In June 2008, EA Sports announced that for the year 2009, the Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NASCAR, NHL, NBA Live, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour series would not be shipped for Microsoft Windows.

When the game was announced, Favre had retired as a member of the Green Bay Packers, making him the first non-active player to be the cover athlete.

A Spanish-language version of the game was released on September 17, 2008 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms, featuring ESPN Deportes announcer Álvaro Martín.

Instead of reissuing the packaging completely, on August 12, 2008, EA made available a free alternative cover of Favre in a Jets uniform from their website that players were able to download and print.

On September 15, 2008, EA made available a cover shot specifically for the Wii that had Brett Favre as a Jet.

Players could transfer Favre to the free agent roster pool, and pick him up on any of the 32 NFL teams for the 2008 season.

Roberto Garza, a guard for the Chicago Bears, is the cover athlete for the Spanish version, Madden NFL 09 en Español.

[9] Al Michaels and John Madden are still the play-by-play and color commentary for the Wii, PS2, Xbox, and PSP versions.

[11] The game's soundtrack features 26 songs from various artists such as Shinedown, Disturbed, Innerpartysystem, The Offspring, Trivium, Wale, Kardinal Offishal, Linkin Park, K'naan, Gym Class Heroes and Busta Rhymes.

[56] Shortly after the release of Madden NFL 09, consumers began reporting several freezing errors in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.