Tag Archives: Madden NFL 09

EA’s been served with a class action lawsuit over its “unlawful use” of the liknesses of 6,000 retired NFL players in Madden NFL 09.

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According to a report on Kotaku, EA are being sued for unauthorized use of likenesses in EA Sports titles such as Madden NFL 09, NCAA and Fight Night Round 4.

The lawsuits come from Byron Bishop (NCAA), a licensing group for boxers known as Fighters Inc (Fight Night) and John “Big Dawg” Thompson (Madden), who is an unofficial mascot of the Cleveland Browns (we think) sitting in the stands of games for the Browns.

More through the link.

GameTrailers TV filmed a special E3 episode full of news and some other goodies that will be ready to view come May 28 at 11:00pm EST.

We do, however,  know a bit about what to expect from the show and here’s just some of it:

• Tricia Helfer and Rose McGowan are  cohosts.

• An Uncharted 2 spokesman talks multiplayer and confirms that the beta will go live on the first day of E3.

• Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time features time travel and Ratchet will have hover boots, allowing him to move around in new ways.

• The president of Infinity Ward stops by to talk about Modern Warfare 2 and introduce the new trailer.

• More details  for Mass Effect 2 will drop.

• A “big” Madden NFL announcement is expected.

• Bethesda will be revealing a new game.

• Batman: Arkham Asylum, Alien Vs. Predator, Dante’s Inferno, Lost Planet 2, and Need for Speed: Shift will also be featured.

Massive show, apparently.

More over on Kotaku.

According to EA’s full-year ’09 financials – just released – FIFA 09, Madden NFL 09 and Need for Speed Undercover each sold over 5 million copies.

Loads of sports and racing fans out there, apparently.

The earnings call is set to go off any minute, and we are listening – so keep checking back for updates.

EA Sports has announced that as of this week, more than 500 million online games have been played since launching its ‘09 product line last June.

On average, more than 2.2 million EA Sports games are played online each day, which reflects an increase of more than 175 percent over last year representing the entirety of the EA Sports lineup.

“Online game play allows real-time competitions with fans from around the world who speak the global language of sports,” said Peter Moore.

“EA Sports is committed to providing personal access to the emotion of sports by continuing to create immersive online features, compelling new downloadable content and daily real-time stats updates.”

Also mentioned was the astounding figure of six titles claiming more than 500,000 registered online users and Madden NFL 09 and FIFA 09 pulling in more than 2.4 million each.

Users have also logged more than 4 billion minutes since last summer, and played the equivalent of more than 35 years gameplay per day.

Press release is through the break.
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Madden 09 was the biggest selling game in the world’s three biggest games markets in the quarter ending September 30, according to to a new report.

The sports game sold 2,994,000 units in the US, UK and Japan.

Wii Fit came second with 2,089,000 units sold, with The Force Unleashed in at third with 1,738,000 copies sold.

The numbers are a result of combining NPD, GfK Chart-Track and Enterbrain data.

Peter Moore’s told Gamasutra that Madden sales are up. In fact, he’s said that Madden 09′s done $133.5 million in sales in its launch month, 6 percent more than Madden 08.

“In the month of August we may be bigger than a certain Eastern European gangster,” he said.

Couldn’t wait for tomorrow’s NPD, clearly.

More through the link. Thanks, Kotaku.

According to this IGN report, EA’s working on patching Madden after a bunch of issues with the game – including freezing – were reported by gamers. From the piece:

According to a Producer Blog posted by Ian Cummings, Senior Designer of Madden 2010 on the EA Sports site on August 26, the team has been working on a new patch, and has been furiously trying to work on the stability of the game, as well as tracking down what was causing the problem.

Although Cummings mentioned that the issue was very hard because not everyone on their team was able to detect it, he recommended that players should save and reboot their game after they’ve started a game if players like playing multiple matches at a time, or save and exit a game to start a new one.

More through the link.

An astute Kotaku reader spotted a slight slip-up in the collector’s edition of EA Sports’ flagship moneymaker – namely, a name.

Turns out, someone at EA thought one of the player’s names was spelled Farve, not Favre. Oh, and the owner of the crazy name in question? Well, he’s front-and-center on Madden 09’s cover.

Also, if you give the error-affirming picture a quick once-over, you’ll notice a feature titled “Greatest Follies Vol. 3.” Priceless.

By Nathan Grayson

EA’s confirmed that demos for Madden 09 and Facebreaker are now up on both Live and PSN, so get them if you’re bored.

Madden’s out on August 15, says Gamespress, with Facebreaker shipping on September 5.

According to this PastaPadre report, the Madden 09 demo will release on both PSN and Live on August 1.

Apparently, “This will not be a typical demo. Instead of traditional gameplay with reduced quarter length it will feature time in the virtual trainer and then head into one of the ‘Madden Moments,’ this one from the Super Bowl.”

More through the link.

EA has just announced a giant line-up for Holiday 2008, and it’s hard to be unimpressed. There is, quite fairly, something for everyone. Big boss John agrees.

“EA’s 2008 lineup is our best ever,” said EA head John Riccitiello. “This is the year that our core franchises leap forward with stunning innovation and we introduce more brand new games than any other year in our history. Sports lovers will compete in an all new holographic mode in Madden NFL 09 and experience the online evolution of their players in NBA LIVE 09. Action fans will be able to destroy everything in sight in Mercenaries 2 and be scared witless in our new Sci-Fi horror title Dead Space. We’ve got casual family titles like Hasbro’s Littlest Pet Shop and genre-defying experiences like Mirror’s Edge and Spore. EA has never offered consumers a stronger, more innovative and diverse line up of new games.”

It’s all after the link. There’s nothing there you don’t already know about, but seeing it all in one place is something else.

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According to this PS3F story, the upcoming American Madden 20th anniversary event will only show the PS3 and PSP versions of the game: no other SKUs will be present.

No reason’s been given for the decision to leave the 360 and Wii versions out of the showing, although the “presented by PlayStation 3″ line at the top of the invite may have something to do with it.

More through the link.

EA’s confirmed a PSP bundle for Madden 09, to include the game a metallic blue PSP, an NFL UMD video, a music voucher and a 1Gb memory stick.

It’s releasing in August, priced $199.99.

Press release after the link.

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It’s after the link. Forgive our cynicism, but it looks exactly like Madden 08. Did Madden 08 have snow? We forget. Take a look, anyway.

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EA’s now confirmed that the cover chap for Madden 09 will be retired Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre. The announcement’s significant as it’s the twentieth anniversary for the franchise this year, so hooray for that. Read more about Brett on Gamespot. See screens of game-Brett jumping up and down here.

Hudson Square analyst Daniel Ernst has predicted sales figures for what he believes will be the biggest selling games of 2008, coming to the conclusion that GTA IV will top the lot with 13 million sold this year. Ernst’s top five, from Gamedaily:

1. GTA IV (13 million)
2. Wii Fit (10 million)
3. Super Smash Brothers Brawl (9 million)
4. Final Fantasy XIII (8 million)
5. Madden NFL 09 (7.5 million)

Good luck with seeing FFXIII this year, Dan. Hit the link for more huge numbers.

Wow. Peter Moore’s announced on his blog that there won’t be a PC version of Madden this year.

“We knew that our decision to not develop this year’s Madden for the PC would be an unpopular decision in some circles,” he said. “But I’ll reiterate what I said a couple of weeks ago in this space… the PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. We are committed to shipping a limited number of our games on the PC this year, but we’ve also had to cut a few of our games from the platform. We do have ideas for how to revitalize the PC for sports games and the types of games that are best suited to the platform, and we’ll continue to explore those.”

That is not going to go down well, especially as this is the 20th anniversary year for the franchise. The comments on that post are already getting heated, to say the least. Hardcore Moore tough decision action, right there.

Madden NFL 09 will release in the US on August 12, EA has announced. A 20th anniversary Madden pack will also be released, to include NFL Head Coach 09 and some bonus movie footage. No date for Europe yet, or confirmation on the release of the special edition. More detail here, should this appeal.