Hey guys, we thought it would be a perfect time to share something that
I am personally very excited about for Madden NFL 10. We took each and
every rating in the game (over 50+ player ratings) and scaled them
up/down in a way that is now using much more of the scale. I like to
describe it around the office like this…”We basically stretched out the ratings.” We want to use more of the numbers so we get a bigger, more noticeable affect in the game.
Let me give you guys an example….in Madden NFL 09 all of the WR’s Route
Running ratings ranged from 62-99. In the current Madden NFL 10 build,
WR’s now check in from 35-99. To counter this on the defensive side,
all CB’s in Madden NFL 09 had a Man Coverage rating which ranged from
64-99. Now in Madden NFL 10, CB’s Man Coverage range is currently
40-99.
Every position and every rating has been re-scaled to expand the range of numbers we are dealing with. The Overall Rating for your average NFL player has dropped.
Your Joe Average linebacker who was 80 OVR is now dropped down to 70.
The players who were before right on the cusp of 90 in a rating
category are now down around 85-88…Meaning, there are fewer superstar
players out there. Before, where you could maybe get by throwing to
your slot WR who had 93 SPD, with 74 ROUTES, and 77 Catching…now in
Madden NFL 10, that guy is going to have like 91 SPD, 60-65 ROUTES and
anywhere from 65-70 Catching. Let me tell you, these rating drops make
a big difference when that slot rookie WR with 90+ speed now drops
every 3rd pass or so, or just simply cannot get open.
The superstars have not been affected
however, this is intentional. Peyton is still 99 OVR, Patrick Willis a
99, Larry Fitz is 99, etc. The elite players at rating categories have
not been affected either (JaMarcus Russell still has a 98 Throw Power
and Chris Johnson still rated 99 Speed). [Side note: One of my personal
goals is to have the actual NFL players in Madden NFL 10 look like
their real-life counterparts and play to their strengths and weaknesses
like never before in a football video game.]
Speaking of the Speed, which is always a hot topic, we made some major
changes with the infamous SPD rating as well. To give you a great
example, I will again go back to WR and CB. In Madden NFL 09, the WR SPD range was 85-100…CB was 87-99.
In Madden NFL 10, WR SPD range is currently 70-100…CB is currently
75-99. So as you may or may not tell, the SPD range has been pushed
down, in our opinions, to better reflect the “sim-gameplay” style that
Ian and Phil have been telling you about all winter long. This SPD
change has been updated for each position, so it makes a huge game play
affect.
Ian and I had a game the other day where Earnest Graham broke one up
the middle for a 55 yard touchdown run… and he could not be
caught!…E-Grahams’ Madden NFL 10 current SPD rating….80 SPD.
That should give you a good sense of what is possible with the new
ratings. It’s not all about having the 90+ SPD anymore. On this
particular run, Ian’s CB’s got hung up against some blockers and all I
had to do was beat one safety and Graham was gone! He had Brandon
Jacobs and his 85 SPD breaking some long runs as well. On the flip side
of bigger/slower backs, Chris Johnson is absolutely lethal right now.
You can actually get him outside with sweeps now and he is a beast to
stop. But again, we are constantly tuning the gameplay, we have an
entire team dedicated to that and they are some of the best people we
have in the building.
So there you have it, player ratings are in for a major overhaul this
year and I am really excited already with the impact they are having on
the early builds of the game. And rest assured, we are well aware of
the outside impacts this will have….Rookies will now come into the
league based on the new ranges, NCAA Import guys are being tuned as
well…Progression has been accounted for as well to better reflect
breakout stars and burned-out former stars. Meaning, we want to have
bigger jumps in OVR this year, both positive and negative. That’s all
for now, probably gave away too much already!
Would love to hear any feedback about this big new change in the way we
do player ratings. I’d be happy to answer any questions regarding the
new rating ranges….please no individual ratings questions, not
answering those! Stay tuned for more Madden player rating related blogs
in the future!
- Donny Moore – Madden NFL 10 Designer
Subject: first madden 10 update 
