Madden NFL 12 will launch on August 30, regardless of NFL lockout

by David Hinkle on Apr 13th 2011 1:45PM

Despite the ongoing situation between the NFL and Players Association, which could ultimately mean no football this year, EA Sports president Peter Moore quelled doubts at a recent event. The situation will not affect his studio's hit football franchise's next installment, Madden NFL 12.

"We'll be shipping this year, regardless of what the labor issues are, whether they're resolved or not," Moore told a group of journalists during an EA Sports event last night in San Francisco. "Madden 12 will be shipping on August 30th 2011, regardless of what happens with the league itself." So, there you have it. You may not get to see your players hit the field in real-life this year, but you can rest assured you'll be seeing their virtual representations, right on schedule.

Tags: ea, ea-sports, madden-nfl-12, microsoft, nintendo, playstation, ps3, psp, sony, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (54)

Of course they are. They are going to reship last year's game with a few new tweaks and some roster updates...

@txstoast22

EA is just giving the people what they want.

@txstoast22

If only you knew the immense amount of manpower it takes to stripdown and remake Madden in 9 months you wouldn't be such an asshat. You're only harming the developers and QA with that kind of attitude. If you are an actual fan of football games and not a faceless troll I can understand the criticism, but fans come to expect a new title each year and they're in a bit of a rut. I hope with the next generation of consoles they'll be able to sit back and build a new engine over atleast a full 2 year cycle on the side while still satisfying the demand for a new Madden each year.

I worked on Madden 11 and it's a thankless intense job. You are being hammered by both the gaming community and your superiors around the clock. The hours are long, the demands are high and everyone's job is on the line every second of the day. I'm proud of the work I did given the time and limited resources but I'm thankful I don't work with that title anymore. I admire their dedication though, those guys don't know the meaning of the word rest.

@txstoast22
As someone that actually played '09/'10/'11, the changes in 10 and 11 were actually pretty significant on a backend, how it handles kind of way. It feels much better as a game AND a sim. O-line blocking and tackling changes wont mean much to non-football fans or non-madden fans but make a difference in the play. Bottom line is, you're simulating a real game/set of rules. At a certain point, your advances will be evolutionary and not revolutionary. If you're not down, don't buy it.

I'll probably pass up on '12 as '11 is solid, I don't play online a ton, the rosters WON'T be updated until the lockout and subsequent free agency bonanza is complete, and this iteration hasn't announced changes as big as '10 and '11. Or ones I'm interested in.

@Anticrawl Good to hear from an insiders perspective. I like many buy madden every year. The only issue i have is the lack of Online Franchise features & all the extra BS they add into the game. I hope there would be a lock out and if so that Madden 12 would of never seen the light of day. So they cab have 2 years to work on and develop the game.

@txstoast22 roster updates? why? if there is a lockout there will be no roster updates except maybe the rookies added to the rosters.

@txstoast22

Of course they are. As if they would do anything to completely upgrade this game.

To the utter disbelief of an entire nation, EA has decided to go ahead with their annual "Money Printing Festival."

More at 11.

@Urethra Alfredo

Every good company has their fall-back plan or low risk solutions. EA is no different. I can't understand that train of thought when you see how one of the top fortune 500 companies dropped out of the list to overhaul their entire image and risk it all on new IP and heavily supporting the indie industry (only one of the big publishers that progressively acts on those fresh new ideas). They just recently climbed back up. If you don't like Madden don't buy it, I'm glad we have a game like Madden though because it allows EA to take risks elsewhere...... LIKE A MIRROR'S EDGE 2 perhaps?

@Anticrawl

Don't get me wrong, dude.

I buy Madden. Annually. Because I'm a diehard football fan.

EA makes Madden. Annually. Because of diehard football fans.

I'm not knocking EA. I would be knocking them if they DIDN'T continue to create games in a franchise that both makes them money and consumers enjoy.

Though I would like to see some competition in the field. 2K was doing some interesting things with their game back in 2003.

@Urethra Alfredo

Oh I personally would love to see 2K get back on the NFL license. In fact the dev team and testers alike were pumped over Backbreaker. Sadly though outside of the incredible camera angles and presentation before and after the play there wasn't much to it, probably due to the lake of experience with the sport from the Brits who developed it.

I'm sure we'd all love the time to polish up and incorporate new ideas into the series. Believe me it is really irritating when you have great new ideas but your title is the one EA counts on each year to deliver no matter how bad the rest of the company does and you can't spare the time or risk the effort of exploring them. EA is doing that now though very slowly with their Sports line. They are treading uncharted territory. But with the great success Fight Night Champion had with it's Champion mode and the potentially disastrous approach to the new SSX we might yet see some real change in the Football genre. I just wish the blame wasn't put directly at Madden like it is, and more towards the blockbuster manufactured nature of yearly titles we have all come to know.

I still blame Jaws. All their fault lolol. God damn summer blockbusters.

@Anticrawl

Agreed.

As long as Madden serves as the main pillar of EA's annual revenue, there's zero chance of seeing radical changes to the franchise, which is a shame seeing how awesome Fight Night Champion turned out.

Honestly, though EA could serve both purposes if they would just bring back Mutant League Football as an alternative football franchise...

...I can dream...

@Urethra Alfredo
And its because of "diehard fan" idiots like you we have EA doing the crap that they do with Madden. And why everything related to sports is ridiculously over priced. Thank you for that. Please mindlessly continue to spend hug amounts of money being a "diehard fan".

@khaos100

No.

Just...just, no.

I know that, back in high school, the quarterback was very, very mean to you. He stuffed you in many, many lockers. You cried many, many times.

And for that I am sorry. But it's over now.

Let go of your hate.

It's true. I'm a football fan. But I am not your enemy.

There was a time when I had options as to which football game to buy every year. Sometimes it was developed by EA. Sometimes by Visual Concepts. I would simply do my research, and buy the game more suited to my tastes.

Just because I now only have a single option in video game football doesn't make me, as a football fan, some kind of industry terrorist. EA's game isn't the awful shitpile all the hipster geeks try to make it out to be.

Granted, I'd like to have a choice in video game football, because competition bears sweeter fruit. But as a fan of the sport, I find EA's game to be a good product, and I buy it.

By the way, "assholes" like me funded the development of SSX. And Mirror's Edge. And Dead Space.

So you're welcome.

@Urethra Alfredo
I believe this one is 12.

@Urethra Alfredo The NFL doesn't want competition.

Does EA just flip a switch now and a Madden game comes out the other end? What a watered down franchise.

EA - where good franchises go to die.

@Triskelion

Like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk?

Oh wait...

@Triskelion

If the yearly Madden games didn't come out do you think EA would have been able to release Mirror's Edge, Army of Two, and Dead Space?

everyone blasts these yearly franchises but the think about it from a business standpoint, they're easy to make which means easy money to fund other games, but...

More importantly, they can employ younger people who are just out of college and have them work on these games that are pretty much built to kind of teach them how things are done without risking a disaster.

Its going to suck not being able to play with rookies though.

@whodeybengals9 Rookies will probably be in the game since there will be a draft this year regardless of the lockout. They'll just have to "guess" the stats, but hey, they always do that anyway. :p

@dscuber9000
They can't be in the game because they can't sign a contract with their team until the a new CBA is agreed to. Unless you mean they will put fake representations of the rookies...

I'm not buying another Madden until they come out with one that's better than 10. So far, they haven't shown that potential.

Thus EA's multi year NFL contract finally pays off for them.

@kyte420

maybe not. there is a lawsuit people suing EA for releasing franchised gaming license and forcing people to either buy their game or none at all which is against the law.

www.easportslitigation.com

@ChaseHammerJ I meant if the NFL had known about the lockout there would probly be a Lockout means no videogame either clause in there somewhere.

Remember the baseball strike, where it was millionaires vs billionaires? And everyone else lost?

Well, now it's millionaires vs billionaires and there's a side group of mill/billionaires who win no matter what happens. And everyone else still loses.
Something like that.

This would've been a great opportunity for EA to take a year off and work on the franchise's weakness and come up with some fresh ideas.

@(Unverified)

Agreed.

/yaaaaaaaawn

I wonder if a lockout would only drive MORE sales...

1. EA's QA is one of the worst in the business.
2. The mentality of releasing one without the NFL is ridiculous since rosters could wildly fluctuate and this is a testament to how EA doesn't need the sport to exist as much as it does consumers who pay for minimal changes. Remember the entire year that features Create A Fan or the next that had the QB vision feature. All now dead features that at the time were the big changes and reason to reup another year.

@(Unverified)

I'm so happy you took the time to not only click on an American Football article, but to share your wisdom of how lame it is. Your colorful commentary has brightened my day on an otherwise average Wednesday.

Rather than show just one player on this year's cover, EA ought to do a collage of all of them on the front. That way the Madden curse would affect the entire league for the greed and hedonism they've displayed. Then again, right now they're doing a pretty fine job of hurting themselves without EA's help.

give back breaker nfl rights!

and who else wants to see a new version of nfl blitz

@adr916 NOBODY

a perfect time to release madden 12 on PC!

@i slim shady l

Coherence is next to Godliness.

But yes, American football is, in fact, awesome.

@Alex Oglitchkin

Poor overpaid multi-millionaires. They are the real victim, how will they survive on mere hundreds of thousands from their enforcement deals while not playing?

The damn Madden Curse has backfired and ended up killing football!

@(Unverified) by American football, do you mean South American? Central American? North American? Buy a map.

Also, going through a 9 month period to make Madden IS impressive, BUT there are so many short comings in the game. The Franchise mode is garbage and uninspired - yet it's the reason why I buy Madden every year. Now that I'm really enjoying the developing players on my team, I probably won't buy this years.

There are very few good updates that come out on Madden and instead of focusing on one thing each year, maybe they should get more people working on it and make a really good football game instead of the little updates to some featuers where others get neglected. I think people DO appreciate the hardwork that goes into Madden but the fact that they don't want ANY competition means they know they can put out a half assed game and people will buy it. When 2K5 came out, EA got scared because well, it's still better than Madden 2010.

It's funny how each of these "sequels" only add a few new updates like weather effects when that would normally be a small free downloadable update. DLC at the most.

I think the Networks should organize a digital league based around the game. That way they could still air Sunday Night Football, just a digital version of it. Give the person who 'captains' their team to the winner of the Super Bowl a million dollars or something.

Not being a football fan but being a gamer, this would make me more likely to watch.

What a sweet way to punch your source in the mouth.

"Oh, you're not playing this year? That's cool, we're gonna go ahead and pretend that you did and make millions in the process. NFL Players, we know your names as the only reason people prefer our franchise, so thanks for letting us ride by on that. Kthnxbai!"

In other news, the sun will rise tomorrow and Activision loves money.

Wait, EA isn't going to pass up a chance to make more money?? GASP!

@(Unverified)

Does it matter which one is more popular?

Enjoy them both for their different qualities and don't judge a book by it's cover. I'm an American and will can Football football and Soccer soccer, but when speaking with some outside of the Country, I will respect their culture and say American football or Football for soccer.

No need to be a bigot about it. Respect other cultures as if they were your own and I'm almost 100% positive you'll make more friends than enemies...

What a hilarious coincidence, because I will not be purchasing this game on EVER regardless of an NFL lockout.

I'll stick with 09 and spend my $60 on something that isn't 1% different from last year.

Actually, the 2010 version had a whole bunch of "tweaks". I thought that it was worth the $50 but got lucky and got it as a gift. Roster updates are friggin awesome why on earth wouldn't you want to play with ACTUAL TEAM MEMBERS? Haters gonna hate.

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Madden NFL 12

Madden NFL 12 will launch on August 30, regardless of NFL lockout

Reader Comments (54)

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 1:48PM txstoast22 said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 2:11PM eat it said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 2:25PM Anticrawl said

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Posted: Apr 14th 2011 10:18AM Kira Blaize said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 1:52PM Urethra Alfredo said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 2:28PM Anticrawl said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 2:34PM Urethra Alfredo said

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Posted: Apr 13th 2011 2:52PM Urethra Alfredo said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 2:57PM khaos100 said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 3:15PM Urethra Alfredo said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 3:30PM Peffse said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 8:20PM CrashTunoku said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 1:53PM Triskelion said

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Posted: Apr 13th 2011 2:21PM eat it said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 1:55PM whodeybengals9 said

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Posted: Apr 13th 2011 7:30PM whodeybengals9 said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 1:58PM MGTrey said

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Posted: Apr 13th 2011 2:37PM ChaseHammerJ said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 4:23PM kyte420 said

Posted: Apr 13th 2011 2:02PM Razer922 said

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