EA ANNOUNCES THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF NFL HEAD COACH
Indianapolis Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy Will Grace the Cover of NFL Licensed Strategy Game
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., - February 26, 2008 - Put on your headset, grab your clipboard and see if you have what it takes to be a head coach in the National Football League. Today, Electronic Arts Inc, (NASDAQ: ERTS) announces NFL Head Coach 09, featuring Indianapolis Colts' head coach Tony Dungy on the game's cover. Released under the EA SPORTS™ brand, NFL Head Coach 09 is a unique NFL experience that gives gamers the power to make decisions that define their career and ultimately the fate of their franchise as a head coach in the NFL.
"In NFL Head Coach 09, the gamer has complete control of their franchise?s destiny," says NFL Head Coach 09 Executive Producer Jeremy Strauser. "From draft day to game day, the gamers' decisions impact their team’s success and make or break a team's road to the Super Bowl."
In 2007, Dungy became the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl when the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI. Since Dungy's arrival to Indianapolis in 2001, the Colts have earned six playoff berths and have won more than 70 regular-season games. Dungy has an impressive .661 winning percentage as a head coach over the past 12 seasons.
NFL Head Coach 09 provides a complete NFL experience, offering a variety of different ways to control an NFL franchise, on and off the field, in-season and off-season. With strategic game planning features, NFL Head Coach 09 places gamers in the coach's seat by allowing gamers to comprehensively scout the opponent, build playbooks, and develop a team that will adapt to the philosophy and system of an NFL franchise.
The sideline is your playing field in NFL Head Coach 09 - gamers can make adjustments to plays and game strategies in an instant. The outcome of every game depends on game-time decisions made on the sideline. Success depends on proper preparation and knowledge of the opposing teams' strategies, as well as expert and timely play calling.
Developed in Orlando, Florida by EA Tiburon, NFL Head Coach 09 will be available for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360™ video game system from Microsoft.
EA SPORTS™ is the leading interactive sports software brand in the world, with top-selling titles and franchises including Madden NFL Football, FIFA Soccer, NHL hockey, NBA LIVE basketball, NCAAFootball, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR and NASCAR racing.
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EA has clearly been listening to Destiny's Child a bit. They are dusting themselves off and trying again.
But this game will still fail. I can't imagine anybody wanting to play this.
@Dexter: Dammit, I should’ve used that line.
Isn't there a semi-popular sports series in Europe that does something just like this but with soccer? Maybe EA should just try copying that and replace all instances of "football" with football.
Nice post pic :)
Is STATEGERY a real word??
@Y0j1mb0: It is if I say it is, goddammit! Also, click here.
@Fronz: What can I say? My New York sports bias shines through in all my writing.
Epic pic, I thought madden already had a 'coaching' or 'franchise' mode, so what would the point of this game be?
Samit:
LMAO..Nice try but I GOTCHA!!
@CaffeinePowered: There’s an Owner Mode in Madden where you control details like ticket and concession prices, but that puts you in the shoes of the owner as opposed to the head coach (natch). This game is all about making on-the-field decisions — the press release says something like “the sideline is your domain”.
This will be RTS of the year.
Too bad this game cannot make me coach the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders to have hot, sweaty locker room sex with me.
So the first Head Coach game sucked and the Madden series itself hasn't had a good game since the 2005 version.... but nah. Go ahead, EA. People will always buy this shit/
I will lead the Raiders to victory!
I will lead the Raiders back to L.A.!
When are we going to see FreePablo and Samit fight it out to the death?
LA vs. NY
@vexed alex: It wouldn’t be a contest in any sport except basketball, where both the Lakers and Clippers would wipe the floor with the Knicks (I know that, and I don’t even follow the sport). Otherwise, it’s Yankees, Giants, and Rangers all the way!
You hear that, Pablo? Samit said LA is the stuff of vagina. He said all Los Angeles is good for is that fake sport, Basketball.
*sits and waits for a fist fight*
how, HOW did this become a franchise???
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HOW??????
@ Dexter
you meant Aliyah lol
I'm down with this game if it fixes the whole load time issue, and you know, made it fun like Madden's Owner Mode
Finally
I'm having a crazy thought...
why not just package this with madden as an extra feature? At least people wouldn't bitch for at least one year about how madden never changes but once ever console generation
Coming from the U.K and being a football (aka soccer) fan, I think you yanks will enjoy this kind of game.
In the U.K/EU we've had the Football Manager games series for a while now. A lot of my football friends play them. They let you control all aspects for running a football team (ie buying selling player, where your money gets spent etc.
Beyond Fifa or Pro Evo, these management style games let you do all those things that you would do if you managed you favourite team. They might not sound as action packed as playing actual football but are a lot of fun.
With you guys now into fantasy football too, this new EA game is the next step in that chain. I bet EA will clean house with this NFL cut and you mericans will love it. One for you Friday Night Lights fans out there.
So much for original IPs.
EA are not exactly the best of companies when it comes to making sports managment games. Both their F1 & (Proper) football managment games have been terrible over the years.
Its just a shame that none of the rest of the world deems American football to be worthwhile as you could be having someone like Sports Interactive (Now part of Sega) making you a managment game. They're who "Cowboy TTop" mentioned about making Football Manager, which usually on a yearly basis breaks the sales records for PC gaming.
Football (soccer) Manager games have always done wonders in Europe, no wonder EA's trying a similar thing here.
Eschatos, aren't Dead Space and Tiberium original IP too. So long as they don't just push license games and do original stuff to that's fine.
I can't imagine the knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers that compose most (not all) of Madden fans getting into this.
The last head coach had all of the charm of an excel spreadsheet. I don't see that changing here.
@casualweaponry: Hey! I’m no knuckle-dragging mouth-breather! (yes, I know you said “most”). But yeah, I agree — this never appealed to me one bit.
I played the one on PS2. Might have been the most boring game I ever played. Fucking snoozefest.
It's especially amusing to me that this is only going on the HD consoles. Like more detailed graphics would solve the problem of EA taking the most boring aspects of madden and making a separate game out of it.
I think it is suppost to capitalize on the fantasy sports crowd, but the best part of fantsy football is watching all the games on Sunday (Monday and sometimes Thursday) and cheering them all on. I think it loses that part when you are only watching digital representations. If I had enough friends that would want to play it with me, (or it is online) and came part of Madden 09 I would play it
Also please give us online leagues, and if they do, do you think we could get enough d-toiders to put a league together Samit
Well these games are never much to look at. There's loads of stats and stuff. In the end it is what it is, and in truth is only as boring as you make it.
Once we get a better look at the game, I bet sales will be high. Remember, nfl fans at dtoid are a chip of the iceberg.
@Samit,
Yeah I was a little rough there. Just that online Madden peeps rank with online Halo peeps in annoyance factor.
@ everyone who might be interested in Head Coach,
Grab the older version from EB/Gamestop. It's dirt cheap. Like 3 or 4 bucks. That way you know if you'll like it or not. Probably not though.
@jdub28: Well, I certainly won’t be buying this game. But if EA Tiburon can do with Madden NFL 09 what they couldn’t with Madden NFL 08 — namely, ensure that the PS3 version is on par with the 360 version — then I’ll definitely pick it up. And I’ve never played any sports games online, so I’d love to try it out.
This game is a cool concept for hardcore football fans... I won't be playing it by any means.
@casualweaponry
Actually, I'd skip the first one. As a concept, its great, but as an actual "game" experience, and can honestly say that the first one was pretty shameful. The way that everything required a loading time to progress, coupled with the fact that the game was indeed buggy, not to mention the interface was ridiculously clunky.
My hope is that this new one will just fix all that, and I'll have my Franchise mode without awkward stats that take into account my inability to play a halfback or cornerback effectively in the Madden game.
Ohhhh, American Football you mean!
METER
GRAM!
I prefer to do the running, jumping, and hitting part, not the watching people run, jump, and hit part.
They could easily put this in Madden as a 'Front Office' mode. There's already an option to just call and Sim the plays. Too bad the execution of the plays when left up to the CPU play out like 22 monkeys hopped up on roids and meth humping an oblong ball.
Also, if this costs more then 30 bucks at retail, buyers should be restrained upon purchase, and lobotomized.
Do Not want
I do agree that they could probably integrate this into Madden pretty easily. This should be a budget title unless they're going to do a LOT more than they did in the last installment. (of course, it won't be and I realize that)
I do like the nerdy side of sports and my favorite part of playing franchises is building a team, etc., but the last Head Coach was just ghetto as hell. I mean, the in-game action was terrible...every pass would fly about six million feet in the air as if launched out by a rocket, etc. The real trick with this game is how they can give it some personality and not make the whole thing so damned sterile and dull. The life of a real head coach/gm isn't dull because there's ALWAYS issues to deal with: guys fighting on the practice field, asshole agents to deal with, pr nightmares when your star RB "makes it rain" in yet another strip club...unfortunately these things would NEVER make it into an NFL game. Thus, this game will likely be completely bland and lacking any personality.
I cannot understand the draw of sports games and I understand the draw of this even less. To me, games are escapism. I play games because I want to do things and experience things that I can't do on my own. I'm fortunately fit and able-bodied, so I don't understand the appeal of playing a sport on my television when I can just go buy a ball.
Any insight?
Panda-
I will attempt to provide some insight. My retort is two-fold. First of all, not everyone may play games for the same reason as you. Also, sports games still provide escapism. I can run up and down the court at the YMCA with some old guys, and toss up a few jumpers, but that doesn't mean I can ever have the experience of playing in the NBA Finals or throwing down a 360 dunk. Plus, sports nuts are sports nuts, period. There are plenty of college and pro athletes who want to play sports video games even though they play for real all the time, just cause they love sports. Just one of those things, I guess.
I personally love sports games, although not as much as I used to. One overlooked thing about sports games is the replay value they provide. People rag on EA Sports for supposedly issuing the same games year after year, but someone who plays several seasons of Madden 08 is getting a lot more value for their dollar (quantity-wise, at least) than someone who puts 10 hours into BioShock and then sets it on a shelf for the rest of their life.
Sports Interactive's Football Manager/Worldwide Soccer Manager is one of the best games series of all time. If this is half the game that FM/WSM is, then it'll do alright.
To be fair, I don't know much of anything about american football, though. Maybe the reason soccer works as a sim is because it's so insanely complicated... there are literally thousands upon thousands of playable teams in the game, there are even over a hundred in just England alone. And the way that the leagues work in England, any team of fat pub blokes playing between drinks can eventually, with the right tactics and management, can become a top flight team in a mere couple decades. That's just impossible in a league like the NFL, where people try to come in last for the top draft picks.
Why don't American sports have promotion/relegation? It means no matter what, any game you go to see is important.
@akathatoneguy
Thank you. That was a really great answer. I don't understand the draw of these games, but you did a damn good job of explaining it and I can see why others might.
@ Brilliam-
I love, LOVE the idea of promotion/relegation. I think it's great. I'd love to see the NFL as a three-tiered league with ten teams per tier slugging it out. However, I'm in a distinct minority and there's no way the league would ever do it because of money.
After all, the NFL isn't going to have some of its teams playing in a lower league, because the fickle-ass fans will simply stop supporting said team. If you look at how minor league teams in any sport fare in the U.S., you can see how this may be a problem. Half the time, piss-poor sports teams in, say, the NBA can still have decent ticket sales because Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady or Lebron James come to town often. If all the crappy teams played each other, fans would likely not even bother.
Besides...doesn't relegation only happen to the bottom team in any division? If so, then there are a bunch of teams still that are not near the top of the standings but pretty safe from being relegated...so I'm not sure about the "every game counts" thing.