"Sounds like an exciting possibility". EA hasn't thought about accurate player movement for the last 8 to 9 years. Come back and talk to me when the devs actually take the rocket skates off of their players and put the cleats back on em. I got excited when I saw "player movement" in the title. Had nothing to do with what I was thinking. That was a reach brother.

# 10 at23steelers @ 12/29/12 02:36 PM

Even with the most accurate and realistic ratings in the world, it'd still fail on the gameplay side without revamping the interaction of players, the AI, and footwork.

# 11 TreyIM2 @ 12/29/12 06:49 PM

"It remains to be seen whether the NFL will expand the tracking program league-wide. And the initiative is in its infancy, so it would be a few years at least before the league might begin to provide data from it to third parties."

That was the key info that caught me the most. Gunna take time, folks, so this means, at the earliest, next gen, IF the NFL starts handing this data over. I believe it will turn into an NBA Live DNA type situation after a while which is a good thing.
And I have little doubt that EA won't have the player movement, momentum, speed, inertia, IE and all that by then to go with this player rating stuff. Stakes will be higher for them next gen and will be even more paramount for them to get Madden right. Madden 13 showed great promise in certain aspects and tech will be better next gen for all game devs.

# 12 TreFacTor @ 12/29/12 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TreyIM2


	"It remains to be seen whether the NFL will expand the tracking program league-wide. And the initiative is in its infancy, so it would be a few years at least before the league might begin to provide data from it to third parties." That was the key info that caught me the most. Gunna take time, folks, so this means, at the earliest, next gen, IF the NFL starts handing this data over. I believe it will turn into an NBA Live DNA type situation after a while which is a good thing. And I have little doubt that EA won't have the player movement, momentum, speed, inertia, IE and all that by then to go with this player rating stuff. Stakes will be higher for them next gen and will be even more paramount for them to get Madden right. Madden 13 showed great promise in certain aspects and tech will be better next gen for all game devs.

The stakes remain the same... how can you lose a hand when your the house and your making the rules. The time table for turnaround remains the same and will be used as a crutch once again for missing features. Anyone who is familiar with this franchise and it's production format know what to really expect. If it weren't for the exclusive license Madden would be facing the same fate as NBA Elite. Which is sad. It's been a paper champion this generation and will retain the title by default next gen.

It's going to take someone high up to say this is wrong let's stop F'n around and fix it because your starting to embarrass a once proud name.

# 13 UMhester04 @ 12/29/12 07:08 PM

Saw the words player movement and got excited...must have forgot to read the "tracking" part. Thought this was gonna be about locomotion.

Bummer.

# 14 roadman @ 12/29/12 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TreFacTor


	It's going to take someone high up to say this is wrong let's stop F'n around and fix it because your starting to embarrass a once proud name.

I doubt there is anyone high up who believes anything is wrong, it still sells.

# 15 TreFacTor @ 12/29/12 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadman


	I doubt there is anyone high up who believes anything is wrong, it still sells.

Thus the cycle we are in with this series. I'm waiting for it to get the attention and respect it deserves.

# 16 RandyBass @ 12/30/12 01:39 AM

Revolutionize? SMH. Any data collected from something like this would be unreliable due to different playing conditions, injuries, etc.

The best part is how EA is already in marketing mode, even though they aren't even using yet, lol. Are they really that desperate?

# 17 TjJunior @ 12/30/12 05:38 AM

im still expecting the nfl to phase out ea sooner before later anyway. why share the profits when the folks you hired are only doing adquate work? This may be the beginning.

# 18 I_Tyler_Durden_I @ 12/30/12 10:38 AM

Who cares where they got the values from, as long as a punter is blocking a DT with no problem?

# 19 DGMikeBarker @ 12/30/12 01:29 PM

I have little problems with Madden's rating scale. The only thing I can think of is there are too many 90+ players. I would be grateful if Donny Moore was the new 2k Insider. At least he changes stats for all teams and notifies what he changed EVERY WEEK.

# 20 lynkraid @ 12/30/12 01:46 PM

Sounds cool, also sounds like reasons for them to add more useless ratings.

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EA Sports & NFL - Tracking Player Movement, Looking to Revolutionize Madden Ratings