Madden NFL 10 gets online co-op; online franchises en route?

At the tail end of March, EA Sports made its customary announcement for the latest season of Madden NFL football, saying this year's edition will arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, and Wii on August 14. Today, EA unveiled one of the headline features that will be introduced with Madden NFL 10, saying that for the first time, the football simulator will include online co-op play.

Even more intriguing, however, were statements made by senior designer Ian Cummings in a developer diary introducing the online co-op functionality. In talking about the new feature, Cummings notes that an even more requested online feature may also be en route with this year's edition of the game. "[Online co-op] might attract a lot of different people to try out online who maybe they'll go try out online franchise after that," Cummings said. (Emphasis added.)

An online franchise mode was a notable omission from Madden NFL 10, especially considering the feature's high-profile inclusion in NCAA Football 09. Responding to requests for comment, an EA Sports representative wasn't willing to explicitly confirm an online franchise mode in Madden NFL 10, saying only, "We'll be making another major announcement regarding our online plans for Madden NFL 10 at our [Electronic Entertainment Expo] press conference on June 1."

GameSpot will be on hand in Los Angeles to deliver news from EA's E3 press event, which is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. PDT on Monday. For more on Madden NFL 10, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.