EA Sports Misrepresenting Vita Version of Madden NFL 13

In the first real preview to come out for Madden NFL 13 on PlayStation Vita the author at Polygon, Samit Sarkar, expressed a level of discomfort with the ’13 being present in the title. That was and continues to be an understandable stance to take considering the game is based far more on Madden 12. The only addition that will be found from the console version of Madden 13 is the announcing duo of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. Otherwise the gameplay improvements, Connected Careers mode, and “Infinity Engine” physics are absent from the Vita version.

There is obviously great potential in this case for consumer confusion about the product and what it entails. The job of avoiding that and properly informing interested buyers falls at the feet of the company producing it. Now on their own website, where someone would be most likely to seek out factual information, they’re simply being negligent. 

EA’s Origin store has the product page for the PlayStation Vita version of Madden NFL 13 – it’s been live for some time now – and the description presented there is that of the Xbox 360 version. Even the screenshots on the page are those from the 360/PS3.

According to EA’s description consumers can expect the Vita version to have “Infinity Engine” physics, Connected Careers, Kinect integration, Ultimate Team mode, and Madden Social. It’ll also come with a pre-order bonus of Marshall Faulk and Dick Vermeil for use in Connected Careers and Ultimate Team.

Everything mentioned in the above paragraph is not actually part of the Vita product. Those features are only found on the 360/PS3 and there is no pre-order bonus for Vita. Madden Social is a standalone Facebook game that shouldn’t be listed with any version.

Regardless of whether this was just a simple oversight as opposed to disregard for accuracy its the kind of mistake that creates misinformation and consumer distrust. EA Sports decided to market Madden on the Vita with the ’13 name despite the fact that the features differ significantly from the HD console offerings. In doing so they took the lazy route of just posting information without differentiating the products and never bothered to make sure the listings were correct. It’s an inexcusable mistake and one that only hammers in even more the concern that Sarkar expressed in his piece.

(Update) Response finally came as EA has updated the page to now reflect the actual Vita features.