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Madden NFL 13 AFC West Cover Candidates Revealed

The cover candidates for the upcoming Madden 13 tournament started making their way out. Today EA Sports released the 8 players that are eligible from the AFC West. One division will be announced every day until the…

afc west cover candidates for Madden NFL 13 The cover candidates for the upcoming Madden 13 tournament started making their way out. Today EA Sports released the 8 players that are eligible from the AFC West. One division will be announced every day until the start of the tournament on March 7th.

The Oakland Raiders have the 2 most unique players up for selection in kicker Sebastian Janikowski and punter Shane Lechler. I can already see some fans with a great sense of humor going all out to get a special teams player on the cover. Whether EA Sports allows that to happen is another story entirely.

Tim Tebow and Von Miller represent the Denver Broncos. Tebow is the odds on favorite to run away with the competition but no one expected Peyton Hillis to pull off an upset in every round on his way to the Madden 12 cover so Tebow is far from a sure thing.

Below is the full list of all 8 AFC West candidates for the Madden 13 Cover:

Oakland Raiders: Sebastian Janikowski, Shane Lechler
San Diego Chargers: Philip Rivers, Antonio Gates
Denver Broncos: Tim Tebow, Von Miller
Kansas City Chiefs: Dwayne Bowe, Derrick Johnson

Rumor: Madden 13 To Feature Kinect Support

xbox 360 madden 13 cover

A few days ago Amazon.com released their pre order page for Madden 13 and along with it an early cover of the game. The cover for the XBOX 360 version clearly states that Madden 13 will have the capability to be played with the Kinect. EA Sports hasn’t confirmed or denied this rumor but if it is true the possibilities could be pretty great. However, the PlayStation 3 cover does not hint at any PlayStation Move capability. It is still early but it doesn’t make too much sense why EA Sports would play favorites between the major consoles.

The Madden NFL 13 cover tournament kicks off on March 7th so the cover you see above will change.

Madden 13: Defense is The New Focus

defense in madden nfl 13

Earlier today Game Informer released an interview with Electronic Art’s chief creative officer Richard Hilleman with some early news about what we can expect in Madden 13. In this interview Hilleman made it clear that the new development team in charge of Madden NFL 13 would focus on making defense fun again.

They are doing big things this year,” he said. “They’re making big changes. Those are big changes that are going to break a lot of stuff, and they know that. What we’re after is a better defense that’s more fun to play.

Madden 13 is still months away so there is plenty of time to improve the defensive experience. Making the game more realistic has always been a concern of the Madden community. Improving the defense is a huge step in the right direction.

Madden 13 Release Date

madden 13 release date announced

The official release date for Madden 13 is scheduled for August 28th, 2012. Usually the Madden NFL games come out on the second Tuesday of August but last year EA Sports decided to move the release date back 3 weeks. The only other news we have so far is the Madden 13 cover tournament which will be a 64 man tournament with 2 players from each team battling for the cover.

If you are more of a college football fan, you can find the NCAA Football 13 release date here.

Madden 13 Cover Vote

As most of you know by now the Madden 13 cover vote tournament kicks off on March 7th. This year’s tournament will feature 64 players with 2 from each NFL team. Teammates will square off against each other in the first round of the tournament for the right to represent their team in the later rounds.

Fans will have to make the tough decision on whether to vote for their favorite player or whether to intentionally vote for them to lose. Since many people are afraid of the Madden curse striking their team’s best player it may be wise to vote against them. Look at how the Colts did this year without Peyton Manning. Losing your best player can ruin the whole season. How good would the Vikings be without Adrian Peterson? What would the Jaguars do without MJD? The Patriots without Tom Brady would be a disaster.

The Madden 13 cover vote is a great publicity stunt by EA Sports to get people talking about the game 5 months early. Odds are that Tim Tebow will win in an easy landslide victory. Even so, will you be voting for or against your favorite player in Madden 13?

[poll id=”7″]

FIFA & Madden 12 Sales Totals

ea logo EA Sports has released the sales totals for their 2 most popular sports video game titles FIFA 12 and Madden 12. FIFA 12 sold 10 millions copies while the popular football game Madden 12 sold 5 million. These numbers are total sales all the way through to the consumer as opposed to sales to retail stores like our report on NBA 2K12’s 4 million copies sold. FIFA 12 sales are great in comparison to the blockbuster shooter franchise Battlefield 3 which also sold 10 million copies. It looks like the NFL lockout and the release date being pushed back 3 weeks didn’t seem to hurt sales of Madden 12.