My name is Danny Doeberling, and I’m a Designer on Madden NFL 13 for PS Vita. The game is launching on August 28th, but I wanted to let you know how you can get your hands on the action early with the demo, starting August 14th. When designing Madden for PS Vita, the Dev Team set the goal of making the most complete Madden handheld experience to date, and without a doubt I feel we delivered it. Madden NFL 13 is visually stunning on PS Vita — seeing all the superstars decked out in their brand new NFL uniforms in HD on that gorgeous OLED screen really gets you excited for football season to start. The game is built from the Gen 3 engine, so if you are familiar with PlayStation 3, you will feel right at home here.

Our favorite part of development on this title was incorporating PS Vita’s unique features. I’ll just say this: you don’t know how much you need the touch screen until you get it in your hands — you can use your finger to freely draw receivers’ routes! We titled this feature Call Your Shots. It’s quick, it’s fun, and it will make you forget about the old way of individually assigning player hot routes (which we still have for you traditionalists). It also works wonders on defense, too. Quickly send a Linebacker on a blitz or drop your Safeties back off into a deep zone. We love using Call Your Shots in head-to-head games around the office — things get ultra-competitive when people here think they’re an armchair Mike Tomlin. With the touch screen, we also let you call plays, select players, and easily put a player in motion with a swipe of the finger.

When we looked at the rear touch pad, we wanted to use it as a way to provide enhanced control while emphasizing efficiency. The rear touch pad lets you modify each defensive group and offensive line pre-play. You can also double-tap it to do jukes with the ballcarrier or spins with a quick drag of the finger. PS Vita just has so many dynamic features; it was fun getting a chance to experiment with everything. We ended up using the motion sensor function for kicking, and the camera for snapping your photo for inclusion in Superstar mode. As a Designer, it’s really fun getting to play around with new hardware — especially with the tool set this system has — and finding ways to make Madden better.

The demo gives you a taste of the action by letting you play with last year’s Super Bowl teams. So, see if you can start mastering all of your touch screen moves and command the field like Calvin Johnson. Like I said earlier, we have created the most complete handheld Madden experience to date. You can play as a player in Superstar Mode, compete in a full Franchise mode with Fantasy Draft, go head-to-head Online, and get updated rosters and Madden Moments live throughout the NFL season. I am sure you guys will have a blast playing the demo, and I’ll see you online when the game launches August 28th.