In our recent phone conversation with EA Senior Product Manager, Jerrold Smith, regarding the upcoming Madden 08, we asked how a company who built its reputation on being detail oriented, so much so that their slogan “If it’s in the game, it’s in the game” became their claim to fame, now overlooks such things as nets behind goal posts and on field referees.

While we were disappointed to find that after three years of development time, these details would once again be left out of the next gen version, learning that the game will ship with Mike Vick and Pac Man Jones on their respective rosters concerned us even more.

The last thing we looked to address was the frame rate discrepancies between the two systems. For those who are not familiar with this, the 360 version of Madden will run at 60 fps, while the PS3 version will run at 30.

Is this payback for last years 360 version being left in the cold when it came to gang tackling? One hast to wonder these days with companies dishing out big bucks for exclusive features. We are not saying that Microsoft paid for 60 frames per second, we are just curious how long it will take EA to level the playing field for both consoles.

The interview below will require you to read between the lines as there is no amount of prodding that will cause a man to open his mouth and lose his job. That said, we asked the questions we knew our readers would want the answers to just the same and did our best to gain clarification when possible.

Mad: Hi Jerrold, first off thank you for taking time out to chat with us.

Jerrold: Not a problem.

Mad: When we chatted with you at this years E3 you confirmed to us that this years Madden will again be absent of on field referees and nets behind the goal posts. Can you address the gamers out there who are trying to understand why we are in the third year of next gen Madden gaming and yet those things are still missing in the game?

Jerrold: We are really focusing on having a great gameplay experience for consumers, so when you actually play the game this year, we really took a lot of time to make sure that the gameplay was really fun. We did a lot of things to improve the animation system and give players more control. So those are the types of things that we focused on that are part of the experience that you have as you play the game.

So that’s what we really spent our time and energy on and we feel really confident that when people pick up and play the game they’ll see, they’ll feel, they’ll notice the difference and they will be more excited about playing the game.

Mad: Sure. Ok, we can understand the time constraints and that it may take more time than available to you to add and animate referees at a level that meets the standards set by EA. However, with something like the nets behind the goal posts, is that a case where the feature was so low on the to do list that it wasn’t a priority for this release?

Jerrold: Yea, our focus was to make sure the gameplay was great so that people will have a wonderful experience from a gameplay standpoint.

Mad: Ok …

Jerrold: That is where we focused a lot of our time and energy this year. We listened to what our fans were saying and those are the things we really focused on this year as we built the game.

Mad: Alright. Another thing that we hear a lot about is the fact that the PS3 version of the game only runs at 30 frames per second while the Xbox 360 version runs at 60. Is there a reason for the difference in frame rate between the two systems? Can you comment on that?

Jerrold: What we do is we make great games for all of our systems and all of our partners, and so we try and give people the best experiences that they can have. So what we focused on was gameplay this year, so as you see that you’ll see how good the animations are, you’ll see all the gameplay improvements on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. We think a lot of people will really enjoy both of them as they get the opportunity to play.

Mad: With everything surrounding Mike Vick and Pac Man Jones in the media. Is there any chance that those players, pending the outcome of their cases, would not be in the game if in-fact, especially with Vick, they do not make the roster and have to sit out the year. With those players, at this point is it too late to remove them? Is that set in stone at this point?

Jerrold: We set up the rosters at the time that we code the game, so once those rosters are shut that is what they will look like, and so whether or not the player is cut or traded or suspended, its based on one where we are at the time we close the game. As you play the game there are roster updates that you can do — downloadable updates that take into account injuries and suspensions, and so those things will be updated as the season progresses.

Mad: So as of right now are Mike Vick and Pac Man Jones are in the game. Has the games roster been closed?

Jerrold: Yes. Right now the games roster has been closed.

Mad: So if something like that were to happen it would be done in the form of an update.

Jerrold: Correct.

Mad: Alright, thank you very much Jerrold.

Jerrold: No problem.

Tags: E3, EA, Madden-08, Tiburon

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