Passion and Why Madden has failed this Console Generation - robertw2010's Blog

robertw2010's Blog

Passion and Why Madden has failed this Console Generation

Posted on July 9, 2011 at 12:09 PM.

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I am terribly dissappointed in the decision by EA Sports to leave the online franchise mode untouched this year (again). I have played Madden since 1992 on the Sega Genesis and have bought at least one copy of the game for at least one system every year since then. I love NFL football and even in the years that there were competition for my sports dollar I always owned a Madden copy.

If you have watched any of the E3 shows and Video game shows or press conferences...they all talk about interaction and connectivity....but yet the Madden development team has ignored this aspect of the game for 3 years in a row. I was excited when they first launched online leagues for the consoles, I really want to play and control all aspects of the Franchise that I elect to participate in, but yet feel I have been slapped in the face with the barebones franchise EA offers...the PS2 and PC both had better setups for the guys who wanted to participate in League play. EA wonders why noone plays 1 or 2 games online and dissappears and frankly the answer is they have built an subpar product. NCAA league are flourishing and the online experience is like night and day.

I do not feel that Ian, Phil and the other developers leaving Madden is a big deal...they have delivered a mediocre product for several years in a row. Maybe some new blood and a different vision is what is needed to return Madden to greatness. I am still astounded that they cite data of the online play as the reason they do not pursue the online aspect yet games such as Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War and a ton of others are bought specifically to play ONLINE!!! The online multiplayer communities are thriving in these games...why cannot the most popular sport in America the same way? Lack of passion on the developers has stalled Madden's growth as a while...deliver a GREAT GAME and the players will come.

If you have played Madden this generation, you know that from 06 to 08 on the next generation, the game was barebones and unplayable....09 was a solid improvement and 2010 was a quantum leap forward...I have played that the most of any...I felt Madden 11 was a "meh" addition and other then gameflow was Madden 10.5. The developers have promised to deliver on the online experience and have broken this several times. Build a great game and a stellar online experience and the sales will take care of themselves....it won't require analyzing all this data because you will be the top performer in your industry, not just #1 because your the only game in town.

The developers want to appeal to casual and the hardcore fans and talk themselves into believing we need to dumb down and make it simple. I do not believe that...do you want to know how to get a "casual" gamer into a "hardcore" gamer? Give them a product that is both fun and entertaining!! All of us started out as a casual gamer....it was fun, entertaining and the more we played...the more we evolved. All people want is a reason to play...see Call of Duty, Halo as examples...

Hardcore Gamers have passion for gaming. Casual players are only hardcore gamers in training. If the developers built the best Madden game possible and made it a GREAT game...people will play. Thats the lesson that EA is missing....or be content to see mediocre results. EA also needs to read the definition of insanity at least to me...doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.