Madden turns 20 on Aug. 12, 'Collector's Edition' announced
EA announced today that Madden NFL 09, the 20th Anniversary of its exclusive NFL license-holding franchise, will touch down in stores August 12. The company states there'll also be a 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition of the game featuring Madden NFL 09 and NFL Head Coach 09, along with "an extensive library of exclusive bonus video content" for $90.
So, let's make a Hail Mary pass and wish the best for Madden '09. Initial data on last year's Madden sales showed consumers weren't that into the series anymore. Maybe this'll be the year the franchise gets a major update bringing gamers in who don't just buy the series like sheep year after year ... stop laughing! One can dream, can't they?
So, let's make a Hail Mary pass and wish the best for Madden '09. Initial data on last year's Madden sales showed consumers weren't that into the series anymore. Maybe this'll be the year the franchise gets a major update bringing gamers in who don't just buy the series like sheep year after year ... stop laughing! One can dream, can't they?











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Mar 27th 2008 5:20PM
I like that picture better when it had Clinton's face on it.
And even better when it had Mom's face on it.
WiiSports Machine...Fernandos in disguise PSN: Killjebus @ Mar 27th 2008 5:22PM
Please EA Tiberon,
give longtime Madden gamers a REASON to buy your game again. Use that ESPN license, use the NFL exclusivity for some new, innovative ideas.
AND do not gimp the PS3 version.
zelderman @ Mar 27th 2008 7:05PM
Oh, no the PS3 version will have 3D GRASS!!! The bestest reason to buy it. Oh my god, I totally would buy the game just for the 3D GRASS. Who cares if it's the same game only new rosters. YAY FOR 3D GRASS!!!!11!11one!11
Sounds pretty dumb doesn't it, jackass.
PS. You suck.
Abuzar @ Mar 28th 2008 4:57PM
3DGrass?!
THIS IS PS3!!!
deaftly @ Mar 27th 2008 5:22PM
I really hope they get rid of the new play by play guy and bring back Madden and Al Michaels. BOOM!
Rob Accomando @ Mar 27th 2008 5:29PM
who the hell would want to collect a Madden game?
sifer2400 @ Mar 27th 2008 5:33PM
boyycott EA for there crapy product and for this
http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2008/03/bfbcs-dlc-is-just-plain-bs.html
Daniel @ Mar 27th 2008 5:34PM
I thought at first you were going for a Ghostbusters II type motif with the madden picture.....that would have been great.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Mar 28th 2008 9:23AM
"He is Madden! You are like the buzzing of flies, to him!"
NATO_Duke @ Mar 27th 2008 5:34PM
Oh please, for one year don't release a Madden. Show the world you can resist screwing them over for the same crap as last year.
Howl Pendragon @ Mar 27th 2008 6:55PM
The funny thing is... the world loves being screwed over and over again. I know lots of people who buy the game every year (even myself) just for the new roster and the little updates.
cold school @ Mar 27th 2008 5:35PM
after reading Peter Moores bombastically moronic comments today -
"we’ve also got to go out and captivate the masses."
"People are intimidated by the controller."
“There are too many buttons and triggers and d-pads. We’ve got to break a lot of that down.”
I have no hope at all that madden, or any EA sports game will be worth playing. much less paying $60 for.
ScallionN @ Mar 27th 2008 5:36PM
Madden, aka: NFL DLC... Nice 1984 ref, btw., although that'd be better in reference to rootkits or something.
Chase @ Mar 27th 2008 5:37PM
What about the special Madden NFL 09 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition that comes packed with vials of John Madden's sweat and chocolate-trail undies? Seems like a missed opportunity.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Mar 28th 2008 9:24AM
gross. You fail.
But PJ is still awesome.
D-Train1183 @ Mar 28th 2008 11:11AM
God I love that picture.
343 Guilty Fart @ Mar 27th 2008 5:41PM
For the life of me I can't remember the name of that movie that picture comes from. It's like an ABC afterschool special about the teacher who starts a movement to get his kids to understand how Nazi's came to power. What's the name though???
XLM @ Mar 27th 2008 5:45PM
Nineteen Eighty-Four?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087803/
343 Guilty Fart @ Mar 27th 2008 5:45PM
Nevermind, I remember now, it's called "The Wave"
NATO_Duke @ Mar 27th 2008 5:49PM
1984
DarkTetsuya @ Mar 27th 2008 5:52PM
Well its their own fault for having this 'exclusivity' deal, they can just set the bar on the ground and bunny hop over it from now on.
But I am kinda curious about the 'collector's edition', just to see what they include.
Jason @ Mar 27th 2008 5:53PM
EA, do not screw up the PS3 version. Last year you left out PS3 users from all the fun.I did not buy Madden 08 for PS3 because I refuse to buy poorly programmed garbage.
Give PS3 users a reason to be excited, treat us right with better graphics and control than the 360 version. You know, the way it's supposed to be. The 360 is an inferior console and should have the inferior version. However, since Madden is a multiplat game, that will probably never happen. EA, just make it right.
If you screw us over one more time EA, then huge groups of PS3 fans will never buy another Madden again. I know I won't.
Senator Dracula @ Mar 27th 2008 6:15PM
Why does one console need to have an inferior version?
You're weird.
AirIntake @ Mar 27th 2008 6:37PM
You are an inferior person and should have the inferior version.
kbomb1upc @ Mar 27th 2008 5:53PM
Before everyone gets to hating on madden, what game that sells as many units as madden comes out every year? I know that the game rarely differs from year to year but what do you except when you have less than a year of development and testing. But what sports game is vastly different year to year? None. Even the 2K series was just a little more than a roster update. I'm not blind to maddens faults but everyone acts as if the rest of the sport gerne is doing things differently.
NATO_Duke @ Mar 27th 2008 6:03PM
"what do you except when you have less than a year of development and testing"
You see, thats the problem - if they didn't rush the same crap out each year we wouldn't hate on the game. They have less than a year bcause they choose to do it that way.
colinbell @ Mar 27th 2008 6:40PM
Well, most EA games do work on practically a 0ne-per-year rule - Batlefield, MoH, NFS, FIFA - just because they change the suffix doesnt alter the fact that its the same series, with occassional major upgrades, and poss the same team as well.
Just thinking about developers who take time over their game - ALL the nintendo franchises, Bungie, Boware among others in the MS camp, and most of the Sony 1st party as well - and these typicaly come out pretty well.
Though the Call of Duty series and Insomniac have a different strategy - two teams in tandem, two-year cycle, so that you have one game every year without sacrificing quality (though in case of CoD one team seems better - the ones who made CoD2 / 4)
Chase @ Mar 27th 2008 6:55PM
That would be Infinity Ward. Treyarch (COD3) sucks.
kbomb1upc @ Mar 27th 2008 6:59PM
@Nato_Duke
So you suggest they come out every two years are something...This is the biggest sport in America, they would be dumb if they did that. But I do believe they can do a lot more than what they have been doing, because with the lost of 2K Madden has just been "meh".
mattydread @ Mar 27th 2008 8:11PM
kbomb1upc -
With as much money as Madden brings in with gamers like me reluctantly buying it due to new players / rosters etc. I could imagine that EA could expand their development team to do more in 1 year. I bet they would if they had to compete with another product, but it looks like that won't happen any time soon.
Hell, I'd love it if they just bumped their development efficiency for just one cycle to get a lot of the bugs out for good.
citykids @ Mar 27th 2008 7:15PM
Color me unimpressed
*pops in NFL 2K5 for old times sake*
WiiFTW @ Mar 27th 2008 7:29PM
Better yet, fuck Madden. First of all, can't stand the guy. What's so special about him? He's a grandpa who sold out like a pr0nstar to big money.
What we really need is more than one choice of NFL game, like the 2K games. Excluding college games (which make sense to be one publisher), nobody will buy football games with fake players, a la NFL Blitz later incarnations. Hell, I had Blitz for PS1 and it was so fun. They can just go at snails' pace and people will buy it 'cause its got Peyton Manning.
Deck @ Mar 27th 2008 8:00PM
$90 for Madden?! Are you serious?? I don't think so!
mattydread @ Mar 27th 2008 8:10PM
so tired of bugs in this game...
Such as the game not knowing that a 4-3 tackle's rating should not significantly drop if he starts at DE on a 3-4 defense since they are essentially the same role.
Or Brodney Pool's name being pronounced "Pope" ever since he's been a starter in 06.
Or when a player suddenly has a +100 speed rating on a play. It was nice that one time it happened for my OLB and he tackled the running back from way too far away after the running back had broke free for what should have been a TD. But usually it's one of the computer's players on defense running down my player when it looks like I should be breaking free down the field.
And why can't I setup which players start on Special Teams anymore? I remember being able to do that back in 2003 and 2004.
Why can't I figure out how to save a replay on the 360 version? I can on the PS2 version and its programmers assumed you would only have an 8MB card, not an actual hard drive. (honestly, this could just be my error)
The weather is pathetic. You cannot get a real snow game going on unless you count a few flurries and a thin white transparency on the green parts of the field. I want a snow game where I struggle to read the field markings!
I know this seems like a list of tiny things, but considering how little seems to change (IMO) from year to year in the game I wonder just how much effort and resources EA devotes to actual programming for Madden.
horngreen @ Mar 27th 2008 8:42PM
LOL a collectors edition of a game that sells MILLIONS? That's as dumb an idea as the collectors edition of Halo3, or any videogame for that matter. Collecting a massed produced stamped plastic disc with tech driven code written onto it? I still have my 2600 from when I was a kid. Wood grain "heavy six" and all that BS. It was great then but the games are dull now. I can't throw it out or sell it because it has sentimental value but NEVER do I expect to be able to sell it for anything of any REAL value. You won't be retiring on the Madden collectors disc nor is it even worth collecting, or buying for that matter.
Jonah Falcon @ Mar 27th 2008 8:45PM
No one is upset that EA dumped the PC? There's no PC version coming out.
playwhutyalike @ Mar 27th 2008 9:53PM
You know what would make Madden a better game? Guns.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Mar 28th 2008 9:31AM
You win.
Brian Carlson @ Mar 27th 2008 10:54PM
If the game is pretty much the same every year, then what they could do is sell updates to the game each year through DLC, like with a new roster and stuff for like $20. Then also release the updated version in stores too for the full $60, for those that didn't buy last years game. Then they could make a new version every 3 years or so where it starts over again. Maybe when the exclusivity of the NFL runs out some other company might try that. We know EA wouldn't.
herman_munsters_stunt_double @ Mar 28th 2008 5:32AM
Apparently, the first Madden game appeared on PC, C64 and Apple II in 1988. The Genesis/MegaDrive version came out in 1990. So where the heck does 1989 come into it, EA?
Donald @ Mar 28th 2008 8:56AM
20 years after 1988 = 2008