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Today's Super Bowl between the Giants and the Patriots won't be much of a contest, if 1Up's simulation of 11 giants versus 11 Stormcloak patriots is any indication. Look for a lot of career-ending injuries late in the game. More »
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In past years I've used the Saturday before the Super Bowl to handicap the field for the next cover of Madden NFL. Since the last time I did that, EA Sports put the honors up to a fan-voted, 32-player tournament in 2011, and on Thursday announced it was doubling that field to 64 for 2012. More »
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Earlier this week, the official Madden NFL 12 simulation of Super Bowl XLVI took both the underdog and the under for the first time in the past nine years, calling the New York Giants as 27-24 winners over the New England Patriots. A simulation run on dearly departed Madden nemesis NFL 2K5 returned the opposite result. More »
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His season may be over, but Tebow Time has not run out. And if last night's news about the Madden NFL 13 cover is any indication, get ready to see a lot more of the Denver quarterback during the off-season. More »
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At Madden Bowl XVIII, EA Sports' Anthony Stevenson just announced that the cover athlete for Madden NFL will be voted on by fans for a second year. This year's field will be doubled to 64 candidates, and the first round of voting will be a "play-in" round pitting NFL teammates against each other to determine their franchise's representative in the second round through to the finals. More »
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The New York Giants will claim their fourth Super Bowl title on Sunday, according to EA Sports' official Madden NFL 12 simulation, which has New York defeating New England 27-24 on a 40-yard field goal as time expires. More »
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So much is made of NFL 2K5 and the blaze-of-glory conclusion to its rivalry with Madden NFL that it's easy to forget another title once threatened EA Sports' glamour franchise. In fact, the Madden team also feared NFL GameDay until the end. More »
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Earlier this week, reader Dustin asked who would win between an all-white NFL All-Pro team and an all-black NFL All-Pro team. Mind you, this question was asked without ANY ROOTING INTEREST, and without any hint of RAYCESSNESS. Are we clear on that? Good. BECAUSE WE TOTALLY SIMULATED THAT RACE WAR ON MADDEN TO SEE WHO WOULD WIN. More »
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When NFL Blitz was announced in October, I asked the game's producer, Dave Ross, what kind of hitting action the game would feature, given the league's increased sensitivity to violence and head injuries since the last version of the game was released in 2003. Ross said at the time they were still working through approvals with the league, but promised it'd still "contain over-the-top, fast arcade action with big hits and guys catching on fire." More »
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It's the Xbox 360. Maybe you've heard of it? Today, Microsoft and the National Football League announced a multi-year deal that not only makes the Xbox 360 the official console sponsor of NFL, but is also partnering with NFL Play 60 to promote youth fitness. More »
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With the first two weeks of the NBA season canceled thanks to the lockout, some players have gone looking for alternative employment. Gordon Hayward of the Utah Jazz, for example, was in a Starcraft pro gaming tournament this past weekend, just barely finishing out of the money. More »
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Traditionally releasing the first or second Tuesday of August, Madden NFL 12 this year moved to the end of the month, Aug. 30. EA Sports insisted the schedule change was not because of this year's NFL lockout, but because it provided a more natural alignment of the game's launch to the league's opening week in September. That, plus the most expensive marking campaign in the game's history, helped record-setting sales, the game's top marketer told Industry Gamers. More »
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When the NFL lockout hovered over the release of EA Sports' Madden series earlier in the year, investors were told to expect lower sales of Madden NFL 12. Analysts pegged the potential losses at up to half of all sales. The label's exclusive pact with the league was renegotiated to terms that would help mitigate any harm. More »
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Remember Demetry James? The man whose breathless narration of Greg Jennings 99-yard, broken leg touchdown in Madden NFL 10 amassed 5 million YouTube views has joined Kotaku and Deadspin to announce our video preview of the NFL's biggest game each week this season. [NSFW language] Today, we're going back to the matchup that started it all: Saints vs. Packers. But this time, the Saints are without a key piece of their defense. More »
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Yesterday brought word that NaturalMotion, the makers of the popular Backbreaker series of games for iOS devices, had landed a license to make an NFL game. It released today. NFL Rivals, for $2.99 (iTunes), combines the offense and defense games of Backbreaker and Backbreaker: Vengeance with authentic NFL uniforms and schedules, and adds some bragging rights. More »
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Torsten Reil, the co-founder and CEO of NaturalMotion, on Sunday tweeted this picture which he says is from an iPhone version of Backbreaker: Vengeance, a spinoff of last year's football game Backbreaker which challenged Madden NFL without any NFL branding. Reil's picture shows someone for the Seattle Seahawks leaping over an Arizona Cardinals defender, in a stadium carrying NFL branding on its signs. More »
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It's an annual tradition for Madden NFL 12 to simulate the upcoming season and offer its predictions of how the football season will unfold. Last year it correctly picked one of the Super Bowl participants—the eventual champion Green Bay Packers. This year, the game calls for a rematch of their title game with the Pittsburgh Steelers. More »
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As the NFL lockout dragged all of the spring and much of the summer, Madden NFL 12 figured to be the only football coming to your TV this year, until a month before its release. From its conception, the game was meant to be a salve for the hurting hardcore fan, not a song for those who tune in only for Super Bowl commercials. Freed of the need to build features marketed to the indifferent, this was supposed to be the Madden for a lifer, if not a lifetime. More »
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Earlier this week I got several versions of a small talk question I always field this time of year: "I haven't played Madden in X years. Should I buy it this year?" More »
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In the online multiplayer era of sports gaming, I have been a Grinch-like hermit, rarely venturing forth into it except to ragequit and rant that none of what they do reflects reality, and to get off my lawn. Madden, which has a culture of elite play spanning about a decade, television shows celebrating it, and a cottage industry of strategy advisors supporting it, is one of the more intimidating environments for a newcomer. Brutal experiences early on can kill not only fun, but a desire to return. More »
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Previewed this spring, the list of Madden NFL 12's improvements to its Franchise campaign read like a letter to Santa written by the hardcore football fan. Wished-for features like draft-pick trades, custom playbooks and training camp cut days join new concepts like a fast-paced free agency period under the hood of Madden's most popular mode. But do they assemble into an engine, or are they a collection of useful parts? More »
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This has been an obsession of mine ever since Cowboys Stadium appeared in Madden NFL 10—hit the Jerrytron, the arena's massive scoreboard, with a punt. Tennessee's A.J. Trapasso did in a pre-season game in 2009, causing a brief foofaraw over its size and how low it was hanging over the field. More »
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Simulation-quality sports video games all now ship with some kind of solo career mode, in which you create or control one player throughout his entire career. By far, this fantasy experience is most underserved by the football games. NCAA Football 12 made a substantial effort to upgrade its career this year, and although Madden NFL 12 does add some new features with "Superstar," it remains inexcusably neglected next to the rest of the product. More »
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The first day of EA Sports' "Season Ticket" premium subscription, offering a three-day (or more) full preview of Madden NFL 12, does not reflect wide acceptance among the hardcore community it was meant to appeal to. More »
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The preview weekend download for Madden NFL 12 is now underway for PlayStation 3 subscribers to the Season Ticket. Because of the way this is handled (through the PlayStation Store, instead of an application) some may be confused about how to start the download. Here is the answer: More »
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The idea behind EA Sports' premium "Season Ticket" was to give people 72 hours with their favorite sports video game before it hit retail shelves. Turns out they will get a few more, with Xbox 360 and west coast users benefitting the most. More »
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John Madden has a low tolerance for cheesy play in the video game bearing his name. "I don't like to see stuff that isn't real, or isn't practical," he says, "like going for it long on fourth down." He would, however, blitz you every single down, if you gave him back one of his old linebackers. More »
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The NFL's official fantasy football service, offered through NFL.com, will be integrated into Madden NFL 12, updating gamers with scores and results from their leagues, standings, schedules and more. More »
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Madden Ultimate Team, the card-collecting/player-management/online multiplayer mishmash that's become an obsession for many, will not be active during the three-day exclusive full preview of Madden NFL 12 offered by EA Sports' "Season Ticket" premium subscription, according to EA Sports. More »
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The score was out of reach. The fans had given up. The result would have no effect on the season. Nothing suggested Greg Jennings and the Green Bay Packers were about to execute the most famous come-from-ahead touchdown miracle in NFL history. More »
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More than a year after this Madden fan's near-religious experience [NSFW language], Green Bay's Greg Jennnnnnnnnings scoring a 99-yard touchdown on a broke leg is an Internet meme backed by five million YouTube views and gracious acknowledgment from the NFL player himself. And now it's memorialized as an achievement in Madden NFL 12 More »
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The NFL's four-month player lockout suspended all personnel operations except for the rookie draft—signings, trades, all of it. With labor peace declared today, that process will be condensed down to a hectic few weeks, and can dramatically reshape the rosters in Madden NFL 12. More »
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The National Football League's players approved a deal with the league owners this afternoon, ending a four-month lockout that had threatened the regular season and cast a shadow over development of one of the NFL's signature licensed products, EA Sports' Madden NFL. The game is on shelves Aug. 30. More »
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The improvements to Madden NFL 12's Franchise mode will not carry over to its Online Franchise, the game's community manager says, making this the second year that Online Franchise has gone without an update. EA Sports promised Online Franchise upgrades are a top priority for next year's game. More »
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The executive producer of Madden NFL quietly stepped down this week after less than a year on the job. He is the third senior-level Madden developer to leave the title in the past two months. But Phil Frazier and his former bosses say it is an amicable separation, one that won't affect the video game whose annual release is treated as a national celebration. More »
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Phil Frazier, a 13-year veteran of EA Sports and the executive producer for the label's flagship Madden NFL title, is leaving the company, Kotaku has learned. Frazier's departure follows by two months that of Ian Cummings, the series' former creative director and himself a 10-year veteran of the project. More »
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At E3 this week, the sight I was least prepared for was that of Ray Lewis in full Baltimore Ravens uniform: eye-black, skullcap, gloves, wristbands, everything. This was an appearance for Madden NFL 12 but to him, it didn't look like it was for show. Lewis looked ready to play right there, ready to go in the two seconds it would have taken to strap on his helmet, clenched by the facemask in his left fist. More »
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Without fail, every time I bring up this job and its subject, usually with folks outside the business, the topical jokes start rolling. Whatever the latest controversy or embarrassment is in sports, people ask if that's going to be simulated in the next edition of Madden, Tiger Woods or NBA 2K. More »
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Beat on a quarterback for 45 minutes of an NFL game and you'll see a different guy in the fourth quarter. Some start forcing every throw. Some will run like hell. Some go catatonic. More »
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When Madden NFL 11 released last year with a virtually unchanged Franchise mode, Josh Looman expected to hear about it. He just expected to hear it on the message boards. More »
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