No John Madden in Madden ‘09? EA Promises New Game Announcers.
A potential bombshell has been dropped by EA audio director Aubrey Hodges. In an interview with Louis Bedigian of Gamezone, Hodges seems to suggest that John Madden may not be one of the game announcers in Madden 09:
I have to be careful about this. Although I can… We are making a change in the Madden commentators. I can’t mention who they are. We are using some of the biggest names in the business. We listened to the fans and we are making a change. And that will be more than one. It will be a fantastic year for Madden fans, I think they’re gonna be thrilled with this new direction. I don’t think I can say much more than that.
Yes Madden fans…there’s a distinct possibility that we have heard John Madden’s voice calling the action inside the Madden game series for the last time.
Of course, there’s also a possibility that Mr. Hodges is trying to generate hype for the game by insinuating that Madden is gone, but when it comes out he’ll still be there and there will just be other new commentators in addition to him.
Speculation is sure to run rampant over who these “biggest names in the business” are who will be lending their voices to the Madden franchise. Awful Announcing has already thrown out several predictable possibilities: Aikman and Buck. Simms and Nantz. Kornheiser, Tirico and Jaworski.
But who knows…maybe EA will decide to go completely off the reservation. Hodges said they were “listening to the fans” by making the change. So who did the fans ask for?
I personally couldn’t care less about this…I gave up buying Madden games years ago, and even when I still did, I always turned the announcers off. A person can only stand hearing the same canned observations so many times before their brain starts to sizzle. Actually, just having Madden and someone else come in to, at long last, record new snippets would itself constitute a major change. I swear, some of that stuff they’ve been using since Madden was still on the Super Nintendo.
Tags: John Madden, Madden 09
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March 26th, 2008 at 9:22 am
As long as he gets his royalty check, I’m sure Madden does not care if his voice is there or not.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
But John Madden always told me the right play to run…Who shall I ask now?
http://dailychatter.wordpress.com
March 26th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
[…] More Here […]
March 26th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
They haven’t been using Madden’s voice on any of the next gen versions, back to the launch of the 360. They changed to generic ‘home radio announcer’ to relieve us of the repetition that was Madden. I’m pretty sure we’ll be seeing the Monday Night Football crew, since EA went with ESPN personalities in other recent games.
March 26th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
[…] [Via beRecruited SportsWrap] […]
March 26th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
i swear to god if it’s phil simms ill lose it and boycott madden forever
March 26th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Unfortunately getting rid of MAdden’s voice will not improve the terrible gaming engine that they rehash every year.
March 26th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Um…madden hasn’t announced either of the past two years…all he did was said little quips telling you what play to pick
March 26th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
You have to love people writing stories about that which they have no idea. If you’ve played Madden ‘08, you already know he isn’t an announcer for the game this year.
March 26th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
[…] Link // Cache-busting and pageid values var random = Math.round(Math.random() * 100000000); if (!pageNum) var pageNum = Math.round(Math.random() * 100000000); document.write('’); document.write('’); […]
March 26th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Um… on the next GEN SYSTEMS… MADDEN WAS ALREADY GONE
March 26th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Actually, this could mean madden is coming back, as others mentioned, he hasn’t done play by play in the game for years now.
March 26th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
[…] A potential bombshell has been dropped by EA audio director Aubrey Hodges. In an interview with Louis Bedigian of Gamezone, Hodges seems to suggest that John Madden may not be one of the game announcers in Madden 09.http://sportswrap.berecruited.com/2008/03/25/no-john-madden-in-madden-09-ea-promises-new-game-announcers/ […]
March 26th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
FINALLY EA has listened. John Madden is the worst part of Madden Football.
March 26th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
[…] Link […]
March 26th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Madden hasn’t been announcing in the 360 or PS3 versions since they came out, so it won’t be a dramatic change for those versions anyway.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Hey dumb-ass…Madden hasn’t been in 360 or PS3…EVER! How is this a bombshell?
March 26th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I can only imagine what DJ Atomica is gonna do. I mean he’s in practically every other major extreme sports game. Maybe he wants to do football to.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Madden is in the game (for the first time in 3 seasons on Next Gen).
They’ve added some of the ESPN guys, and Madden is returning. What was being “mentioned” was the “announcer” for the next gen games is being taken out and replaced with the ESPN guys and Madden.
March 26th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
[…] (Sports Wrap) […]
March 27th, 2008 at 4:15 am
No Madden in Madden '09? EA Promises New Game Announcers
[…]A potential bombshell has been dropped by EA audio director Aubrey Hodges. In an interview with Louis Bedigian of Gamezone, Hodges seems to suggest that John Madden may not be one of the game announcers in Madden 09.[…]
March 27th, 2008 at 8:01 am
You do realize, right, that Madden hasn’t been the announcer on the XBOX 360 or PS3? It’s been an a generic “radio announcer” since the new generation of consoles have launched.
March 27th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Boom! He’s on his back!
March 27th, 2008 at 11:23 am
[…] A potential bombshell has been dropped by EA audio director Aubrey Hodges. In an interview with Louis Bedigian of Gamezone, Hodges seems to suggest that John Madden may not be one of the game announcers in Madden 09.read more | digg story Share: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
March 27th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Madden was not a commentator on the PS3 version of Madden 2008 either.
March 29th, 2008 at 11:23 am
[…] According to SportsWrap, EA has announced that there will be an announcer voice-over change in the new Madden ‘09 game. Could this be the end of John Madden’s voice in the game? I sure hope so! […]
March 29th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
[…] read more | digg story […]
April 1st, 2008 at 3:43 pm
but who will i ask what play i should run? )
April 1st, 2008 at 5:31 pm
[…] Madden 09 will be Madden-free? Does that really matter to you? […]
April 1st, 2008 at 8:08 pm
[…] Madden 09 will be Madden-free? Does that really matter to you? […]
April 1st, 2008 at 8:08 pm
[…] Madden 09 will be Madden-free? Does that really matter to you? […]
April 28th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
well they better put some commentators in the next-gen versions cuz that announcer has been driving me crazy ever since 06. All i hear is “he gets some air under this one” on every passing play. Thats pretty annoying. I don’t understand why they don’t get authentic Monday Night Football commentators. I mean they have the ESPN license and they aren’t doing anything with it. I mean when 2k made ESPN 2k5, it was a full-fledged ESPN experience. EA buys the rights and they don’t have a single ESPN themed thing in the game. Atleast start with a scoreboard and overlays like 2k did in 2k5. An ESPN License doesn’t mean shit if you don’t use it. If they don’t step it up, im gonna just have to wait til they lose their damn license to ESPN and the NFL and buy the hopefully released NFL 2k10 after EA’s five year license signed in 2004 is over. This has been ridiculous for the past 4 years. It’s like a monopoly. The only reason they bought the damn license is because 2k was becoming a threat to EA’s precious Madden franchise. I mean a little competition is good, atleast taht way gamers have a choice and aren’t forced to buy a stripped down game. I’m sure that most of you have been as pissed off as i have been for the past 4 years. The graphics in Madden are amazing, it’s just the presentation that they need to step up. They don’t care about the gamers, because they know we have no other choice and we’re gonna keep buying madden. I mean all they are doing is making minor changes every year. Madden 09 is probably just gonna be madden 08 with updated rosters. They might as well just release rosters in august.
April 28th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
and they are promising new announcers, but what about next-gen? We all know that PS2 has announcers. They don’t even announce anything about next-gen. That radio broadcaster is so annoying. Commentary is not too much to ask for. Come on EA, if you’re gonna own the rights to the NFL and ESPN, atleast use it to the full potential.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:26 am
it will probably be Al Micheal’s and some other gimp. this is random but id like SC’s steve leavy and mel kiper to announce heh
June 2nd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
i think they should have….groups of actual announcers like: madden, summerall. Aikman, buck. Simms, nantz. it would be COOL to hear different announcers doing different games….depending on…home or away, and AFC and NFC….i get tired of hearing the same style commentary all the time.