If you’re a diehard Madden NFL fan, then you’re well aware the most recent game just debuted for all major consoles. You also know that the series has sold more than 85 million units since it debuted in ’89 and you’re probably well versed in the Madden Curse. But we’ll bet that you don’t know everything about the latest installment, so we tapped EA Sports senior producer Phil Frazier to let us in on eleven things you didn’t know about Madden NFL 11.
Let us count the ways:
1. To create the playbooks for Madden NFL 11, designers watch the actual “all 22” tape that real NFL coaches use to evaluate game film. EA S[prts had to be labeled as a 33rd NFL franchise by the league in order to get these tapes.
2. Plays chosen for you via GameFlow are based on actual run/pass percentages of NFL teams from last season. All situations were evaluated including a variety of down and distance situations, two-minute offense, etc.
3. More teams in the game use shotgun and wildcat formations thanks to some valuable information from Coach Madden. In a number of conference calls with the design team he mentioned that more and more teams are using both of these formations on a regular basis.
4. Madden NFL 11 is the first sports game to feature an active league commissioner. Roger Goodell makes a cameo appearance in the brand new Super Bowl win sequence.
5. Broadcaster Gus Johnson expelled so much energy recording his lines for the new Super Bowl victory sequences that he could only do one per session.
6. If you total up all of his time on microphone, Gus Johnson, the new play by play announcer, recorded more than 70 hours of dialogue for Madden NFL 11.
7. The Madden NFL 11 design team spent time with NFL coaches, including Tennessee Titans Offensive Coordinator Mike Heimerdinger, to help rebuild the zone blocking matchup system.
8. To help create a more realistic and noticeable difference between players in the NFL, EA hired 12 different size athletes to do motion capture for the new locomotion feature. Athletes ranging from heavy to skinny all performed sprints, cuts, stops, etc. to help make sure the new mo-cap looked amazing.
9. Madden NFL 11’s new running animations were captured on a 40 yard-long motion capture stage. The first time any EA product has used a stage so large.
10. The brand new presentation system in Madden NFL 11 contains more than 250 banners, 493 scriptable scenes, and 754 presentation packages.
11. To create the New Meadowlands Stadium, used this season by the NY Jets and NY Giants, the team’s environment artist took almost 1,000 detailed pictures of the stadium under construction.
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Scott Steinberg is the CEO of video game consulting firm TechSavvy Global, and founder of GameExec magazine and Game Industry TV. Hailed as a top technology and video game expert by dozens of publications from USA Today to Forbes and NPR, he’s covered the field for 400+ outlets from Playboy to Rolling Stone. A frequent on-air analyst for networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, he’s also the author of Video Game Marketing and PR.