The next incarnation of Madden NFL Football will come out in August, whether there's a season or not, so we're guaranteed some form of football in 2011. In this year's version, the rules governing concussions will be more in line with what really happens in the National Football League when a player suffers an injury.
Semsey said dialogue and animations for Madden NFL 12 still are being constructed, but the diagnosis of a concussion would likely come in the form of a sideline report after the player was helped from the field. The commentary team of Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth will likely mention the seriousness of the injury, Semsey said. In gameplay, users will have no option of reinserting the player for the remainder of the game. The player's condition will likely be presented in an off-camera way; cinematics involving the treatment or stabilization of a concussed player are not expected.
Usually in the world of Madden, if a player has suffered an injury, you have the option of putting him back in the game with a) a degraded level of performance and b) a greater likelihood of that player getting injured again, and likely even worse than the initial injury. However, the last installment of the Madden franchise didn't have concussions as an injury a player could suffer, so it wasn't an issue. In the upcoming version, however, if your player suffers a concussion, he's done for the rest of the game, just like he is in the real National Football League.
I'm curious as to how EA will handle this. . .will concussions be a function of just the regular "injury" rating, or will EA put something in there based on how many concussions a player has suffered in the past? Studies have shown that when you get a concussion, it's easier for you to become concussed after that, so I'm not entirely sure how EA is going to reflect that, but I'm sure there will be something on it here soon.