For a while there it looked like the Madden franchise might be dying. Each new version of the game felt stagnant with few new features to make anyone but the dearly devoted come back for more. In the past two years, though, EA has managed to revive the series, giving new life through better features and more in depth gameplay. Madden NFL 11 is set to follow that trend and will likely become the deepest sports experience in a game to date.

Though the game won’t launch until August, you can keep up on the latest developments at IGN. Here’s what they’re saying about the game.

Madden NFL 11 redefines the way you experience the game of football. It’s simpler: From 350 plays down to 1, the all-new GameFlow system puts you in the helmet of an NFL quarterback to execute an authentic, situational game plan, one play at a time. It’s quicker: 60 minute game times reduced to as little as 30 minutes; spend more time on the field and less in the playbook. full games, half the time. It’s deeper: Madden NFL 11 is feature-rich including all-new 3-on-3 Online Team Play, improved animations, more intuitive controls, and Madden NFL Ultimate Team … all to the play-by-play of the most exciting voice in sports, Gus Johnson.

Yeah, I’d say it’s gonna be pretty damn good.

It looks like the world is finally catching on that Madden doesn’t change much from year to year, and they’ve stopped buying. Sales are so bad, in fact, that even EA is calling the numbers “discouraging.”

How bad is bad? According to IndustryGamers, the Wii version of Madden only sold 67,000 copies in the month of August. In case you don’t remember, EA was supposed to completely rework the game for the Wii because the game just didn’t work on the platform. By this time last year, Madden 09 for the Wii had sold almost twice that number.

Sales for the other consoles looked a good bit better, but still not great for such a major franchise. EA shouldn’t be surprised, though. Why in the midst of a recession would gamers blow money on a game that, as I think I mentioned, doesn’t really change. When the industry’s down, you can bet the first thing to go will be yearly reworks of the same concept.