GameTap: Favre is on the cover, but not currently in the league. How are you going to incorporate him into the game?

Phil Frazier: Favre isn’t on the Packers roster…at this point, but if that was to change we could always add him back in the game using a roster update. Brett will be the starting quarterback of our NFL Greats team. You’ll be able to play as him on the team and you’ll also be able to bring him into franchise mode because those players are available in franchise. So if you want to sign him to your Packers roster as part of your franchise, that’s all you. If you don’t want to have to admit the fact that he’s officially retired, you can live the dream through our game.

GameTap: Celebrations have also been given an overhaul with hot spots in the end zone. How is that going to work?

Phil Frazier: When you cross the line of scrimmage, we leave you in control of the player. Typically in Madden, when the play is dead, we give control over to the AI, but now when you score a touchdown, you still have control and if you run to one of the hot spots and hit the Y button on the 360 or the triangle button on the PS3, he’ll do a celebration depending on where you are. So if you’re under the goal post, he might dunk the ball or if you run to the hot spot by the wall and you’re in a stadium that supports it, you can do the Lambeau leap. Hit the button and jump up in the crowd. You won’t be able to do anything that would draw a penalty in the NFL, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a little fun.

Phil Frazier: There are three really big things this year that I’m really excited about. The first is actually a collection of features that we call Real Football Intelligence. That’s the theme for this year’s product. Part one of that is a feature that looks really cool and that’s a holographic training environment. In this mode, you choose to go to the holographic training center and you have a bunch of training drills for you to practice. You can do things like work on pocket presence, you can work on receiver timing, focus on defense. I believe we have a total of 12 different drills that you can try. The mode looks really nice — the players are holographs, you’re in a holographic stadium — it’s pretty cool looking. And coming out of that mode, we actually assess your Madden skills, giving you a Madden IQ. Obviously, you want to do as good as possible in those drills, and from your Madden IQ, we actually set your game skills, so if you have a high score, we’re going to make the game really challenging for you. So the folks that are really hardcore with the game are going to get a really challenging experience right out of the gate. Those who aren’t so good, we’ll adjust the game accordingly so the game is still fun for them, just not quite as hard. This is what we call Adaptive AI, setting the game up to be played on your level. It’s one of the first sports experiences where the game actually adapts to you without having to adjust the game yourself.

The interview also announces the new Commentators for Madden, Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth.

Read More About Real Football AI and More HERE