Madden goes multilingual

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Oct 16, 2007 11:02 am PT

Electronic Arts' flagship football franchise gets a linguistic makeover with Madden en español, and the series' senior product manager explains why.

Back in August, a handful of online retailer listings indicated that Electronic Arts was preparing a Spanish-language version of its Madden NFL football series for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. While the product pages were devoid of details, it wasn't tough to imagine what might be different about Madden en español.

EA today announced the game officially, and confirmed its changes to the series. The game will be fully translated, with new play-by-play from Spanish-language Monday Night Football announcer Alvaro Martin and three extra songs for the soundtrack. Dominican Republic native San Diego Chargers defensive end Luis Castillo replaces Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young as the cover athlete for the game, and in-game sports news and alerts will be pulled from ESPN Deportes and NFLatino.com.

Madden series senior product manager Anthony Stevenson recently took time out to answer GameSpot's questions about EA's first dedicated Spanish-language sports game.

GameSpot: Where did the idea for a Spanish-language version of Madden originate? Did the NFL ask for it? Did Madden developer Tiburon suggest it?

Anthony Stevenson: The idea for a Spanish-language game is something we've thought about for a couple years now. As our partnership with the NFL has continued to grow, we wanted to support their Hispanic initiatives, including Hispanic Heritage Month, NFLatino.com, and more. The Hispanic fan base continues to grow both in passion for football and video games, so we felt this was a great opportunity to have a marriage of the two.

GS: Other games simply have language options in the menu screens. Why release a separate Spanish-language version of this game?

AS: Our main goal with this release was to be authentic, and in order to do that, we felt like having a fully dedicated Spanish version of the game was the only way to go, including a cover athlete that fit the personality of the game. We wanted this gaming experience to feel as close to a Spanish broadcast as possible, and simply having menu language options wouldn't allow for that.

GS: In which countries will Madden en español be released?

AS: United States, Mexico, and countries within Latin America.

GS: Is this a one-time experiment in courting the Spanish-speaking market, or something EA plans to do with all subsequent Madden games?

AS: Each year we have to evaluate our resources and priorities; however, we went into this project with the hope that it would be well received and become a part of our annual release schedule.

GS: Will future EA games en español arrive alongside their English-language counterparts, or should we expect them to continue to trail the original release by several months?

AS: Again, this is something we will look at each year as we evaluate our resources and priorities, but the goal for the future would be to release these versions simultaneously.

GS: Is this something EA plans to do with other sports, or with non-sports games at some point in the future?

AS: Anything is possible. We view this as a great chance to gauge the interest and reception of a localized game, and we will use our learnings from this to evaluate future opportunities.

GS: What kind of reaction are you getting from retailers? Are they especially receptive to stocking a product in a language that a significant portion of their customer base doesn't know? Is interest in the game primarily regional?

AS: Retailers have been reacting very favorably to Madden NFL 08 en español. They are constantly challenged with how to diversify their marketing strategies, especially within more ethnic regions of the country. This is the perfect opportunity for them to tailor their efforts and consumer communications around a well-known product, and ultimately better serve their customer base.

130 Comments

  • thegordoloco

    Posted Feb 11, 2008 4:43 pm PT

    RLwrestler119
    "Does anyone here not know that mexico, south america and canada is all part of America!!!, so for all you that say this is bad for america is stupid."

    That's the f***ing truth!

    By the way... thanks for the racism.... f***ing Unitedstaters

  • KMRB

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 2:03 pm PT

    Wow, what's the point in this? I mean most children that are in the United States and play video games SPEAK ENGLISH - I really don't think this is worth EA's time to convert a video game to Spanish. Moreover, it just legitimizes the ignorance of those in this country who choose not to speak English - good job EA...I'm glad you want to press upon Spanish-speakers to keep on trucking...ignorance is bliss.

  • Joey_Hedgehog

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 7:27 am PT

    Well, I don't hate EA but this game is a bit more oriented to the latin american audience, most people in latin america don't even know a single word in other language and a game in spanish will make things a bit easier. However, here people don't play american footbol. We play soccer, and maybe the game sales will be a mess. A lot of games have english voice acting and spanish subtitles. That's enough for me.

  • OmegaGear

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 12:00 am PT

    9 out of 10 people that play madden play it with the commentary turned OFF.

  • ck02623

    Posted Nov 10, 2007 7:39 am PT

    I've been boycotting EA for a long time. I hate them for many reasons, including their exclusive NFL license, their refusal to support widescreen monitors on PC when they clearly support widescreen HDTVs on consoles, and their recent purchase of Bioware.

  • DeathIsARight

    Posted Oct 29, 2007 1:42 pm PT

    capitalthoughts and jasonguy, I applaud you two!

  • DeathIsARight

    Posted Oct 29, 2007 12:57 pm PT

    Boycott EA! I am no longer buying anything with their name on it or supporting the NFL! I suggest all people not happy with this do the same. EA is being racist and assuming hispanics either don't or won't speak english! EA are the racists here, not us! Hey EA, newsflash..HISPANICS DO SPEAK ENGLISH HERE!

  • ratradler

    Posted Oct 24, 2007 10:46 am PT

    Good. Latin interest in football can only mean more money for the NFL, thus a stronger organization. I love football and welcome any culture to it. Me gusta footbol americana! As for the video game industry, why not if there are people that will buy it. It's not like they are going to stop making it in English.

  • ebookerd1

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 8:42 am PT

    Look personally I don;t listen to the announcers they blow it isn't even madden any more. I mean what the hell is there to read anyway. After the manual what else is there. According to my Spanish teachers 4 was uhhhhhhhhhh..... 4 in spanish. Screw the linguistics make a game that freaking works good has anyone played this game on PS3????? HELLO it BLOWS!!! I have a 360 and it isn't much better. Dude cut all the audio and words and the Game still blows. Fix the freaking GAME DAMN IT!! or Give us ESPN again so that you have some competition to urge you to produce a good game. I HATE EA!!!

  • ebookerd1

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 8:33 am PT

    Ohh... it is nice that they are making it multilingua!! How about they make it not SUCK!!!! so horribly.

  • RageSet

    Posted Oct 22, 2007 7:51 pm PT

    The ones who are against the localization of a product really needs a re-education of life. There is NO way you can argue that a product that is released in the US MUST be in English. The person that said that using English in everyday life is great, but what people do in their OWN homes, is their business alone. If they want to play a Spanish edition of Madden, I'm all for it. The US is a extremely diverse country, more so than any other place on Earth. Honestly, if you had to learn the language of a country, that means we all should be speaking some kind of Native American language instead of English. Go ahead, and justify that. Europeans came HERE and the English language came with them. So please argue why US citizens aren't speaking some form of the Native American languages.

  • sony65

    Posted Oct 22, 2007 1:25 pm PT

    EA is doing this to appeal to the spanish market, which is a great way to boost sales if it goes well. As for american gamers, this would actually be a great way to enrich lives by providing a fun way for english speakers to learn spanish.

  • Devvy01

    Posted Oct 21, 2007 11:37 pm PT

    hope they're working on a klingon version

  • ruiz2k5

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 12:08 pm PT

    when and why did this topic go from madden to illegal aliens and crap if you want to talk about that go to some racist forums and keep this strictly of videogames. i come to this website to read about videgames and not political racist crap. stop polluting the only thing we have that can help us forget about our problems in life..sheesh

  • segard

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 12:03 pm PT

    So madden supports the immigrant culture??? hahaha thats the dumbest thing i've ever heard come on it is just a video game... besides the people from ESPN are great , still they should've done it like fifa, with the different languages as an option, and having vince young removed from the cover???, i dont really get the point...

  • thegordoloco

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 11:10 am PT

    NICE...... Madden en Español will rocks!!!!! It's about damn time to see one of my favorite sports with the play by play in my own language (The ESPN Deportes' MNF team, is the pest for comment Footbal)

    @Jaysonguy
    Sorry, America is America.
    I think you have America and North America confused. Jaysonguy:
    America its ALL THE FREAKING CONTINENT, you are a simple Unitedstater, because yoy are from the United States. Any body from Argentina to Canada are American, because that's the name of the continent.

  • chakan2

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 9:42 am PT

    "This is great news for us Mexicans who would like to hear this game in spanish..."

    Honestly, when they translate Madden's comments to spanish, I think you'll wish the game were still in english.

  • chakan2

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 9:40 am PT

    Oh that's just great...I have to press 1 for english to play madden.

  • nytemarex

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 5:57 am PT

    Je suis d'accorde avec Tranceplant. It's fine to put it in Spanish. It isn't just the U.S. Mexicans will be buying this game as well. I know the language topic is touchy, especially in Canada where Quebec shelter itself from the rest of the country and ask for a handout. But you have to realize that Americans think everyone should speak English. If you go to Italy for 6 weeks on vacation, you should know some Italian such that you won't look like an Idiot. Unfortunately, North Americans have a dumb attitude that everyone should speak English and if they don't speak louder. Odd. Multilingualism is great when there is control. I agree that we should have one common language in each country, in the U.S. it will be AMERICAN English (you guys speak too funny for us Canadian and the Caribbeans). Nevertheless, you should accomodate people who speak Spanish, whether they're in the U.S. or elsewhere. E.A. might double their profitts just by putting a Spanish version of Madden 08.

  • -SlipSkull-

    Posted Oct 17, 2007 6:03 pm PT

    I guess this is good news for those who speak and read Spanish.

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