Not exactly his words, but what significant changes have they made to make people genuinely excited about the next Madden? I figure the largest impact on Madden sales is the footbal season and all its games and players, not exactly any technological inovations from Tiburon. Tim Tebow may have more of an effect on games sales for the upcoming Madden ’13 set for release on August 28th.
In an interview with GamesIndustry International, EA Sports executive Andrew Wilson agrees on the lack of imagination put into the game, but boasts a resolve for something fresh for Madden ’13. Via GameNGuide:
“We recognize a need to fundamentally innovate in Madden,” Wilson said. “We have a brand new leadership team: Cam Weber, Roy Harvey and these guys. Roy Harvey did a fantastic job with NCAA; he made it the best football game on the market at the time. I think he did it this year with Madden.” The claim that the Madden Franchise has become nothing more than a yearly roster update is abundant among many disheartened fans of the franchise and fans of videogame football in general. In 2004, the U.S. video-game maker notched exclusive licensing deals with the NFL and its players’ association. The agreements knocked EA’s main competitor, Virtual Concept’s NFL 2K series out of the game for the past 8 years. This year’s Madden had the largest budget in the series’ history, according to Wilson. The game features a new engine called Infinity, which allows procedurally generated animations to affect the outcome of plays. The game supports many new features, including voice command on Xbox Kinect and the ability to call plays on the Wii U controller’s screen.Still, you can’t dispute the results they’ve had. Just last year Madden ’12 was the top selling sports game of that year and 5th in all titles releases in 2012. Maddem ’13 has gotten off to a great start too. Preorders are up 25% from its predecessor.
