Today is the end of an era for me. 

madden09a

Today is the day that Madden 2009, the 20th Anniversary Edition, is placed on store shelves for gamers around the world to buy.  However, there are a group of gamers, and I include myself in this group, who will not be rushing around for joy or lining up at their local game store for a copy of the shiny new Madden 2009 with the Green Bay Packers version of Brett Favre on the front.

No, we PC gamers were denied this opportunity months ago – April 1st to be exact.  We thought it was a horrible April Fool’s joke.  That is the day that Peter Moore, the EA Sports President since Sep 2007, posted the following on his blog:

Madden 20th Anniversary and More!

2.    We knew that our decision to not develop this year’s Madden for the PC would be an unpopular decision in some circles.  But I’ll reiterate what I said a couple of weeks ago in this space…the PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.  We are committed to shipping a limited number of our games on the PC this year, but we’ve also had to cut a few of our games from the platform.  We do have ideas for how to revitalize the PC for sports games and the types of games that are best suited to the platform, and we’ll continue to explore those.

There are 546 passionate (and some rude) comments on that posting.  The PC gamers disagreed whole heartedly with this decision to say the least.

The on June 14th, he posted about the same issue:

Sports on the PC

Contrary to some of the passionate posts on this blog, we have no intention to abandon the PC as a sports gaming platform. Rather, we are taking this time to re-define the way we bring you compelling experiences while at the same time making sure we make the appropriate and necessary investments for the future. I ask for your patience, understanding, and openness to new and unique ideas…

There are 111 comments on this one.  I disagree that they “have on intention to abandon the PC as a sports game platform”.  Why do I disagree? Well check out this other line in the same blog post:

Let me clearly state our plans: This year, we plan to ship FIFA and NHL on the PC.  FIFA Manager will also be available in some territories.

This year, we don’t plan to ship Madden, NCAA Football, NASCAR, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, or NBA LIVE for the PC platform.

Sorry Mr. Moore but that certainly sounds like an abandonment issue to me – 5 of 7 games not shipping for PC gamers.

On July 1st, Mr. Moore once again posted to his blog about this issue (211 comments on this one by the way) and had this to say on a “red eye to London”:

– In order to make fundamental shifts in an ecosystem, you  sometimes have to hit the reset button. That’s what we have done this year at EA SPORTS as regards some of our franchises on the PC. That does not mean that we aren’t coming back next year with new, innovative, maybe even less-expensive ways to play all of our franchises on the PC, but for right now we are assessing all of the options open to us to shift the current paradigm for our games on this platform.

Again, I have to disagree here.  I think these are ploys to quiet the masses of PC gamers who have carried Madden through the 20 years of its existence.  On such a significant anniversary the very group of individuals who have made this game what it is and gave it the life that brought it to the consoles have been left behind with promises of future “possibilities” on the PC.

Sorry Mr. Moore but I think you have made an error here in leaving behind such a loyal fan base.  The reason the discussion is so spirited is that we PC gamers are passionate and we have always enjoyed our Madden and this year we will not be able to do that.  And yes, I know it is “just a game”.

Many of my fellow PC gamers would be out there standing alongside our console brethren with our hands on the latest and greatest version of Madden to take it home and anxiously await the installation so that we could fire it up.  We take Madden as it is over the years, bugs and all.  Yes we would discuss and even complain but that is because we are a passionate group of gamers who are now left out in the cold with our noses pressed up against the glass pane as we watch our console brethren enjoy the newest Madden.

There were two games I always went out and bought on release day, Madden and Tiger Woods.  Alas, that will not be the case this year.  Fare Thee Well EA Sports.