Year in and year out, we on the Madden team strive to deliver the most entertaining and authentic football experience a fan could hope for. Thanks to the online connectivity of the current consoles, we can take direct feedback from you all (the fans) and continue to improve the game after we ship it so you don't have to wait until next August.  This first Madden NFL 10 title update focused on improving online experiences as well as general gameplay tuning, additions, and improvements.

Downloading this update will fix a few random stability issues player's encountered in Online Franchise, address the false start grieving issue, and fix the video lag for players with latent network connections.  Players who have been uploading their highlights to share with the community will be happy to hear that the update will improve the quality of those videos.  Fans will be happy to hear that the "broadcast" camera angle was added to the game after a multiple year hiatus. Also of note, the Playoff and Super Bowl field conditions have been brought over into online franchise.  Finally, based on a ton of feedback, ranked games are now set to 7 minute quarters with accelerated clock turned on in order to get both teams a fair amount of possessions and more realistic stats.

We are also very excited about some of the gameplay fixes included in the update.  We did a good bit of tuning to broken tackles so that a big bull dozing back has a much better chance of running over a tiny defensive back, and smaller, weaker back has a much smaller chance of slipping away from 4 or 5 defenders.  The sliders for Break Tackle and Run Blocking are now more responsive, and you should also notice defenders benefiting from improved pursuit angles (especially on outside run plays). Fatigue will play much more of a factor affecting player ratings, adding even more strategy to managing your substitutions.  Special Teams got a little love too.  We fixed the incorrect spotting of punts out of bounds and adjusted the Run Blocking slider so that it doesn't affect your kick returns.  Holding calls on kicks have also been removed so that you don't end up having to kick 30 yard extra points or miss out on that game winning field goal.

We are fortunate to have such an extremely passionate (and vocal) fan base, and will continue to listen to your thoughts and suggestions as we continue to make Madden NFL 10 all it can be.  This first title update will NOT require you to restart your franchises in progress.

A complete list of the fixes for this first update (and current plans for the 2nd update) can be found on our new FAQ.

Congratulations to EA SPORTS Community Member Ninjames on winning the exclusive Nike shoes. We had a great time tonight competing and interacting with members of the community and we are looking forward to doing it again soon. For those of you who were not able to take part in tonights chat, you can view the entire chat archive here.

Now that everyone has their hands on Madden NFL 10, we thought it'd be a good time to set up a game with the devs night. For those of you not familiar with this type of event, you will have the opportunity to play a game of Madden NFL 10 with members of the dev team along with members of the EA SPORTS Community and Live Production teams.

The event will take place on Thursday, August 27, 2009 from 5-9pm EDT on the XBOX 360 and will feature several members of our team including:

- Ian Cummings (EASPORTS IanC)- Madden NFL 10 Creative Director

- Donny Moore (EASPORTS DonnyM) - Madden NFL 10 Ratings Guru

- Ryan Ferwerda (EASPORTS RyanF) - Madden NFL 10 Development Director

- Will Kinsler (Raczilla) - EA SPORTS Community Manager

- Justin Dewiel (Dewiel) - EA SPORTS Community Manager

- Eric Gray (Emantx) - EA SPORTS Broadcast Producer

- Rob Thompson (SAMamboking) - EA SPORTS Broadcast Host

- Jason Thompson (PrimetimeSA) -  EA SPORTS Broadcast Host

*Please note that each team member's gamertag is noted in parenthesis above. 

During the event, we will be holding a live chat where members of the EA SPORTS Community and Madden NFL 10 dev teams will be interacting with the community. For more details on the chat and to sign up for an email reminder, click here.

While we'd like to play a game against everyone, we realize that we are only going to play against some of you during the event so we are encouraging everyone to play games against each other and upload the highlights to www.easports.com for the rest of the community to see. We will be creating a thread in the Madden NFL forums around the event for everyone to interact as well. On our end, we plan on recording and posting a few of the games we play on the site along with a recap article so that everyone can take part in the event. This is your chance to be the first EA SPORTS Community member to beat an EA SPORTS employee in Madden NFL 10. Don't miss out!

That's not all! On Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 5pm EDT, we will open this thread up for player ratings discussion with Ratings Czar Donny Moore. We are looking for you to make ONE POST and one post only letting Donny know about the ONE PLAYER you feel should get a ratings increase in Madden NFL 10. Make sure you bring some facts to back up your argument, and keep it clean.

Did I mention that Donny is going to pick out the best post and the winner will get these shoes?

Good luck and make sure you are online and ready to go on Thursday August 27, 2009 at 5pm EDT. For those of you planning on participating, let us know and if you have any questions, feel free to post them in the Madden NFL forums or on www.easports.com.

For those that have been following Ian Cummings posts here on the Inside EA SPORTS Blog, you have had a chance to enjoy a first look at a number of features coming up for Madden NFL 10.  As the Lead Designer for Madden NFL, Ian provides an insight that you are not going to find anywhere else.  If you have not seen the most recent post, you'll find it here.

On Tuesday's "EA SPORTS Live" program, Ian joined hosts Jason and Rob Thompson in studio.  The topics included his latest blog post, the EA SPORTS Community, his background at the Tiburon Studio, and the best way to have your comments heard by the Madden NFL 10 Development Team.

Enjoy the two-part podcast here, and be sure to subscribe to the "EA SPORTS Live" podcast archive at iTunes by clicking here.

EA SPORTS Live: Ian Cummings Interview Part One

EA SPORTS Live: Ian Cummings Interview Part Two

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