Re:Possible Backfire but Great Idea (Score 2, Informative)

No matter if Sega's ESPN games are of better quality than Madden, they don't have EA's hype and marketing machine [and tradition].

That may be true, but Sega has really built up a solid reputation in the past 2-3 years with their 2kX sports games (especially their baseball game - EA scrapped their baseball franchise and all of its history and reputation to start all over after World Series Baseball slapped it around for several years).

And with their new publishing deal with Take Two, you've got to think that there will be more advertising and marketing than before.

I was ecstatic when I saw the new price point. I immediately pre-ordered the game. In the past, I've always just played the "year behind game" where I'd buy the previous year's iteration in the bargain bin after the new one came out. Download the last roster update (Xbox Live) and then manually tweak them to reflect the new years starting rosters. Ta-da. It's a new game to me and I didn't shell out full price for a glorified sports game expansion pack.