An old Madden game could take more than an hour, presenting a major barrier to play, but games on Madden NFL 11 can take less than a half hour. A new feature called GameFlow also reduces the potential number of plays from 350 to one, which is automatically selected.The shorter, simpler play is just one option, but since EA Sports sees time and complexity as an issue for some fans, those attributes will be underscored in one phase of a campaign for the title. The campaign, via Heat, will hit around the game’s Aug. 10 release date. TV ads will show a father and son telling mom they’re taking the dog for a walk and then putting the dog on a treadmill, while they play Madden NFL. Message: The game only takes about the same time it does to walk the dog. Other ads will also center on the time-saving theme, presented in the phrase “Plan accordingly.”
Cool campaign idea by some of my friends over at Heat, who I've worked with before. I worked on EA Sports last year at Freestyle Interactive with Heat and Wieden + Kennedy.
Madden, as with a lot of other sports games, has really struggled to bring in new and lapsed players in recent years. The game has simply gotten to complicated for casual players. In terms of learning curve, sports games now match up to strategy games like Civilization. The last version of Madden I can remember playing was 2001 on the PlayStation 2, and I thought that version was complicated. Good to see a fresh direction for both the game and the advertising campaign that focuses on more casual players.
Props to my friends at Heat!
