Madden 09 20th Anniversary announcement coming soon
March 26, 2008 by pastapadre
In his latest blog entry EA Sports president Peter Moore has stated that the first of many announcements regarding the 20th Anniversary Edition of Madden 09 will be coming in “the next day or two”. That would mean Thursday or Friday of this week we should be hearing some info.
Any guesses as to what this first news could be? I would think that it would relate to a special edition package like we’ve seen with other high profile games, an event around the release date, or the cover athlete (although usually that comes closer to NFL Draft time). Especially considering the timing I wouldn’t expect an announcement such as this to have anything to do with gameplay specifics or features.
I’d put my money on something pretty minuscule. I can’t see anything big coming out now, they really have NCAA to concentrate on
Maybe the announcement will be that they are going to use the NFL 2K game engine to develop Madden this year….
tdoggy wrote:
I would imagine the significance could vary because of that, but they face the same thing every year. Madden info starts up around the draft which is still in the middle of the NCAA push. It just looks like they’re starting up earlier this year because of the big stuff and additional announcements they have planned due to the anniversary. I don’t think he would’ve mentioned it in the blog if it wasn’t going to be at least somewhat interesting.
Mark wrote:
Ha, I’ll go ahead and guarantee that won’t be it.
I think they should put John Madden on the cover for the 20th anniversary. Maybe have 2 different covers, one with Madden and one with a player.
My wishlist would be: stat overlays, functioning franchise mode, referees on the field, varied draft classes (ie. a few MLBs rated higher than 4th round would be nice), and realistic turnover levels. So, basically, Madden 2004 with pretty graphics.
I like the John Madden idea for the cover Busty, as I believe he was the very first cover on the Sega Genesis days. If they are only going to go with a player, then I would like to see Brett Favre, not that I’m a fan, but I think that it would be fitting given a)he broke most of the major passing records this season, b)he’s retiring as perhaps the greatest player of the past 20 years and c) John Madden has an obvious man-love crush on him.
I say a collage of all of the Madden covers, with Adrian Peterson in front of them. I think that would pay respect to madden and AP for an outstanding year.
I bet Madden 09 will include the very first Madden game, along with a few other versions.
It’s all nostalgic window dressing, and it raises concerns that EA might get too caught up celebrating the anniversary instead of concentrating on creating an outstanding and accurate NFL simulation.
Mark wrote:
I have played both APF and Madden and its clear that APF does have better gameplay . The gang tackles, the sideline animations, the wrs go for the ball a lot better. But since we all know that ain’t happening maybe they will announce the bonus content on disc two.
All what 20 years mean to me in this situation is that this company been issuing out this thing for 2 decades now and have yet to make a deccent Sports game. And it is so simple.
Hopefully he is going to announce that they will be putting EDIT PLAYERS POSITIONS back into the game…
Seriously, I can’t be the only person who misses that feature, it was the greatest thing ever.
It’d be nice if they’d announce that all the glitches from this year would be fixed up…like the INT x2 Stat BS, the Freezing in Franchise Mode, the “Silver Headed Coach” glitch, and everything else that Madden 08 had problems with. Yeah, and how about the ability to edit player position again? I agree with anyone who brings that stuff up. They’re too busy catering to the online crowd, and their features…to remember the people who were there before the big online rush…the people who play Madden for the Franchise features.
Sorry about the rant, just thinking about the fact that Madden 09 will probably be just as poorly put together as 08, irritates me beyond belief.
I’m guessing a cover, which is probably featuring Madden, and the announcement of a Special Edition of Madden 09, which will contain whatever odd-ball content they want to include.
Likely to include a bunch of behind the scenes stuff and interviews that no one really cares about, and maybe some classic versions of Madden, which are better played on the original consoles, so that you have real players and numbers.
People, he said “… regarding the 20th Anniversary Edition”.
Why the hell would he announce something concerning glitches? It’s most likely something that will be available, or some kind of new feature that “regards the 20th Anniversary Edition.” It’s probably a special edition package, like Pasta said. I’d certainly buy a special edition package. Maybe some kind of HUGE feature that will be available or maybe actually announcing the cover athlete. I doubt it will be concerning any kind of glitches, gameplay, or small features.
LOL - if Madden’s been catering to the online crowd, I’d hate to see what the State Of Madden online would be if they didn’t “cater” Call me when they have online leagues
As for the announcement - my guess is:
A) Special Edition Madden (for a premium price) that would feature all kind of goodies - I like including the original Madden in there, DVD documentary etc
B) Series of Promotional Events / Contests to hype the 20th Anniversary with the typical Amazing n’ Fabulous Prizes
I doubt any of it has to do with features at all - after 20 years specific feature changes are really irrelevant, I don’t know that one year’s Vision Cone or another’s Fullback Blocking mean much to 80% of the buying audience
calm down.
I am on a full campaign to get “EDIT PLAYERS POSITIONS” back into Madden, we must be heard!
I would like to see a collage of screen shots of all 20 years of Madden to illustrate how the game has evolved. I have stated this in a previous post but to have a screen shot of each player from each of the previous 19 versions, from the sprite based players from the original Apple, to the polygonal Barry Sanders of Madden 99.
I also like the idea posted earlier of a collage of all the different covers with Madden busting through the middle.
I also hope that the game includes past versions (ala Madden 2005 for the PS2) and classic teams. Could you imagine using the 85 Bears in a next-gen platform? That would be awesome….
Let me also add that Peter Moore is putting a lot of eggs on the table stating that this year’s Madden will be one to remember.
I like the hype but I don’t believe in it…Need to see concrete details….
Eric wrote:
I agree. Something like the PS3 version will include the original Madden and maybe Madden 1999. Nothing special. If we’re lucky maybe we’ll hear more about the announcing team they’re going to use for this year’s version. I’m actually most curious about that.
Gamespot is reporting that the 20th Anniversary edition will be the only way to get Head Coach 09. WTF? What’s the point of this?
Loghren wrote:
TO RUN YOUR POCKETS!!!!
No More NCAA.. I’m just going to be getting Madden from now on.. I hope this one is good.