EA Detail Madden 13 Wii U – Fast-paced, Gameplay & Off-TV Feature

The following details come to us from Yuri Bialoskursky, lead designer on Madden 13…

On the speediness of using the GamePad… “It’s all about speed. It’s all there in front of you.”

On off-TV play… “It literally acts as a second TV.”

On time in development… “We constantly [had] to evolve the game along with the [Wii U] hardware. We wanted to make sure that we were doing it right.”

Pre-production on the Wii U version began in February and full production started in April
Game is currently going through Nintendo’s certification process
Hoping to bring Infinity engine over to [Wii U] next year
EA hopes their decisions will benefit both casual and hardcore players.
View basic formations, specific sets within them, and the available plays on the GamePad
All this can be viewed at the same time
Select a play to see a real-time view of the line of scrimmage on the GamePad
Use the touchscreen to redraw the play entirely with your fingertips
Tap on a player and drag to change their assignment
Text descriptions pop up for the color-coded zones
No touch controls while off-TV mode
Includes Connected Careers

Madden 13 for Wii U launches alongside the console across North America on November 18th.

[Source]

DigitalGreenTea

I don't understand why this game isn't using the Infinity engine while all the other versions do... :/ Is it that hard to bring it to the Wii U? I mean, honestly I don't know.

NintendoMan

As EA have stated, they chose, partly due to limited time, not to invest in bringing the enhanced engine to Wii U this year because the enhanced engine was made around the older, CPU based architecture of the ps360. Instead, they chose to invest only in bringing Miiverse and GamePad enhancements to the U version due to barely starting the port in February. Simply put, they made a financial decision not to pay for everything this time (EA has been hurting for cash), because they see and understand the obvious fact that the sales of the Madden'13 Wii U this year simply can't compare to the others in order to make back the money if they were to invest and pay for rushing to port the updated engine. Judging by the reviews of the other versions and the fact the updated engine was over-hyped (and possibly buggy) and the positive previews of the Wii U version, the tradeoff might actually be worth it. ;-)

Gregory Weagle

What a surprise?! The Infinity Engine wasn't the be all to end all after all. Again; I'm more concerned with the other stuff EA cut out (I think online was cut if I recall) which has more game value than that silly engine.

Gregory Weagle

http://www.gamespot.com/news/madden-nfl-13-for-wii-u-omits-several-features-6390624 --- Madden Ultimate Team--an online feature which combines fantasy football with in-game challenges--will not appear this year, nor will online team play be implemented. --- So no; I was thinking the Wii U version. Those two features are more interesting to me than that silly engine.

NintendoMan

What? Online is confirmed in the Wii U version. The online was NOT cut or left out, far from it. Nearly every online feature is alive and well on the Wii U version. Maybe you're thinking about the poor single player 3DS launch Madden.

12 comments

Newest | Oldest

Menashe

And it seems like allowing comments to be further nested beyond four levels might be something people want, seeing as it happened twice in one post.

Andy W.

My last Football game was Fifa 2001, it is also the only football game I've ever bought. (Except Mario Strikers), just not that into playing football, happilly watch it (with beer)

Greg, in your post above, you claimed that "online was cut". That is clearly FALSE. Nothing in that article on GS claims that "online was cut". Only a feature or two that uses online were. So my statement stands and the main online component, which is what most people will need/use is confirmed for the Wii U version. The extras would have been nice, but this is par for the course for launch titles on any system, especially par for EA.

For a second I thought that was aimed at me, but after re-reading my own post three times have come to the conclusion you must be talking to Gregory. The real question is, why don't Americans care so much about real Football? Oh, BURRRRRRRN! :D

We're learning, Andy. I for one prefer "real" football, and will be playing Fifa '13 on my Wii U on launch day. Hope to play it with you online!

Not getting FIFA? Are you waiting for PES on Wii U then? I'll probably get both.

While I'd prefer Fifa to Madden still not really into it. Black Ops II however... already pre-ordered. Theres also talk of an elite NE clan (altho we will have to allow Womble to join)