Another lazy Madden release, another loud review-bombing. What has it accomplished? Nothing. It’s almost always big news whenever a major game release gets review-bombed, but rarely are any changes seen as a result. Leaving bad reviews on the likes of Metacritic will likely never do anything to change a developer or publisher’s mind.
We dive into the history of Madden and how the NFL exclusivity deal with EA led to a lack in innovation & features in future games. #FixMaddenFranchise
It's EA wash, rinse, repeat change the roster, change a team logo possibly add a new team, change the cover art. NFL and NHL should just pull the license and offer the license to someone else.
The last great NFL game was NFL2K5. It is still better than the trash that comes out today.
Why? It’s going to be a non-simulation arcade experience which won’t compare to Madden. Supposed to be different enough from real football it doesn’t compete with Madden. Not that it won’t be amazing. It’s just that if it is it still won’t be anything like Madden anyways. Game won’t fill a hole for me I was really disappointed when I read it wasn’t going to be anything like their old games.
Just do what the real nfl did to fix itself. Play the black national anthem before games and wear the names of black victims of police officers on your helmet.
No I don’t even watch NFL. If they want to fix madden and attract more sales then do what the NFL is doing to attract more sales.
I know a ton of sports fans and if there’s one thing I know about them, they love getting pelted with pander politics while they watch their games. It’s like peanut butter and jelly.
One thing that is flawed in madden games, are in season stats when playing franchise or season mode against the cpu. In NBA 2k, you can choose stats based off of the simulated minutes your playing. For example, your league leading scorer may only have 16ppg when playing the game on the default game time setting. Even though the numbers seem down at least there is an option to have the CPU’s simulated game stats on par with your stats. As far as I know, I haven’t seen a Madden game do this yet. 6 minute quarters in Madden, your QB stats, WR stats and defensive stats are going to be half of what the computer is putting up. It’s flawed. Also, NFL 2k5 was really good but I wouldn’t call it phenomenal lol.
The last NFL game I purchased was on the Dreamcast with Straight Cash Homie on the front. When EA took over I didn't wait for the rot to seep in.
From the inception of Madden I was an avid fan up until 2005. Guess you could say I got sick of the stagnant game. Which is funny because 2005 they added the hit hit stick, if I recall, and it was the first Madden defensively focused. But that's all they ever really did. Balance the game slightly different from year to year. Sure there would be some upgrades graphics eventually once a new generation came but the core system always remained, basically the same. The last and only Madden I played since then was when Drew Brees was on the cover; think 2011. Which, despite being just another Madden was actually a dam good game; I thought.
Latest character-model snafus highlight why EA isn’t for effort.
“E-A Sports… it’s a bad game”
Football, both college and the NFL, is my favorite sport, right along with Formula 1. I would love to buy a quality NFL game. I haven't played a Madden since 2008. I haven't seen anything that has made me want to pay EA for the bullspit they keep rolling out year after year. I wish more people felt similarly to force them to either give up the license, or make some real meaningful improvements.
Honestly outside of the Fight Night series I have thought of EA as a poor sports game developer since the early 2000s. Their sports games were great in the 90s, but they couldn’t keep pace with the competition when more publishers of sports games arrived. Lucky for them they have had exclusive rights to Madden since I think 2005. Otherwise somebody would have knocked them off their football sim pedestal a long time ago.
And yet it sells gangbusters.
The real problem here are the consumers. If it didn’t sell like crazy it would force this company to try something else, but since they can maximize profits with low development cost and micro transactions, then why the hell would they spend more money making a better game?
Madden is what happens when there is a lack of competition in the marketplace. They were threatened by the quality and the cost of 2k5 and EA immediately purchased exclusive rights to the nfl because they knew that their product couldn't compete on its own merits.
Agreed. NBA2K was already beating the quality of the NBA Live product by a significant margin in in the early 2000s and the same could be said with respect to NFL2K vs. Madden. Unfortunately for us gamers EA had the $ and the connections and secured long term licensing. They couldn’t compete from a talent standpoint.
Madden NFL 21 on next-gen consoles is undoubtedly an upgraded version of the previous generation, but it doesn't make leaps and bounds.
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