All Entries Tagged With: "Madden"

The Madden Experiment

The NFL playoffs are in full swing so we decided to run an experiment with Madden. Its Madden vs. NFL playoffs with the latest Madden rosters. Now we know that there should have been some changes to the rosters and especially during the playoff run. Arizona was without Boldin was a major one and some of the players on all teams should have seen there ratings rise after there wins last week. What we did is to run those games in spectator mode three times to get what we figured would be the closest result. In other words Arizona vs. New Orleans was played three times and so on. Can Madden really predict games? Remember EA said the Patriots were going to take it all but I am sure they didn’t count for Welker blowing out his knee. We didn’t include stats just scores. Here are the results.

Arizona vs. New Orleans

* Boldin is still on the roster for these games and Warner should have probably been bumped after his wildcard game. We also think the Cardinals secondary and defense was suspect against the Packers and probably should have seen some decrease.

Game 1

New Orleans 51
Arizona 45

The game had insane numbers from both teams.

Game 2

New Orleans 20
Arizona 25

This game was close. Brees drove down the field in the final minute and hit his WR in the back of the end zone but was not in bounds.

Game 3

New Orleans 59
Arizona 38

This game was a complete blow out. I was shocked Arizona even got 38.

Actual Outcome

New Orleans 45
Arizona 14

Looks like Madden got this one right even with Boldin in the game. New Orleans took 2 out 3 games.

Popularity: 1% [?]

A Decade of Madden innovations, acknowledgement and reflection

A decade of dominance some call it. The pinnacle of sports gaming. The name in entertainment most synonymous with Football, Madden. Over this past decade Madden football has become the most popular sports game in the U.S. Over the decade its received annual graphics and gameplay overhauls. Brilliant innovations, such as the Playmaker, Franchise Mode, Hit Stick, and QB Vision. The games have majorly boomed on a consistent basis due in large part to their now “Built In” audience of dedicated fans. Over the years many of the technical innovations have been left on the cutting room floor and some editions of the game have suffered as a result (2006, 2007,2008). However the marketing giant EA Sports has managed to establish Madden NFL 10 as its best seller this decade, and added new features such as Online Draft Leagues, original AFL Uniforms, etc.

The real credit I give to EA is their excellent marketing skills. I’ve seen more Madden 10 commercials in the last 6 months than in the last 6 years. Celebrity football games, website ads, and TV spots equal marketing giant. To step away from marketing for a moment, the game in my opinion dosent get enough recognition for its great (but not perfect) gameplay. As I said before, over the years the EA Sports team, has slashed many of their own alterations to the game. Suprisingly Madden 10’s gameplay has been balanced because of the scale back. now the preplay offensive and defensive options are no longer overcrowded with tools, only hardcore players would use. Now due to the balance and easy accessability, many new casual Madden players have emerged as a result. Granted, no sports game will ever sell a freakish number of units like Uncharted 2, or Modern Warfare 2, but in a struggling economy with layoffs all around you have to respect EA for the great product they’ve managed to create.

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