Madden 09 Franchise Stats Blog
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A new Madden 09 producer blog has been posted that goes over the work that has been done to get realistic stats in franchise mode. This blog covers only the stats element and doesn’t go into detail on any other improvements or additions that may have been made to franchise mode (which as of now the rivalry aspect is all that has been mentioned). You can read the full blog posting here.
I know that one the top issues with the hardcore Madden fans has been the stats that the simulation engine generates. I was tasked to tune the stats engine on this year’s product, let me tell you it was no easy task. I looked back at stats from the past 10 NFL seasons to get an idea of what looked good in the NFL. I then started work on tuning our stats engine; this involved linking the game to our tuning tool (done by a programmer). Once this was done, I simulated through multiple seasons and checked our numbers against what I had seen on the NFL’s website.
June 17, 2008 at 9:35 am
Tackles are definitely too low and the fact that Keith Rivers, a rookie, and Brady Poppinga, the Packers worst starting linebacker, are at the top of list is very strange.
June 17, 2008 at 9:46 am
This is the franchise blog we’ve waited for? It makes me a little uneasy. The improved stats engine was one of the few things people posted from the community event. I have a fear this is the only thing they improved/fixed for franchise mode this year.
June 17, 2008 at 10:05 am
Yeah I have to agree that this is a letdown. I expected some significant info on the Franchise offseason and drafting etc….Realistic stats were the least of my worries….Oh well, hopefully they have some other blog for us later.
June 17, 2008 at 10:14 am
pasta any word if there will be 1/2 sacks awarded this year?
June 17, 2008 at 10:18 am
lol @ Chad Johnson’s morale.
June 17, 2008 at 10:20 am
how is ray rice gettting 1217 yards and 17 tds???
June 17, 2008 at 10:20 am
This could be the biggest let down this year… though there haven’t been many of them.
Honestly, I didn’t care how good backs were last year, HOW COULD THAT BE THE NUMBER ONE COMPLAINT FOR FRANCHISE?!?
If this is it then Head Coach is gonna own Madden 09 because, well… I think online is boring. Without franchise… Madden is nothing for me.
June 17, 2008 at 10:37 am
Marion Barber leading the league in rushing!!!??? LOL!!!
Try again EA. Try again.
The guy even compare Marion Barber’s attempts to Clinton Portis’s!!! WHAT??? Portis is an every down back when he’s healthy. What the hell are they talking about???
June 17, 2008 at 11:26 am
What a joke, no mention of improved trade logic, draft logic, player progression, off-season tuning, scouting or anything else that really matters. I bet there still isn’t any progression during the pre-season either…
There better be another franchise blog with more information or I’ll just go with HeadCoach this fall…
June 17, 2008 at 11:52 am
Why does it matter who in each simulation is first, that’s not the point of this blog. It is to show you how the simulation numbers were close to NFL’s, not so the simulation has the right players in order. There are many reason’s why someone you didn’t think is first, as in Ray Rice, I am sure he was in due to an injury. And how is nobody praising EA for this, it was totally criticized that last years were horrible.
…It just goes to show, no matter what EA does, that there are people who are so burnt on bad Madden games, that they have no faith in anything EA does. I for one think this year is going to be awesome. Props also for EA listening to the community while the game is being produced and making changes along the way. It really looks like this year they care more. Now lets see when the game does come out, and when the glitches arise, that they don’t disappear from the community boards, and patch the game as necessary, and keep the roster updates every other week as promised.
Keep it up EA…
…and Pasta too!, you are doing great things for Madden and us Maddenites worldwide!
June 17, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Who Cares… Its all about the Online play baby!Bring back online mini-games!
June 17, 2008 at 12:35 pm
“If this is it then Head Coach is gonna own Madden 09 because, well… I think online is boring. Without franchise… Madden is nothing for me.”
I agree totally.
June 17, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Could EA be holding back on improving Madden’s Franchise Mode in order to force some into buying Head Coach? I am certainly very concerned that so little has been said in regards to Franchise Mode. I have to believe that had they overhauled last year’s Franchise Mode (and it needs an overhaul) we would be hearing about it by now.
June 17, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Head Coach doesn’t cut it. For me, the Madden experience is about playing GM and developing players to make my team (Giants) the next great NFL dynasty. Actually playing the games is why it’s fun. I think the improved simulation stats are a great fix/feature. I’m just hoping that the EA staff felt the other atrocious bugs from 08 were so obvious that they didn’t need a blog to explain that they were fixed.
June 17, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Yup another year of BS! As usual they didn’t innovate anything. They saved it all for HC!
June 17, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Rushing attempts/yards/TDs seem good. The only problem I have is look at LT’s yards per rush! A whopping 6.1! That seems a little high for me.
Too many receptions for some guys. 4 guys over 112 whereas no one caught more than 112 this past year.
Tackles are wayyyyy low! 120? There were 13 guys last year with 120 or better..
June 17, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Better buy Head Coach if you are a hard-core Franchise-only kind of player and this lack of “news” regarding Franchise Mode is disappointing….my impression is that EA would like to slowly move the Franchise options off the Madden disc and onto the stand-alone Head Coach SKU for future releases…
I have been a proponent of such a move for a while…just give people the option to control their player in head coach and presto…no more need to waste valuable disc space in Madden anymore…
In fact, the way I see it is that EA really has 3 distinct audiences that are ALL underserved by trying to pack everything onto Madden every year:
Franchise / Coach Mode players —> NFL Head Coach
Freestyle / Arcade players —> NFL Tour (obviously would need a TON of work here)
Simulation / Head-to-Head / Online players —> Madden NFL
June 17, 2008 at 4:08 pm
i dont know Dan….i love franchise mode but im not big on head coach because i like to play out what ive just made so…they needed to fix that and im frustrated
and we all agree Tour needs a lot of work….its about 2 years ahead of 1999s blitz
June 17, 2008 at 4:38 pm
He genious. The # 1 problem plauging franchise is that it doesn’t work.
My players won’t go up so it makes the whole feature useless. 10 years into the franchise the best Lb in the league is an 89. That’s no fun EA fix the sh*t
June 17, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Many people complained about the stats last year including myself, it was one of the top 10 complaints on consumer reports concerning madden 2008. Great job EA on finally getting it (at least close to) realistic. Even if it was a few years late. now just bring the qb rating and completion percentages down and itll be spot on.
June 17, 2008 at 8:04 pm
“Rushing attempts/yards/TDs seem good. The only problem I have is look at LT’s yards per rush! A whopping 6.1! That seems a little high for me.
Too many receptions for some guys. 4 guys over 112 whereas no one caught more than 112 this past year.
Tackles are wayyyyy low! 120? There were 13 guys last year with 120 or better..”
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Tackles are low because there is no assisted tackles in Madden yet like there is on NFL.com
June 17, 2008 at 11:44 pm
hmmmmmm… some day they will create a good franchise mode.
ho, wait, that would cannibalize future sales.
June 18, 2008 at 12:19 am
Pretty sure this is just the franchise —stats— blog.
Ian has spoke about improved trade logic and progression, all of which have not been mentioned yet.
I guess they want as many people to pre-order head coach before they release the real franchise blog.
June 20, 2008 at 5:01 am
With Marion Barber that was probaly 1 of the producers in their own franchise.
June 28, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Madden messed up again, DT and base ends leading the NFL in sacks and 3-4 outside Linebackers with very few
August 2, 2008 at 9:06 pm
I agree that the big problem with madden was the offseason. Teams drafted like crap(first round pick a qb for the patriots come on that is stupid) and players didn’t progress. It killed me thqat after a few years all the teams were down to the low 80’s and some in the 70’s. let alone once you got to year 15 the franchise mode pretty much stopped working. I’ve played madden know for about 11 yrs and 08 was probably one of the worst franchise modes i have seen.
August 5, 2008 at 11:24 am
its sad 2 say its madden 3 try on ps3 and xbox 360 and i still say as far as franchise mode the ps2 and the xbox are way better. what happen to tony bruno and the news paper and the owner box and al the other features that the game old systems had but the new systems dont if this year franchise mode is not up 2 par i may b lookin for another company 2 cum out with there own football game
September 13, 2008 at 9:38 pm
{Who Cares… Its all about the Online play baby!Bring back online mini-games!}?
Above comments like these are the idiots that we should blame for this game always being garbage dynasty wise. Ea only care about the dumb sheep!
November 15, 2008 at 4:38 pm
realistic franchise stats were absolutely the biggest gripe for me (along with the fact that once all the real players retired there were hardly any 90+ overall players).
I really need to pick up madden 09 now.