Tiburon's Madden franchise has not been known for making significant innovative strides on a yearly basis, but EA is trying to challenge that stigma by investing more into Madden NFL '13. In an interview with GamesIndustry International, EA Sports executive Andrew Wilson said that the lack of forward thinking is a thing of the past.
"We recognize a need to fundamentally innovate in Madden," Wilson said. "We have a brand new leadership team: Cam Weber, Roy Harvey and these guys. Roy Harvey did a fantastic job with NCAA; he made it the best football game on the market at the time. I think he did it this year with Madden."
Last year, EA Sports' Madden NFL '12 was the top-selling sports video game in the U.S., ranking fifth overall among all titles regardless of genre, according to a report by retail tracking outfit NPD Group. Madden NFL '12 was also the only sports title to rank among the top 10 games sold for the year. Game Zone has reported that pre-orders for Madden NFL '13 are up 25 percent from last year's edition, but that may not directly translate into an increase in overall units sold when the game is released later this month.
"I do believe that Madden did not have the level of innovation that some of our other franchises have had," Wilson said in the interview. "I think were still doing great things, they were great playing games and they were significantly more than roster updates."
The claim that the Madden Franchise has become nothing more than a yearly roster update is abundant among many disheartened fans of the franchise and fans of videogame football in general. In 2004, the U.S. video-game maker notched exclusive licensing deals with the NFL and its players' association. The agreements knocked EA's main competitor, Virtual Concept's NFL 2K series out of the game for the past 8 years.
This year's Madden had the largest budget in the series' history, according to Wilson. The game features a new engine called Infinity, which allows procedurally generated animations to affect the outcome of plays. The game supports many new features, including voice command on Xbox Kinect and the ability to call plays on the Wii U controller's screen.
The Madden franchise is immensely profitable for EA, and it looks like the company is finally putting some of that money back into the game.
