According to EA Sports president Peter Moore, Madden NFL 12 is coming out on August 30, whether there's an NFL season or not.
Last night, at an EA sports event, Moore said, "We'll be shipping this year, regardless of what the labor issues are, whether they're resolved or not... Madden 12 will be shipping on August 30th 2011, regardless of what happens with the league itself."
August 30, you may notice, is a few weeks later than the August 9 date originally announced.
My question: Will anyone want to play Madden if there isn't a season? I have to imagine a sales drop if there's no season; after all, hours and hours of football coverage every Sunday (and throughout the week!) almost works as commercials for the game, keeping sports fans "aware" of football, and increasing the chance of people buying the game. But on the other hand, maybe the lack of football will encourage people to pick up the game, just so they have something to do on Sundays that is football related. .
Personally, I'm still hopeful there will be an agreement between the players and owners so the season can continue as planned... but I'm a big optimist. My back-up plan: I'm going to start following professional bowling instead of football next season.
Source: Joystiq
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carlos0981
The chances of there not being an NFL season are small, but there is a chance. However, this would present a perfect opportunity for EA to switch from their current format of pumping out a disk every year, to just putting this one out and then just do updates.
More people would play madden if instead of costing them $60 a year, it would just be $60 for the game and then every year they put out an update for $20 or $30 bucks. The update would include the roster changes, and new player rankings as well as the newly drafted rookies. In my humble opinion that would create a better franchise that would allow more people to get into Madden, instead of just the hardcore players, which would also benefit us hardcore players by giving us some easy wins while the noobs get used to it.
That way, also they could save a traditional release for when they have something truly revolutionary to offer to the customers, not just slight graphical changes and small little tweeks to gameplay, this would provide a much better experience overall.
@xL7717
Why would it be a disgrace? Just because the guy made one mistake? He paid for that dearly, they made an example out of him. It is only fair that he gets a chance to rebuild his life after he paid for his mistake. The guy has worked hard and not only has he become a better player, but he has become a better person, so get of your high horse and cut the guy some slack.
Besides, I'm all for animal rights and the humane and dignify treatment of all animals, but is not like he killed another human being, or stole billions of dollars from retirement funds and basically bankrupted the country and forced us into one of the biggest economic downfalls since the great depression (see the documentary inside job for reference).
@Johnnybuku
Agreed.
xL7717
If they put Michael Vick on the cover, that will be such a disgrace to the NFL. That guy deserves NOTHING.
Mashpotaters
It doesn't make sense to me. No NFL season, no NFL Madden game for that year. The Madden games have always correlated to that season of football. To the people that bring up that point that it's the same game every year, well if they put out a Madden without an NFL season then that just proved their point. The only reason that I can justify having a different Madden every year is because of the roster matching up with the current season. Yeah I know you should be able to just update the rosters through updates, but it is what it is. If there's no NFL season I forsee another Bret Favre debacle like on 09. Whoops he's not on that team anymore, quick lets let people print a new cover of the correct jersey. Point is Madden kind of needs an NFL season to work off. If they're just going to go and make it up, why even connect itself to the NFL.
UNEMPLOYEDxxxxJEDI
Madden 12 might filled the void of no NFL season this year, but it's not the same thing of watching a nfl game and then playing some madden with freinds.
BILLYZELDA
did i understand this correctly.is there a chance there will not be a nfl season in real life this year
JohnnyBuku
Logically one would think that they would price the game cheaper than $60 since there would not be any automatic roster/player/season stats updates. Somehow i don't think that is going to happen.
As a die-hard football fan (go Seahawks - sigh), i have to say that if they cancel the season they can probably count me out as a fan (will switch to NCAA). It just amazes me that these spoiled-ass owners and players can't figure out a way to fairly share the billions in revenue (i cry real tears for them). Meanwhile we non-millionaires shell out hundreds of dollars for tickets and build them stadiums on the public dime.
Ridiculous!
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