EA Provides More Details & Commitments to Madden NFL 21 & Madden NFL 22 Franchise Mode

Complaining works
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Looking forward to 22.
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this is pretty good news to hear.. please tune sim engine to make realistic stats in league leaders stats

These are good words, good good words indeed. But as always the proof will be in how they deliver these things to us and how "in depth" they actually are. I know my statement doesn't come with the usual optimistic tone but that's just kind of where I am. Just kinda meh surprise me Madden.
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Editing the SS/X-Factors for any player is a welcome.
The greatest thing they can do is invest in expanding all areas of “User Customization“
- Sliders/Gameplay
- Assets
-Camera

Good to see but dont get too excited. If you read between the lines, they'll focus on this for M22.

I'll be glad to see the things that get added in 21, especially the AI Personnel Management and the X-Factor/Superstar Ability Customization, but I'm still heated that all this wasn't already scheduled to be in Madden 21 at launch.
Now that a specific list(with some pretty nice features) has been put out into the world for Madden 22, they need to deliver all of those things.

Pretty underwhelming for M21... May as well wait for M22. Will they even have new face options or the face editor available within custom draft classes (or will they use the same few generic faces they've used in the last 5 years)? Seems like a major fail not to add that in M21 since it already is available in FOTF. Kills immersion from me when all the players look the same in the draft.

Whatever updates we end up getting in Madden 21, I really hope those updates don't require a new game save to use into the mode. The way the addition of new X-Factors into Franchise was handled in Madden 20 was a debacle. I do not want to have to restart my online league again, and I don't think my expecting no disruption is an unreasonable expectation. Beyond that, as an online franchise player who always plays franchise with my friends, I welcome basically every single idea presented here.
I do remain concerned for solo franchise players. In my opinion, while solo players will certainly benefit from what's here as well (especially with respect to expanding game mechanics), none of the stuff presented is going to do a whole lot to liven up the rather dry single-player experience of the mode. Madden franchise doesn't do a good job of dynamic story telling, and none of these changes will do much to address that.

This right here.
Maybe, just maybe, with a deeper franchise mode experience, some of the players that are boycotting or waiting for used or Black Friday deals will come back into the fold.
They need to deliver on their words, though.

I think this is promising on paper. I don't think I've ever seen an EA response in a long time like this for adding/fixing Franchise. I'm a gameplay guy first & will always be, but I'm always been in the don't tell me show me camp.

If they were planning on bare bones dry FM for 21, I don't think the expectation bar should have been set too high, especially about a month before the game goes gold.
I'm not surprised.

I'm honestly not too excited with this blog, but I knew EA wasn't going to deliver anything significant anyways. This reads as a list of things that should be added/worked on every single year. Improving AI decision making and tuning the systems in the game should be the minimum done annually, so I'm not going to pat EA on the back for doing something that should be expected.
The Madden 22 plans sound okay, we'll see how they implement it, but if this is all they can say they have planned when they're shifting around the team to really focus on franchise mode then I won't lie and say I'm not a little disappointed. It seems EA really struggles with ideas on how to improve franchise mode for the offline player.

I'm glad they put this post out, but they shouldn't get any credit until they get these features in the game and functioning as intended.

Exactly. If they can deliver on the bullet points they posted for 21 I'll be happy. They planned on doing absolutely nothing. Let's not forget that.
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I think it is important for us to understand that Tiburon made it very clear their Madden 22 feature list is not final:
To that end, I do not think it is reasonable to hold them to their word today that they will deliver all of those things by Madden 22 launch. They aren't even holding themselves to the words they wrote yet. Certainly we should expect that they deliver some major feature, possibly from this list.
Let's not make that part of this post today any more than what it is: a high-level plan.

I agree. Not much here for the offline solo player. Also not much on immersion except the stats being more in depth. I’d still like some sort of recap show or something easier to follow what’s going on in my league

Glad to see they have some stuff in place, however even when they talked about madden 22 theres still a ton of stuff to be desired.
if they are serious about using community feedback, all we should tell them is bring back everything from the ps2 days and upgrade them, there was soooo much back then.
as always EA is good with the spin and the PR, glad they are feeling the heat, but lets wait and see what actually gets done and what they are hoping people, especially the non franchise ones, just forget about.

Exactly canes, i cant remember a year where "improved AI" in some aspect of the game was touted as a big change. hell they even gave us "improved zone coverage logic" on the last stream they did

Underwhelming IMO. Alot of tuning and i dont trust madden tuning whatsoever. I wonder if we even got this response because of that other company big announcement a few days ago 🤔 lol

off topic, username a play on Hassan Whiteside?

I just started the article, but I actually had to scroll down... in an EA article that has the word franchise in it... That alone is a step in the right direction.

Re: solo
Scouting updates, multi-year stat tracking, roster building AI, coaching updates and presentation updates would go a LONG way to making the experience better.
Of course not all of that is going to be in 21.

Were you here for AJ's q and a a few years ago?
I think Ericmaywether put out a video last year about the similar q & a we had with AJ at OS.
AJ clearly explained that FM features from the past were hanging by a band aide and the old tech didn't mesh with the new tech they put in the game.
Based on that information alone, I think they would need to flip the script and tear it apart and put in all new coding for that to happen.
I did notice some of my communication to the team has been put on paper.

The fact that they plan to put this much in the game in two years makes one wonder what Franchise could be if it was a priority the last ten years.
That said, things like updating scouting sounds great, but how will it be executed? That’s the key. I wish Deuce Douglass were running things and had full power to put in what he mapped out. As does everyone.

Oh I absolutely agree, all those new mechanics and adjustments will help. It wasn't my intention to paint a picture that those updates would be pointless for solo players, they obviously help.
I just don't think these updates will begin to address the most glaring problem with Madden franchise single player (how dry the experience is), that's all.

My two cents: Glad they're finally listening and focusing in on the mode. We'll see what actually happens, but it's a good start. It's a pretty huge bummer to see that a realistic contract system & a progressive injury system aren't even on the table at this point for 21 or 22. That's a shame.
It seems that they need to catch up to what the baseline should be for the mode and that's going to take a few years and if they actually do that and still care about franchise then maybe we'll see some of that get in the game. Still a bummer to not see that for at least 2 years.

I think that there now will be a schism even within the User vs CPU Franchise community. Everything listed for 21 and 22 is enough for me to be happy with Franchise mode. For those who are disappointed I think that it is reasonable to think that they're probably never going to be satisfied with Madden's Franchise mode again.

Presentation is certainly lacking, but if scouting, for example, simply gains a few layers of action, and maybe adds some player comparisons, suddenly it will be worth spending time paying attention to (as opposed to simply clicking buttons). Something like that instantly adds to Franchise presentation and life.

After years of nearly ignoring the mode and then trying to rebrand it as “Classic Franchise” in am obvious attempt to officially push it to the back burner, their feet should be held to the fire 100% of the time for anything they even hint at as a possibility.
When I say should, I mean it in the moral imperative sense, not the “what is realistic to expect” sense.

That's my main concern. I'm the type of person who hesitates to start a mode because of a potential real life roster move. Last thing, i want to do is miss out on a key feature because I started my franchise already and forced to restart.
I don't mind the live service model. But when it comes to certain modes, especially Franchise, I don't want to wait 3-4 months for Franchise to get key features. I don't want to feel like I have to wait until December/January because of FOMO.

had no idea about that , now it feels like ive been wasting time holding out hope for so long.
what exaclty are we to expect from franchise mode then? they spent so much time building up to what OG franchise mode eventually became, then they had to scrap it, and had no intentions on ever touching it again?
there was either a clear lack of planning or more likely a strong pivot away the mode in general once MUT hit. How many years has it been and they havnt added basic basic things like coordinators or any type of meaning player personality.
dont get me wrong im glad they are starting now but fully fledged franchise mode is at least 3 years out in my opinion.
Can you tell us which communication you had with them that was included?

I don't think Solid is saying port that stuff over. I think he is saying EA needs to look at everything the old games had and add that stuff in. EA does not need a creative fiber in their being to deliver us a solid franchise experience. They can literally copy everything they've done before in both Madden and Head Coach and the franchise crowd would be happy. That is what is very frustrating with the series. EA seems to be under the impression we want them to be innovators with franchise mode and they are struggling to do that. We don't want that. We simply want all of the features and depth we had 15 years ago but with the polish of today.

Definitely excited about some of this.
Re: the commissioner tools. Specifically, the undoing transactions and approving trades. Do we think that's for online multi-user leagues only, or will we be able to undo CPU transactions in solo franchises?

Where's Mark Price to explain how to do 32 team control or to spectate? Did you know 2k does not require a explanation/YouTubevideo on how to control all teams? If you don't know,now you know. I'll believe it when I see it. Notice the words in parentheses, its 5 small features, trade logic, roster editing, Reverse the AI Butchering of your custom roster, better scouting and relocation. These were in the game a decade ago so they should have figured out the coding long ago. I hope I don't get ban for saying the obvious. And to the nic pickers, yes no X factors decade ago to edit.

exactly they didnt even need a blueprint, they still had it, they just had to build it over time.

That's true, but not everything from the old FM days would warrant implementing with the polish of today. Head coach stuff would be nice, though.
SS, I'll PM when I have a moment.
I think by saying larger bandwidth, I wonder how large the team was in the first place.

I don't want to be completely negative here because at least they're adding something. But going off the wording, none of that Madden 21 content will be in at release. If last year is any indication it could be months before those features are added in.
What month did they finally add 5th year options last year? November? So, while I am glad to see they're making an effort Madden 21 is still probably a no go for me.
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Yeap. I always felt like it wasn't a matter of Devs lacking, but more so priorities not being put into Franchise.
When you see games like FIFA, NHL, UFC getting updates that we could use in Madden, makes you wonder how much is really held back
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I wouldn't be surprised to see maybe one small feature as a 1st day title update.

Anyone else see this as utter BS. How bout re-doing franchise from the ground up? How bout bring back features from 2005?
That news may delight some of you but I don't see anything of substance to warrant getting excited.
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Substance from a ask in early July is a huge ask with the game going gold in late July or now.
People that were looking for Tony Bruno, mini games, and newspapers returning set expectations too high in less than a month to get in the game.
Voices were heard and now they need to deliver on what has been said.

If they added AI personnel management by Day 1 that would be enough for me to buy. Otherwise, I'd assume features may be in by November for the new consoles.

So could we actually discern what's going in M21 vs 22? They sort of lumped everything together. Or am I misreading?
#fixmaddenfranchise

The list maybe shift depending on the plans for 22.
Listed below is the plans for 21.
MADDEN NFL 21 - Post Launch Support
Based on community feedback (subject to change)
With each update, this list may shift as our plans for M21 and M22 come more into focus. We will share with the community as the list evolves.
TUNING - Improved progression and regression of players. Improve core player progression into the future such that X-Factors and other abilities for older players work well with incoming rookie classes.
COMMISSIONER TOOLS - See a more detailed summary below.
AI PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT - The AI will make better team management decisions in the draft, free agency and trades.
PLAYOFF and SUPER BOWL PRESENTATION - Improve and refresh.
X-FACTOR / SUPERSTAR ABILITY CUSTOMIZATION - Introduce the ability to customize X-Factor and Abilities on all players, allowing you to customize your roster as you see fit.
CAREERS STATS UI - Improved UI showing historical player performances. More immersion and depth on how players have progressed in your Franchise.
TRADE LOGIC - More fidelity, depth, and authenticity.
RETIREMENT UI - Better insight into retirements each season to allow players to react/manage.
PLAYOFFS UPDATE - Add an authentic playoff bracket screen to see who’s in, who’s won and who’s up next.
Commissioner tools is a large bucket of items with a lot of opportunities and a lot of work. We see this as something we’ll continue to work on to give you more control over your Franchise in the year(s) ahead. For Madden NFL 21 and 22 we are looking at the following tools:
Commissioner Tools Priority Ranking
Ability to undo transactions, reducing friction and control over player movement contracts and trades.
Ability to approve trades.
Ability to reset a game in case of a disconnect.

I was going to say something similar. Madden 22 will have whichever new features are implemented AND the Madden 21 live service features that are introduced throughout the year.
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I've convinced myself the Madden team heard our voices and will put a priority on franchise mode moving forward with the game road-map. Also the HeadCoach dream we all had a decade ago probably left with Josh Looman's depart.

To add to what Roadman said: my personal interpretation of the article is that those commissioner tools are the most "at-risk" thing to not appear in a Madden 21 post-launch update (so they'd get bumped to Madden 22, then). Relative to the other things on the M21 list, those IMO will likely be the most technically challenging to achieve.
Undo Transaction in particular introduces a whole bunch of fun challenges to solve because a Madden franchise save in practice isn't a static Excel document, it's a living thing that moves forward in time. There are a few different ways Tiburon could handle this, it's absolutely doable, but it's definitely not going to be easy from either a design or implementation standpoint.

Paragraph 1 - pure lip service / bull***t
Paragraphs 2-4 - TBD
Overall, a solid blog, especially compared to the official blog debacle that led to #FixMaddenFranchise movement in the first place, but the key here is for EA to actually deliver.
I don't necessarily believe them, I'll believe it when I see it, but props to them for at least acknowledging that they have problem (with FM).

Nothing is set in stone obviously, but the first list with tuning, trade logic, player stats, etc. is stuff being aimed for post-launch Madden 21 while the second list with coaching staffs, scouting, scenario engine etc. is more looking towards Madden 22 and beyond.

I think people should believe this one. EA has been tying Seann Graddy to these franchise updates. He's the executive producer. When the company puts your name on something you better believe you are expected to deliver.
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Not gonna lie, this was more than I was expecting for their #FixMaddenFranchise update. As always, I do have some healthy skepticism (considering the lack of set timetables for this cycle and the prospect of certain features being pushed back or not working properly upon implementation), but all in all I'm pleasantly surprised.
If the "Career Stats UI" section means what I think it means (adding team names to the "Career Stats" tab of player cards, putting season performances in chronological order with opponent names, etc.), then I'm already more excited than I really should be. That's been high on my wishlist for quite awhile.
While a playoff bracket and improvements to retirement UI have never been terribly high on my priority list, I'm happy to see those announced as well.
I'm also cautiously optimistic about what they've laid out for M22. I feel like assistant coaches have been the community's consensus #1 want for at least the past few years, and if the first bullet point for next year's game means what I think it means, they're finally coming.
While I don't hate the current scouting system the way some people on here do, it has grown simple and stale as the years have gone on, and I'm happy to see that changes are on the horizon in that regard. Refreshed relocation assets are cool too (they'd be even better if they added some new cities as well, like Oakland or Birmingham), but I probably won't delve into them much.
One thing that is a bit baffling to me, though, is how editing Superstar and X-Factor abilities won't be in the game at launch. Not being able to edit those was a big gripe over the last year even amongst non-Franchise users. Also, this blog isn't very clear about wether this will be doable only in Franchise or if we can edit them from the Main Menu as well. Maybe the fact that they've tied Abilities to title updates rather than roster updates (for some reason) has something to do with some of their confusing aspects, but who knows.

Your not alone. This was close to nothing really. Tuning for 21 then they put out a list of stuff they are thinking about for 22 lol. This was in response to the 2k announcement im convinced

Exactly.
Anything with EP included with the signature better deliver.
I don't think he comes out if #fixfranchisemode wasn't a thing.
Social media does work sometimes., but ya know, conspiracy theorist are out there.

Not sure how I feel about this.
We will have to see how much of this comes to fruition.
At this point, I still cannot support this game in the future until it is more than just words about plans.
Obviously it will take time but how long before they go back on what they said....

Look it's great they are listening and all, but there's only so much cool-aid you can drink.
I get that it's unrealistic to expect any new stuff this late in the dev process, but why not ask the gamers what they want in future versions?
They're laying down a road map, their road map.
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This all but confirms that next gen Madden is a port with better graphics.

That's what's up guys! Proud of this community. It's okay to complain sometimes. Complaints got heard throughout and they made it clear they're going to address this head on.
I'm very optimistic about Madden now. I just hope they fix that broken career stat/per game log issue within Franchise for individual players. That's a clear indicator that they are serious.

Isn't that what Madden Voice is for, though?
They've taken suggestions from the community and implementing some of those suggestions.
Let's see if they deliver what they blogged. No one is drinking the kool-aid, yet.
Another important key is the EP's name is bringing this information, not a developer, that is a big difference.

I get that. But keep in mind that it's basically a 180° turnaround from what they plans for franchise mode originally were (the word "classic" alone should tell you all you really need to know). It just does not sound genuine. It should never had come down to this in the first place.
Look, I definitely do not want to come off as a "never be satisfied no matter what they do" type of guy. I actually like a lot of what guys playing the beta were reporting, just like last year. And some of what they suddenly plan on adding already this year sounds very, very nice (user-editing of abilities alone would be amazing). But it's definitely a wait-and-see approach for me from now on, no more pre-orders, day one buys and what not.
Do, or do not. There is no try.

IMO the Head Coach dream died when HC 09 didn't sell well. "HC features in Madden would make Madden's Franchise mode really solid" is not the lesson that Tiburon Executives took from that games financial failure, and that has shaped the mode going forward.
Also, there is no harm in people wishing for it, but a total rebuild or reintroduction of Madden 05 features in next gen Madden Franchise mode is simply not going to happen.

I can assure you it's not their road map. If you look at the additions and direction that franchise mode has been heading for the last several years, if this was their road map it would look drastically different to what you see there. It might not be your road map, but it hits on a ton of pain points the community has been harping on for years. With as far behind as franchise has become, it wasn't going to be possible to hit on absolutely everything but I can tell you both lists were made based on community feedback more than anything else.

It is kind of funny how things that have been requested for years like a playoff race page and a retirement screen have been ignored for years. EA gets called out for having the worst franchise mode in sports and they find it in their power to patch these small additions in.
Like I said way back when this all started. EA put themselves in lose-lose. Either they don't get everything in and get pelted for it, or they add stuff in via patches and everyone's wondering why they can patch it in after 4 months, but couldn't add it in over the previous 8 years.

By the way, will Madden 22 be released on PS4 / Xbox One consoles as well?

This is a step in the right direction, but it must be seen to be believed. Too bad that it had to come to this in the first place.
The real proof of the dedication is true enhancements every year, not just for 21 and 22. I hope they get that fact.

Ten dollars is better than five dollars. Some improvement is better than no improvement for 21. But they are going to have to come with it for 22' if the price tag is going up $10.

It looks like 21 isn’t really adding to franchise just updates to existing systems. Theses improvements are needed but not enough to purchase 21 for me. IF they can get everything suggested for 22 I’ll purchase day 1 and only IF implementation is done well.
And is there a link to the community voice section or is that coming soon? There will be an ability to rank community suggestions?

I really wonder what their own road map looked like before this, I shudder to imagine what was on it.

Basically another "wait for next year"

I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but most of those aren’t features or anything that shouldn’t already be there. Tweaking retirement logic, draft logic, stat pages, etc. those are tuning items that we get every year. Every single year it talks about that.
The problem with franchise isn’t tuning, it’s missing features. Coach carousel, relocation, rule changes, player personality, etc.
To me, that list reads as behind the scenes logic tweaking and improvement, which he’s, would improve franchise. But those aren’t the major pain points that impact immersion.
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This blog just told me next Gen will be carbon copy with updated graphics dressing on top.

However, the major pain points didn't have enough time for implementation for Madden 21.
Were people really expecting major pain points to be put in the game in a month or less?

Can finally see what team a guy played for. Cool. All we can do is stay on them to try and continue to push things forward

Two things I would love is expansion and start in the offseason.

EA better give me what Deuce Douglas proposed to color me impressed. They have a lot to make up for.
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CM or anyone with programming background.. explain why scenario Engine update is being pushed to M22..? Since it was Introduced M20..why isn’t it being build upon this year? Is it due to new console?
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"CAREERS STATS UI - Improved UI showing historical player performances. More immersion and depth on how players have progressed in your Franchise."
Not really sure what this could mean but it sounds interesting. I wish the blog wasn't so vague.

I wasn't expecting anything more than what we are getting for 21, but I was definitely expecting more for 22. The list of improvements is fluid, I get that, but I expected a bit more to be in the potential roadmap if franchise mode was going to become a major focus.
Part of that is my own fault, though. Why would I expect anything more from a series that is notorious for adding so little each year? Obviously they were never going to add as much as other games add and I should have expected that. Still, I can't read that blog and not be disappointed, or at least sad. It drives it home that EA is truly lost and does not really have a real idea on how to give the fans the franchise mode they want and I'm not sure what is the cause of the series feeling so lost, but something is really wrong with Madden on the franchise side of things.

Saying that big changes will take time and planning and can't be added this year means that they weren't doing ANYTHING before the crap hit the fan.
Yet he still says that Franchise is critically important and that they're all franchise buffs. RIIIIIIGHT. How can anyone actually not laugh derisively when reading that?!
Also, crawling slowly towards what Franchise used to be in, say, 2007 is nothing to be proud of. Come to think of it, it will be nowhere NEAR as robust as it was in 2007 (ps2, that is).
This is the clincher for me. I will NOT purchase this year. Not that it will matter, since EA will continue to reap tens of millions from MUT lemmings.
And if SDS doesn't get THEIR franchise crap together, the Show's a no-buy for me next year, too.

I wouldn't be too concerned or overly worried for what might or might not transpire for 22, yet.
My interpretation from that blog is that there are moving parts and they will let us know how the roadmaps are progressing.
We have no idea if there will be any bombs for FM in 22. We have no idea if they will put in a HT show, things from the past, things from HC, but one thing we can agree on, I hope, they are listening to the community.
I don't read that blog and think for a second, yep, that's it, how depressing.
I look at it from the angle that they were not putting in jack for FM mode in 21 and who knows if they had plans for 22? They got caught with their hands in the cookie jar because of the social media push.
And let's go back to Deuce's post, all those suggestions that they are implementing for FM in 21 and potentially 22, are from the community. Who knows where or if there would be anymore additions to the mode.
I'm not here to change your mind on anything, I need to see it to believe, but I feel a bit better today than I did yesterday and the day before and the day before, etc......
Time will tell, but it's not time to put the cart before the horse, yet on this.

I am disappointed that scenario engine stuff was listed under Madden 22. Hopefully this falls under live service and we get a few more scenarios for M21.
Hopefully there will be more to retirements than just an end of year pop up. Maybe have players give coaches a heads up of their intentions or at least something that tells us that they're thinking about it.
#fixmaddenfranchise

They'll have the teams players have played for in franchise with their yearly stats. The teams played for column has been broken for about 7 years.
#fixmaddenfranchise

well let see how they work cause most time what they said doesn't work as they said on the marketing news,

it sounds nice  but lets wait and see on this  

Couldn't squeeze in the relocation refresh?

Please! Please fix scouting!

I know its different developers, but the real barometer will be fifa 21. FIFA got the same flack after last years release and made similar promises. Albeit it was more franchise bugs related but the mode has been stale for quite some time and they had a full year to address.
Not holding my breath with EA though - it will still be all about the MUT.
https://www.engadget.com/2019-09-30-ea-to-fix-fifa-20-career-mode.html

I’m tempering my expectations because I need to see them deliver on this first. It’s no excuse that these things aren’t already in the game when older Madden titles had them. The ability to freely edit abilities and X factors honestly should’ve been added in Madden 20. 

I see where you are coming from, I do. I get what Deuce is saying in that it is a bit encouraging that what has been put out there so far has been the more common community requested items.
What sticks out to me is just how unorganized they are. Obviously they had zero plans to touch franchise mode this year. There is no denying that, but it is clear to me after reading the blog that EA has no real organized plan to go about improving the mode.
It comes off as desperation moves. They are trying to appease the masses by going down the list of top requested items and choosing what looks to be the simplest to add. There is some logic there, but I do not get the sense that EA has taken the "movement" to heart and is restructuring themselves in a way to avoid this from ever happening again.
Instead of it seeming like EA really thought they had a problem and they were going to revamp how they worked with regards to the mode and other modes, this just smells like they aren't really changing their approach at all outside of throwing more bodies at the problems for a shortened time to get us some of the features that should have been put in 6 or 7 years ago.
It's great that player cards will finally have the teams listed on them, but that should have really been there from the start, but since it wasn't that should have been something that was fixed in Madden 14 through the polishing that naturally happens each year.
I really don't want to come off as someone that can't be pleased. I think you and others that have been here long enough know I can give EA praise when they deserve it, but I also have no issues voicing my displeasure.
I simply expected more from EA. That may be my own fault like I said before. Why did I ever expect EA to truly take a step back and completely change how they'd approach working on the game each cycle? I thought the hashtag "movement" was a big enough black eye that it might have caused more changes within the development team, but all I am seeing is EA thinking the solution is to throw more bodies at the problems for a shortened time to get some of the items in that should have been there within a year or two of Connected Careers replacing the traditional franchise mode.
It's very frustrating to see that things like the teams being on the player cards, the playoff race being displayed, the retirement process being done properly, etc. getting added in in the manner that they are being added in once EA dedicated a few more people to the mode. Those are the types of improvements that should be made on the back-end each year in the mode and are never centerpieces for any type of blog or marketing material.
It's nice that EA is actually listening, but for me, it's still outweighed by the fact that EA seems to have no clue on how to actually fix the mode. They lack the understanding that the issue simply isn't that franchise mode is lacking depth, the issue is how EA approaches improving on the game each cycle. They don't bring progress to the game all around like other AAA developers do or like other sports games do. That's what gets at me the most is that I am being asked to pay $60 annually for a product that doesn't really stay stride for stride with other products of the same price tag. If you are going to charge AAA prices then I expect AAA work to be done in quality and quantity and that just has not been the case with this series for a very long time now.
EDIT: I know I always type too much and could probably get my point across in fewer words. There's a reason I work with numbers for a living.
To try and give an example to show what I was trying to get at, look at a lot of government programs. A lot of politicians and people inside of these programs will tell us the programs do not get the results expected because they are underfunded. However, the public knows that X amount of taxpayer dollars go these programs and there's no way they are underfunded. We all know the issue isn't the money coming in, it's the way the program allocates the money going out.
That is what is the issue with EA in my eyes. They have an internal issue with regards to efficiency and I was hoping for whatever reason this "movement" would lead to EA potentially realizing this. The answer to EA is that they are underfunded, or that they simply didn't send enough bodies at franchise mode. That's not the case in my eyes. The issue is that EA has so many resources that they could take advantage of, but something inside of their structure causes their work to constantly be inefficient annually.
So while it is nice to hear them say they hear us and they will work to fix some things that needed to be fixed nearly a decade ago, and that they will add features to the mode again and we should pat them on the back, it's still disheartening in the end to know that the real problem is not getting fixed.
In typical EA fashion we are getting another band-aid fix for a couple of cycles when we really need a reworking. I hate to be so negative, but I just think EA truly has an internal issue that leads to inefficient work and this blog only reinforces that they do not see where the problems truly are.

Didn’t expect them to be able to add big things for 21 with the game releasing soon. If they can get the tuning, trade logic, career stats, and AI personnel management down well for 21 then I’m good. My expectations for franchise mode in 22 though are going to be a lot higher though.

Just being realistic. The first time for super high expectations will probably be madden 23. You have to remember anything they add this year will come out of 22's budget. So you're looking at a split year of development for madden 22.
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I wasn’t expecting it for 21, but absolutely for 22. Well, I wasn’t expecting it per se, but to get things back on track, that’s what is needed.
I knew 21 would be nothing major, but when laying out a road map, shouldn’t there be something of substance or ambitious to work towards?
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How anyone can look at this and be satisfied is head scratching to me.
They go on and on about how they're a "live environment" and constantly add to the game, even adding entire modes like Superstar KO, just to tell you most of the stuff they plan on improving on won't happen until M22.
Some of the things they have for M22 improvements build upon already existing features/items. Why they can't add more relocated team features, jerseys, etc. when there's new jerseys in MUT every month is insulting.
"Games reset after DC..." they do that already? How about a feature where the game drops (happens way too often) and there's a way to resume??
I'm glad they're adding common sense things like more commissioner tools and UI things that have been inexplicably missing for years like career stats and a playoff bracket but c'mon...
NHL series doesn't even have the resources to come out with a next gen version of their next game but somehow do everything Madden does with Ultimate Team, new game modes, already has what "The Yard" will be in "World of Chel" and have a wayyyy more in depth franchise mode and have for a while.

It's a starting point.

I just don't feel they will tell us everything that they will add. I'm still hoping there will be element of surprises down the road.
My point being, they aren't going to lay out everything in black and white for us behind closed doors.
I don't feel roadmaps will turn up to be dead ends and tell us everything. I see roadmaps as a guide, not a final product.
And what Broncos said above me/end of thread.
Simfballcritic laying down the knowledge in this 25 minute video.
Plus, OS get's a shout out from Sim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=m30-0QBESUE&feature=emb_logo

Be that as it may, this road map is almost an order of magnitude more than they’ve done thia entire console generation.

Madden 22 sounds like a great game--potential to be the best one ever if they deliver on all those promises.

This really underscores the different expectations that people have for the mode, I feel the same as above, but many others are like, "Sigh, so underwhelming"

The "Team Chemistry" system for '22 has me the most intrigued.

EA always knows what to say.
The issue is them actually delivering lol

I found this very underwhelming. Item by item:

• TUNING – Improved progression and regression of players. Improve core player progression into the future such that X-Factors and other abilities for older players work well with incoming rookie classes.
  
• AI PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT – The AI will make better team management decisions in the draft, free agency and trades.
  
• TRADE LOGIC – More fidelity, depth, and authenticity.
  
• RETIREMENT UI – Better insight into retirements each season to allow players to react/manage.
  

None are anything more than the tuning of the existing game, which should be a minimum expectation anyway.

• PLAYOFFS UPDATE – Add an authentic playoff bracket screen to see who’s in, who’s won and who’s up next.
  
• PLAYOFF and SUPER BOWL PRESENTATION – Improve and refresh.
  
• CAREERS STATS UI – Improved UI showing historical player performances. More immersion and depth on how players have progressed in your Franchise.
  

Just some minor work. A long overdue update. The last one in particular where player stats didn't show which team they played for has been inexcusable.
X-FACTOR / SUPERSTAR ABILITY CUSTOMIZATION – Introduce the ability to customize X-Factor and Abilities on all players, allowing you to customize your roster as you see fit.
A correction to the mistake leaving out the ability to manually edit these. Everything else could be edited, so it can only have been a mistake to leave those out last year.
COMMISSIONER TOOLS
Not much there.
On Madden 22, the statement was nothing more than they are exploring those ideas. Does that mean that prior to July this year, they were not exploring the ideas of, Coaching and staff management, scouting improvements, or new scenario engine enhancement?

Had a bit more time to digest and re-read. Some of you might know that I take apart Franchise every year and so get familiar with Madden mechanisms. How I see these features working is below but it's pure speculation.
Madden 21 Roadmap
TUNING – Improved progression and regression of players. Improve core player progression into the future such that X-Factors and other abilities for older players work well with incoming rookie classes.
PLAYOFF and SUPER BOWL PRESENTATION – Improve and refresh. -
CAREERS STATS UI – Improved UI showing historical player performances. More immersion and depth on how players have progressed in your Franchise. -
RETIREMENT UI – Better insight into retirements each season to allow players to react/manage. -
Commissioner tools:
Ability to undo transactions, reducing friction and control over player movement contracts and trades. -
Ability to reset a game in case of a disconnect. -
Scouting improvements -
New team chemistry system -
MORE CONTENT – Examples: Relocation/Branding Assets for Franchise – New uniforms, names, and logos to relocation options for more variety and depth in deeper careers. -
Conclusion: Madden 21 sounds like a wait and buy in 2021 unless you need it for Twitch/Mut or Online leagues. Madden 22 sounds like a positive "wait and see" depending on how many features and what depth the new features have. Madden 23 sounds like it'll be ace at this rate!!

some promising details, but at the same time, this just confirms the fact that EA really had no plans to upgrade Franchise mode in Madden 21.
It just boggles my mind why EA is antithetical to franchise and presentation improvements when it comes to the Madden series. We've seen NBA 2k and MLB the Show go out of their way to replicate the feel of running a true franchise down to every single detail. Meanwhile, Madden can't even replicate popular franchise features from the PS2 era.
I remember in 2006 when EA told the OS community that they simply couldn't replicate popular franchise mode features in the PS2 era like Madden 05' on to the Xbox 360/PS3 since they had to rebuild the entire game from scratch for the new gen consoles at the time. Ok, fair enough. But fast forward 15 years later and we've seen very minimal improvement made to Franchise mode when compared to NBA 2k and MLB the Show. EA can only run with the "there simply is not enough memory on the to replicate these features" excuse for so long.
Also, what is the deal with presentation? Why is it so hard for EA to try to do something ambitious to separate themselves from the competition, like add a 2nd commentating team (I think it would be fairly easy to find two more commentators especially if the NFL season is cancelled. What the hell else are they going to be doing?), install a CBS/FOX/NBC/ESPN TV package (NHL had NBC, NCAA Football had ESPN, NCAA Basketball 10 had both CBS AND ESPN, FIFA has special TV presentation packages for the Premier League, Champions, etc.), or show highlights of other games around the league ala NFL 2k5 (that game was released over 15 years ago but EA tells us its simply impossible to have it 2020?? Does EA really want me to believe that gaming technology has actually regressed in the last 15 years?!)
Back to the lack of the CBS/FOX/NBC/ESPN TV package for a minute. The only rumor I heard as to why this was never implemented in Madden (over 10 years ago) is that the NFL Network and ESPN did not want the other to be included in the game due to networks' competition with each other. This seems like such a petty excuse. I find it hard to believe that the NFL would simply stunt the growth of their exclusive video game over petty conflicts with their broadcast partners.

A step in the right direction is good, but those notes and roadmap were uninspiring.

Look at what we got as a blog for Madden 12's franchise mode.
https://forums.operationsports.com/forums/madden-nfl-last-gen/484682-madden-nfl-12-blog-franchise-mode-madden-12-a.html
Now realize that after we got that blog, EA completely killed off franchise mode and brought us Connected Careers which turned into Connected Franchise and is now Classic Franchise.
This is why there is so much frustration in the community. EA used to focus on franchise mode and they had plenty of good ideas. They didn't always have the best implementations, but that blog shows how much effort was put into the mode.
The very next year EA scrapped all of that and we've never seen the mode get the same attention since, nor has the mode reached the same amount of depth.
I don't know what is the exact cause, but EA has lost someone or something that they used to have. They just seem disorganized and lost when it comes to franchise mode and the problem runs deeper than they just didn't have enough people working on the mode. They have no vision they are working towards and this latest blog confirms just that.

This wasn't a rumor.
Let's not forget the NFL banning jarring helmet hits, empty staduims, and concussions.
Also, for some reason, EA likes to be their own broadcast entity. I thought when they had Simms, it was closely imitating CBS games.

I can understand how you are feeling about all this, and I agree, they were ignoring the mode this year and perhaps beyond this year and prior years.
Based on the fact that they are allowing in one place community feedback for franchise mode and based on the fact that those suggestions have come from the community on short notice for Madden 21 and 23, I believe the FM is on the right track.
Voices will not be silent on this. The more people become involved with Madden Voice, the better. Just don't sit back and do nothing, though. Don't be just a voice that just vents in here and let's others do the work.(not towards you here) Let's try to become more of a positive voice moving forward. We can't repair the past and we certainly don't know what's in store in the future, all we can do is try our best moving forward.(not saying stifle constructive criticism or stifle the debbie downers, I'm always a show me don't tell me person. This isn't directed at anyone directly)
I'm being a voice by communicating to the proper people and I will join in unison with Madden Voice.

I'll definitely use Madden Voice, but I think we have enough history combined with this blog to get a clear idea that Madden lacks leadership in a key area with franchise mode. They have no direction, no idea on how to approach building the mode properly through small and large additions.
Hopefully Voice allows us to have an actual impact on the future of the mode, but Madden clearly needs a leader in place that can put in a multi-year plan for the mode that leads to it progressing properly again because even if EA tries to listen to us right now, it is clear they are scrambling for fixes. They need structure or else this will all come crumbling down.

I agree that it sounds like it looks like Next Gen might just be a higher fidelity port with main difference might be visuals, on-field , and faster loading. I think what will be important for those who buy at launch is will the updates work with pre-existing Franchise Saves and does Franchise Saves transfer over to Next Gen. It'll suck for those to have to restart Franchise to get those to get updates and if it doesn't transfer to next gen, it'll really suck to waste that time if you plan to jump quickly to next gen. It mentioned in Dual Entitlement on how MUT and certain franchise points transfer over. I fully expect FoTF to transfer over. But they do need to clarify if Franchise saves transfer over before people invest time.
I do hope by time next gen version launches these Franchise updates are all patched in and ready. I get the live service model. But don't want Franchse to be a live service. I want those additions to be present at launch. I don't really want to rent the game in Nov/December and see late December/January that they're still adding features to franchise . hope the roadmap is out. I want confidence that when I start franchise, that I don't feel need to restart

Who do you think Seann Graddy, is, chopped liver? I will agree with you they lacked direction before, but I don't feel anyone can state they lack leadership moving forward with Seann Graddy's name attached to it. He isn't EP for nothing.
The blog is just a road map, not the final answer, not the end of the road. The roadmap has many turns and adjusting parts to it.

Yeah I agree on the "I don't want franchise as a live service" statement as well. Especially if it means that it may require a restart like we saw early in Madden 20's cycle. That's not what we play Franchise for. It seems like they're going that way though with the mode. I can understand them adding/tweaking things as the year goes on but hopefully they have figured out how to do it without making us restart to get new abilities or whatever else they add.
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They can attach his name to it, but that guarantees absolutely nothing. I'm glad they are at least trying to listen, but I have the past 8 years history showing that they don't understand the root of the problem and I see nothing in this blog suggesting they've figured it out yet either. I'm not saying it's the end of the world and that EA is going to botch this, but I'm not going to give them the benefit of the doubt because the EP filmed a we hear you video. They then start the blog off stating that they are die hard franchise fans just like us. That's a weird thing to say when you literally tried to sneak by without working on the mode at all.
I personally don't think it is all that significant that they are attaching his name to it. I get that you all feel that suggests just how seriously EA is taking this thing and you may be right, but as you said, this is a simple roadmap. It being just that means I am not going to applaud EA for anything right now. They will have to offer up something a bit more concrete for me to actually believe anything they're spewing. This was nothing more than a little more PR talk to try and get people back on their side, nothing more.

And let's not forget that roadmaps can change which is totally fine...or in the case of other EA games *cough Anthem cough* can be COMPLETELY ABANDONED and lead to a total recovery period for the game even with community feedback. Now I know Anthem and Madden are very different games entirely. We know the story behind why things with Anthem went as horrible as they did.
But just like I love Bioware and wanted that game to be good because I had faith in them....I want Tiburon to be good and I want Madden to succeed. It can be good I truly believe that. But it's a "show don't tell" situation and I think we can all agree on that regardless of where you stand on other issues involving Madden.
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Agree.
Like roadman's signature says, show me. This blog is more talking and no showing. I'm not telling EA to be quiet, I'm simply saying whatever they say, or whoever's face they put out there, it's all meaningless until we get something concrete. I want Madden to succeed and have a robust franchise mode, but I cannot ignore the last 8 years lack of progress to franchise mode. I'm not saying EA is incapable of fixing the issue. They can do it, I'm simply not going to read a roadmap with a bunch of maybes in it and get excited at all. It's nice they're appearing to listen, but until the work is done I'm not going to pat EA on the back.

"Road map," you say? Hmmmm. I recall hearing that language from such roses in the desert like Anthem, Fallout 76, and No Man's Sky...
Now, if things turn out like they did for NMS, cool. I'd jump back on that train.
But that studio wasn't swimming in $100 bills thanks to persistent monetization, and its entire reputation was on the line. EA's reputation has been shot for YEARS and its profits nevertheless keep skyrocketing. That's the worst possible combination for franchise hopefuls.
The "road map" is a low-promise opium drip to shift the narrative, control the spin, and appease people like use.
As ever, I will remain realistic. Meaning, I'll check out Madden 22, expecting there to be not enough changed or improved to justify giving the Madden team my money. If I'm wrong, I'll gladly drop the $60 and eat crow.

I am just going to reaffirm that I completely disagree with this. As someone that works very closely with high level executives, once your name is put out on a public release like this specifically, the company expects you to handle that business.
You have to remember it is not just EA that has to deal with this social media backlash. The suits at EA don't want to be getting calls from the NFL office asking why their product is getting such bad press.

My friend, Bioware isn't Bioware anymore, and Tiburon isn't Tiburon. The days of Jade Empire (to name even an obscure one) or NCAA 06/Madden 08 are gone. One company has sold its soul to the woke mob and the other to persistent monetization.

I get the anger from a lot of people, but this should be the attitude at the end of the day. A month ago we had nothing. Now they're listening and planning to add things to the mode. It'll take them delivering before we can actually trust them as they promised a few things last year that never came (realistic contracts, revamped news, etc) but it's a million times better than what we were told would be in the game a month ago.

This is all that it's about, right here. Show me, don't tell me.
I'm not saying start up the hype train, let's hop on it, all aboard
If people want to dwell in the past and keep spinning the tires in the muck, that's fine. I would rather align myself with others being a positive voice moving onward, upward and forward and trying to communicate a better FM than the past and current conditions to Madden Voice and the proper people.
I don't give a crap about how poorly the past was done, I care more for the future since we appear to have their attention.
We'll see.

That's fantasy land. As long as EA keeps raking in millions and is able to pay the NFL's exorbitant exclusive licensing fee, this won't even register on the NFL's radar. Especially NOW, when they have slightly more pressing issues -- like potentially no season. It's a niche issue with in a small corner of the Madden universe.
I hate social media, but it might be our only hope here.

If you're a person who buys Madden primarily for Franchise, especially for solo, then the live service model almost makes you want to wait until all said features are in. Why would I want to start a franchise at launch, if I will endure poor AI team management and trade logic at start. Even if the updates don't require restart, the initial damage is already done. Even though I have plans on waiting until next gen to play Madden, this would make me wait until I know all these features are in first before I invest any time

There are completely different groups of people that handle NFL licensing partners than the people dealing with actual football business, you have to understand this. The NFL absolutely keeps tabs on what is happening with EA.

"Anger" is what got their attention in the first place, anger that was strategically leveraged to embarrass EA and the NFL on social media. It worked, at least in the short term.
The legacy uber-relaxed, wait-and-see OS attitude never accomplished anything.
It's sad. I live my life like the latter, but the former is what WORKS.

I think we're not on the same page here. I'm not saying EA putting his face on this doesn't mean they aren't taking the issues seriously. I'm saying his face being put out there does not guarantee success. That's why his face is meaningless to me. I couldn't care less if his face was out there or not. All I'm interested in is if the job is going to get done and right now all we have is a roadmap with some guaranteed tuning updates and then some proposed ideas. I simply need to see more to get excited. I'm not saying EA will fail, I just need to see more from them. And you might say that it's too early for us to get more details and I would not necessarily disagree, but that gives us even more reason to tame our excitement at the moment and to go into wait and see mode.

For sure. Unfortunately the angry mod is what gets peoples attention these days. I just think at this point we need to have some perspective on what the planned additions are for the mode in 21 & 22 and give them some time to deliver or lie to us again. Let's just hit the pause button on the anger for a couple months and if everything is still the same in October then the angry mob can run wild again. I just don't get the sense in living that way where we're always upset about something and never willing to give some grace.
They responded to the feedback, now they should get some time to show if they're serious about this or not.

I have two distinct layers of thought on yesterday's Gridiron Notes:
1. This is the most I've ever seen EA talk about a franchise mode in one publication. It's a well-conceived list of items for '21 that are the "lower hanging fruit" types of things we've all been asking for. Anyone that expected new features to be added to '21 in a short couple of months were delusional to begin with; but the list of updates and tuning are all needed and are much welcome. Likewise, the list for '22 hits many of the mode's areas of weakness. So, in general, this is a really solid roadmap (and given where we were just a couple of months ago, it's overall a big win just to get something like this in writing and, apparently, resources added to the Madden franchise team).
2. They have to do what they say. Yeah, of course they do; we all know that and they know that (it's such an absurdly obvious statement that it feels pretty childish to even say it). Nonetheless, yes, they DO have to execute now; the ball is strictly in EA's court. Frankly, I don't think we'll have any problem seeing the tuning items for '21. There will be issues along the way, but I do think most (if not all) will happen. The stuff for '22 is written far more ambiguously - which makes sense - those are the harder changes that are still early-stage dev. It's just too early to form an opinion.
The gameplay improvements are more than enough to get me to buy M21 to continue my support of franchise mode (as I immensely enjoyed M20); everything else is gravy for me. M22 is where I will be far more critical of what they do; because there are now expectations beyond "I hope they do something with franchise mode".

A fair and rational assessment.
Unfortunately why it's less likely to work. Like the political protesters have demonstrated, consistent and overwhelming pressure in the moment is by far the most effective approach in today's social media world.
Honestly, though, other than occasional rants on OS, I don't care. I WILL wait and see, and my life won't change much no matter what happens. At my age, having fewer options that satisfy me is actually a good thing...

As a gamer who is 95% off line single player, “live service” is just a dirty word to me. Basically means the games aren’t done yet, but you can pay full price to play what they have while they work on them, then things can be changed, added, or removed at anytime. Maybe it will be different with sports games but I highly doubt it.
We hear live updates and improved tuning and logic every single year l, it hasn’t gotten us a better franchise mode.

The problem with "Live updates" to a series like Madden, or any sports game really, is that they're all yearly releases. When a game promotes a "Live update" servide, but the game is planned to be supported for years, then I have no issue with it. Release the base game, build upon it over the years.
But with a yearly release, the team is already going to be working on Madden 22 probably within a couple months of 21 releasing. How much work could they really do on M21? Why would they when they could save that work and promote it for M22? The whole situation seems iffy to me. I would expect most changes to come with M22

The live service model works in MUT, but it doesn't really fit the rest of the game. It truly does not fit franchise mode at all.

If they did , they would not have renew the license.
This has been going on for years
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While I appreciate what they're doing, I still won't buy 21.
That said, if '22 goes the right way I'll be back. It's nice to see it acknowledge. But they said in 2017 they had a renewed focus on franchise mode.
The scenario engine is silly and a waste of investment time. Just follow the guide that's been posted on OS for like 5 years. It's pretty in-depth and consistent with what people wnat? This shouldn't be hard and there's no way their team hasn't seen it.

Hard disagree on this. It felt meaningless and contrived because it was one-sided.
The issue is that they tied EVERYTHING to a bonus for the user and there was never any downside to any of the scenarios that could produce any kind of meaningful storylines. It's probably the most innovative franchise addition in ANY sports game in the last 10 years - but they need to adjust it to become a true story-telling mechanism. Adding significant negative impacts for failure to complete a scenario (which could swing a season's momentum) would be the first thing that they could do to truly see the fruits of this system.
Imagine having a scenario vs an X-factor. You commit to hold that player to under 50 yards rushing. In M20, you fail, nothing happens. What if it were instead designed so that if you fail and your defense loses 20 points of morale? That quickly starts to have tangible impacts on player ratings/performance - which can snowball quickly if you don't rebound. On top of that, imagine morale being so dynamic that a low morale can cause a massive enough ratings hit to cause a player to be benched (which would affect the CPU as well).
EA could literally transform the entire franchise experience by simply adjusting how morale works. That's just tuning (a lot of which Sabo has been able to create just by modding M20).

Exactly.
In an annual sports title, I dont want a live service model. Excluding MUT, I want a complete game at launch. I don't want to feel like i have to wait a couple months before I start a franchise. For me, the first few months are the most time I put into a sports game after that I coast.
With a lot of games coming out, I don't have the patience to wait on features get added. Either it's ready when I want to get it, or it gets left behind. It gets to a point for me where it's too late to buy an annual sports title. For Me, December and later is too late to get Madden.

I wouldn't say it is the most innovative thing in any sports franchise in the last 10 years. Out of the Park already has their own version of the sorts with their generated storylines. It's done the proper way and is really what I was hoping Madden would turn the scenario engine into. It creates stories on and off of the field.
I'd like to see Madden basically copy it and get holdouts, trade demands, and all of that into the game like Mike Young alluded to when it was being hyped up. It would be awesome to have a bunch of different types of scenarios that could pop up and we could choose which ones we wanted to be on or off. Some people might turn off the trade demand scenarios. Others, like me, would get rid of the development scenarios.
It has the potential to be the biggest addition to Madden's franchise mode potentially ever, but EA has to show it some attention to get it there. Right now it is another cool idea that they basically neglected the very next year.

The bolded is really the main point I was making as well. It could be the very heart of a pretty daggone cool franchise mode. I don't think it's a waste of time at all (as the previous poster had suggested) and I think it needs to be built upon greatly. This is one thing EA cannot toss aside...I 100% believe it can work beautifully.
The key is to give the user SOME accountability. You low-ball a guy during contract negotiations; you better be prepared to see him hold-out down the road. You bench a veteran to get that rookie some playing time, be prepared for him to demand a trade. I don't want 'canned' stories, I want them triggered based on the things we do.
We won't see that type of stuff until they flesh out the player personality stuff - but I really hope they don't abandon it; even in it's incredibly limited state last year, it DID add some fun and flavor for me.

Despite it's theoretical potential I unfortunately don't think that the Scenario Engine can ever really be great because IMO I don't think that EA is allowed to put things like holdouts, trade demands or other disrupted behaviors in the game now.
I feel like Michael Young got too overzealous in the Gameinformer interview last year about what could actually be in the Scenario Engine, but of course no one is allowed to come out and say so.

This has and will always be an issue with the NFL license. The drama that happens in the NFL is not allowed to be replicated in Madden bc it would be a bad look. Hold outs, concussions, I even think camp battles are things the NFL nixed. I want to manage a team with guys who are locker room headaches, guys who gladly took rookies under their wing, guys who don’t take well to you bringing in competition at their position, guys who just want to help the team win, guy who just want their own personal stats.
There’s so much that could(should) be in the game already.

I applaud them for actually doing something finally. but this is all crap that should have already been done and they're not really adding anything. This all could have been done in an update. Lame.

May as well skip M21 and tune in for M22. The current franchise is unplayable IMO and waiting several months for things like improved stats (vague) and other tuning updates seems like a frustrating experience. Seems most of the substantial updates are for 2022...

Baffles me that people are content with this.*
Improved AI management? this is something that should be improved EVERY year. You sim a franchise 5 years and the league is a mess.
Career stats? this is something that USED to be in the game many years ago. NFL 2K5 had this feature ffs. These "updates" are merely fixes to their oversights/screw ups/neglect.
We are getting trolled by EA. The only reason they are doing this is because their hand was absolutely forced due to the FixMaddenFranchise trend and most of the best upgrades are coming NEXT YEAR. It was a PR disaster for that tag to trend like it did and that's the only reason why they addressed it. They've heard community complaints for years and years but once we united to hinder their PR/marketing is when they addressed it.
The allowances some people give this company is baffling. They take features out of a game, bring it back in years later as a back of the box feature* - see Pro Bowl last year. How many iterations of the "Skill stick" have we had, next one will be "Refs added for increased immersion"
You know other sports game have scenarios play out with more depth in career modes/franchise modes and they dont slap "engine" to label their scenario scripts. Also, can someone explain to me in 2020 why this game doesn't have a create a team?
New SB and playoff presentation - I mean, who watches these anymore when they've been the same from the last few maddens, should of been done already and not even advertised.
A playoff bracket screen? this is a new feature in 2020?
I can't believe people criticise 2K cause of the micro transactions. Play MyLeague or MyCareer and tell me a mode that madden has that comes anywhere close to the depth and fun of those. I love football far more than any other sport but when nba drops, i stop playing madden. I actuallly stopped playing last year because of caught AI players stop sprinting and jog towards ball carriers(even though the pursuit was coming front on) cause the game scripted the runner to score on particular plays.*
I used to visit this site years ago and people would make allowances for how bad madden was because "This is apart of a X year plan, give it time", where are all those people now that those plans never came to fruition. The amount of times I heard "3 year plan" made me shake my head cause essentially they were giving EA a pass for releasing garbage, this was around 2013 i recall and yet they've done the same thing this year; completely neglect a game mode, rush to add patches/fixes labelling some as features, and push attention to the next instalment. The fact 21 hasn't come out yet but people are looking forward to 22 shows we've been hustled. They could of easily put everything in this post if they put an effort into M21 franchise but now we have people looking ahead just like those talking about "X year plans", also how many times have we heard "step in the right direction" when is that destination ever going to arrive, cause they didn't come close this whole generation.
Thank god there are articulate channels out there like SOFTDRINKTV that break down how madden has regressed and yet attempt to pull the wool over our eyes.

You’ve been managed.
https://forums.operationsports.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2050154871&postcount=281

By next year, none of this will matter. They will manage you again. Just like they have been for years. All they want are first week and first month sales.
They won’t give you what you want because they believe it makes the game worse. So all they want is for a positive launch. You are giving that to them.

This.
People are saying "what do you expect them to get done in less than a month?" Then what the hell were they doing the whole development cycle after M20 and before FixMaddenFranchise was a thing?
Are we really giving them allowances for doing absolutely nothing, then they have a PR/Marketing disaster (which is their biggest priority hands down) and then they give us "tuning" and "updates" rather than proper franchise additions like mini camp, 5th year options, coaching trees, coordinators etc...
I've visited OS for over a decade and every year you here "this is a step in the right direction" but an adequate destination is never ever met.
We aren't even expecting crazy innovation, just add back what was in franchise that was there in a previous generation console, why is that too much to ask?
CFM killed franchise and in 8 years and a new gen console they haven't come close to having what they had previously. but thank god we got superstar KO and face of the franchise right? two things nobody asked for.

If you want to directly call me out, go for it.
It's quite obvious they didn't have a plan for franchise mode in 21, none, 0, zippo. You really think they can drop mini games and Tony Bruno in a month's time? Wake up, yourself. Your delusional if you think they can pull stuff out of a rabbit's hat and drop the 05 FM at the end of a production run.
I've said all along they haven't done jack for FM and I'm communicating with some of them at the moment.
It's all wait and see.

They were working on Face of the Franchise. It's not like the entire team was sitting there twiddling their thumbs throughout the entire cycle. Things got worked on, just barely any of it had to do with core franchise. Improving franchise wasn't in the cards which is why the feature list was more or less patch notes and there's been a reactionary scramble to get some ducks in a row and put together something for the core franchise community.
I don't think many people here or within the community are giving them allowances, hence #FixMaddenFranchise. Stuff is happening but it literally isn't possible to fit mini camp, coaching trees, coordinators and things that would normally take an entire cycle into a one month period before launch. And even trying that would be a huge mistake and disservice to the community and the features themselves. Do you really want half-baked coaching staffs or mini-camp? It's not going to happen overnight and the franchise community has literally zero reason to believe any of it will ever come to fruition but they've talked about and shown more attention to franchise than they have in probably the last ten years.
It's all talk because all they can do is talk at this point. They could've just let #FixMaddenFranchise blow over, said nothing, did nothing and thrown up the other hand for the double middle finger but they're trying to show they're going to do something. Will it happen? Who knows. Did they bring this on themselves? Absolutely. Is it a step forward? Maybe two years from now with hindsight being 20/20 we'll be able to say absolutely not but in the moment, I can't see how them putting information for a plan out there that they will undoubtedly be held accountable for is anything but progress, no matter how little it means to certain people.

Why are people getting mad like they just figured out EA was literally giving up on franchise mode? We've known that for a long time now. Let's look at things starting now.
Big features take time. People have really unrealistic expectations.
Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Welcome to the internet.

So basically what we have here is another "wait until next year"

I don’t think it’s unrealistic expectations. I think it’s reactionary contempt at what was apparently (in their eyes) the same feeling towards them as consumers by the team who willfully chose to ignore the mode they love to create Longshot/FoF, among whatever other resource allocation changes that have been alluded to by Rex.

Did you happen to find out what the reasons were for Franchise being nearly ignored for a decade? I think we all have reasonable explanations, but it may be beneficial to know the real reasons so the community can do whatever they can to prevent it from happening in the future.

I don't feel it's a need to ask based on the fact that's it hasn't been a high priority with the folks higher up than Rex and Clint. I'd feel more comfortable asking those sort of questions if I've met these folks face to face.
So, I'm focusing on now and the future and not the past.
#fixfranchisemode seemed to have a direct response, so, hopefully, the transparency continues.

This is why it’s frustrating. Every year EA makes the game they want, it sells super well and generates a ton of revenue.
Every year the same guys complain that the game sucks because of franchise.
Every year EA does something to shut the franchise guys up long enough to launch the game. One year they even tuned the demo to be more sim before releasing the fame back to normal.
So next year we get to do this all over again. And the next, and the next...
Maybe try playing a game you like?

Considering Madden is the only NFL simulation game around, I think people have the right to annually complain and ask for changes. If they want an up to date NFL simulation game then they literally have no other choice.

Doesn’t make sense to me why people here, even if they don’t care for fixing franchise, would put effort into stomping on this very tangible sign of progress from Madden, even if it is just words right now. It’s the start of progress.
Trying to discount this doesn’t help anyone. I can’t recall the Madden team issuing mea culpas to this degree in the past like you suggest. Issuing this roadmap isn’t really comparable to tuning a beta.

Agreed. They quieted the #FixMaddenFranchise by promising nothing and attaching Sean Graddy's name to it. But how do you go from a post like this (above) to a post like this (below)....

Come on man. Now you're just trolling people.

@Roadman, ignore your post I quoted in my post. I was going to respond to your earlier post, but didn't, and can't get the quote to undo or remove. :brickwall
edit: nevermind. I figured it out and removed it. smh. Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest.

I wouldn’t say they promised us nothing. I think it’s being overlooked they promised us an update in September, before the NFL season starts. If we get roadmap updates every other month, with this level of depth, we will know if they are making good on their word to fix their mess.
If they drop the ball on the September update, hold their feet to the fire.
I don’t think anyone can look at this current progress report and call it a dropped ball. It’s small but important progress to repairing a fractured relationship between the developer and community.

We don't have to look at this 'progress report' to tell EA has dropped the franchise ball.
We have a decade worth of actual gameplay to do that.
These are just more fluffy words, most of which are 'tuning updates' or enhancements' to things that should be footnotes in a yearly cycle. Years of neglect and sloppy handling of one of their games' most beloved modes finally caught up to them and they are scrambling to stretch any and all meaning out of the nothing updating they plan on doing to franchise.
I'm so glad we're finally (possibly) getting an updated Super Bowl celebration animation when it's been the same for years AFTER so many people raised their voices they couldn't bury the negative press. W o W. That should be changed in some way every. single. year. Why? Because it's the ultimate reason you're playing franchise in the first place: to build your team and win the Super Bowl. It should be something players anticipate every year. Instead it's "same animation as last year?" "Yep." "Welp, what am I even playing this mode for again?"
Even if you get a remote glimmer of hope from their statement, don't forget who it came from in the first place. This is Madden and this is EA behind it so there's no doubt in my mind that if most of these things even come to fruition, they will be implemented in half baked, slightly broken ways. I can already picture that updated playoff standings screen that glitches out every time you view it and it literally ALWAYS shows the Cardinals as the #4 seed regardless of their record. I can see the ability to change a player's X-Factor ability... for one season because it resets to what it was originally was every time the year progress forward. I can see a Coaching Skill Tree where your points reset every time you lose a game.
EA and the Madden team have dropped the ball for so long they don't deserve one iota of trust. They literally came out and said they were making a re-commitment to Franchise in the past 2 years and before the hashtag they were literally going to shelve the mode entirely and call it CLASSIC FRANCHISE.
When they start doing and building and MAINTAINING franchise, then I'll believe in them. The chances of that happening is literally almost zero in my eyes and they've given me nearly a decade of evidence to back that up.

This is the way I look at it.
Not only did EA admit to adding absolutely nothing to Franchise for M21, but reading how that press release was written combined with the fact they renamed it to "Classic Franchise" I strongly believe they had no plans to add to it in M22 or beyond either.
This can go one of two ways.
1. We can all continue to vent our anger about the last 15 years of EA ignoring us, and that is completely warranted for people to feel that way. We can say things like "this was in the game 10 years ago" or "its about time". But at the end of the day that may cause the execs at EA to go "see, they are never happy, lets shift resources elsewhere".
2. Or we could acknowledge that neither us nor the devs can change the past. Franchise is where it is, but we finally have been given a direct word that they hear us and they will change things. This doesn't mean just take what they give you and be happy with it. Continue to use #fixmaddenfranchise, lets make sure we upvote our requests to the top of the Madden Voice site. Keep our voices heard while focusing on now and the future. I personally believe this is the more effective option in the long run.

Sounds like they are going to be doing some things, but I will not be buying Madden 21.
Hopefully they can give us more customization like NBA 2Ks MyLeague. Even NHL has where you can choose colors for logos they have on there.

With all due respect, that's crap. If you have a pipeline to Madden folk and you DON'T ask that question, even if you expect a non-answer, shame on you. You're part of the problem.
And "focusing on the now and the future and not the past" is also crap. Madden devs should be FORCED by the community to stare down the past, admit their contemptuous dismissal of franchise players, and apologize for years of neglect.
But wait! They're all franchise fanatics and franchise is critically important to them. Forgot about that!
Also, wait! It's OS, so: let's not be unrealistic, let's wait and see, let's not expect too much, let's be hopeful, and more than anything, let's not jeopardize our good standing with the dev teams who come here. Then -- see you in another ten years when NOTHING. HAS. CHANGED.
But, hey. There's always next year.
EDIT: One last thing -- as ridiculously idealistic as it is, I've decided NOT to purchase Madden again unless an ACTUAL apology comes from someone. Not "we've heard you," or other NDA-like spin. A "We're sorry for letting you down, we promise to do better" type of thing.

You are so full of crap.
That's fine.
There will be no sharing of Intel from me now or in the future.
The majority has spoken.
I don't need negative people in life.
Buh bye.

It is absolutely ridiculous that EA as a company has shunned simulation and franchise mode fans for so long that the consumer base needed to start a social media mob in order to garner minor tuning adjustments and enhancements for the mode. We should not have to use 'Madden Voice' in order to make sure they know what to improve in their franchise mode.
You are in charge of making a 'SIMULATION' NFL game (especially now since you'll sue anyone who comes close to making anything remotely similar, despite the fact that Madden can apparently also throw as much arcade nonsense as they want into their game) and you have a game mode that is suppose to SIMULATE the real life world of the NFL. How are you not sitting in your meetings discussing how you get your mode closer to the real thing? Why does it fall on us to tell them "hey, you know NFL teams have coaching staffs, it'd be cool if that was in the game" or "hey, you know your contracts don't really match with what actually happens in the NFL" or "hey, you know it's pretty easy to see what team a player was on five years ago with a quick google search, right? can we get that in the game?"
Franchise is where it's at not because of some great struggle or error or mishap that befell EA. It's where it's at because they bought out the competition that forced them to make a great game and great franchise mode, then got complacent, fell into a regulative cycle of rehashing concepts (Superstar/X-Factor Abilities are just updated player abilities that were in the game a decade ago, how many times are we going to have 'new total play control' in whatever buzz word vomit they create) and ultimately discovered the cash cow that was MUT and micro-transactions.
The burden isn't on myself or anyone else who loves franchise mode to improve it and the fact that this 'hey, can you let US know what should go in the mode so we can patch it enough to stop this bad social media buzz plz' is now a thing is garbage, IMO. It's absolutely ridiculous that EA would have seriously released that rinky-dink tuning update of a franchise rundown for 'Classic Franchise' and absolutely left it at that if it wasn't for the uprising of anger. Everything they've since said isn't even substantial, IMO, it's just more smaller updates and enhancements they also probably already considered on the back-burner if they had extra time.
EA can improve the mode by themselves and I'll decide whether or not their effort is worth my money. After Madden 20, barring substantial improvement, it won't be. Which sucks because I love football, I love the NFL and I love Madden. I force myself to enjoy their awful game because of that love and it's high time I make a change this year.
I hate ranting but the Madden situation just makes me boil. Citing that they themselves are 'franchise fans' after they've done nothing with the mode for an entire console generation outside of stripping it down to practically bare-bones, adding in a half baked scenario engine, re-adding the Pro Bowl back into the game and calling it a day. All the while pimping out MUT, storyline modes that are shells of nothing and, now, arcade modes aimed at casual fans who will get suckered into mico-transactions. 'Franchise fans'? Stop, you're not even 'football fans', you're 'money fans' and you've designed your game exactly that way for a decade now. So for now, you won't be getting my money.
Which is a great feeling but ultimately doesn't matter. Madden is a machine that won't be stopped and deep down they know they can't be stopped. This sudden revitalization of franchise is just to quiet the bad social media. Once it quiets back down, they'll go right back to ignoring franchise while saying 'yeah, we listened to you and enhanced franchise mode for 2022, unfortunately due to our cycle and efforts elsewhere we couldn't meet all your demands, so here's a roadmap for 2029 that we hope will have you buying each installment until then because that's when the true, new, Modern Classic Retro Franchise will debut!'.

Honestly, I don’t know how you don’t.
They will never make the game you want. Ever. They don’t believe it is profitable.
2K doesn’t make a basketball or golf game I like. No one does. The only baseball game I like is SMB3. I didn’t play Madden from 1996-2014, except for some time with Madden 10.
So I play other things and let the people that enjoy the game enjoy them without having to apologize because I wasn’t taken into consideration.
If you hate a game three years in a row, but you still waste time caring, you are the problem. EA knows a healthy % of everyone that rants about Madden buys it. They would just like you to pipe down for one critical month. Otherwise, you are just helping them.

FYI, EA lied for those 15 years, too. The idea that this time they mean it is a freaking joke. You are just asking to be abused. And this will lead to ANOTHER year of complaining. And another. And another...

All of your posts contain very angry language like this. I don't look at it that way. At the end of the day if I don't feel the game is worth it I have many other games to choose from. Not sure how I am being "abused". If you don't feel anything will change then you probably should have already moved on.

If it bothers you to see people complaining about something they have the right to complain about, then just avoid these threads. It obviously irritates you that people are voicing their opinion and are trying to offer up criticism for EA to improve the franchise experience.
People literally have no other choice for an NFL game each year, so they come here and voice their opinions on the game. Some people love Madden, some hate it, most are in the middle. A lot of people are not happy with the quality of franchise mode in the game which is clear with the hashtag. Everyone of those people should be allowed to speak their minds on the game.
If everyone took your ridiculous advice of shutting up if they don't like the game then this place would just turn into an echo chamber of positivity. Anyways, go back to your aggressive posting style and acting like your posts are so high and mighty. Maybe one day the rest of us will be as enlightened as you.

Guys how much would you be willing to pay for a legit simulation game/mode/gameplay? Honestly money talks and we need to make it more economical for them to spend time on it by either converting more people to play the mode and/or be willing to pay more for this “premium” mode.

Madden needs a more realistic depiction of physics, particularly momentum, explosive impact and overall physicality before I ever reach for my wallet. Without it, Madden will never be a simulation of the sport of football.

I am happy to hear something from EA regarding the direction of Franchise, because I don't think we were getting anything substantial over the next 5 years. It was always my opinion that EA would focus on the arcade aspects of their game once 2K struck a deal with the NFL. The simulation license means they are the only company that is allowed to replicate the NFL, it doesn't mean they have to. 'Classic Franchise' seemed to reiterate that the company would be focusing all their attention to other areas.
I think the #FixMaddenFranchise is an amazing community achievement, but I would like to see that energy directed at the NFL & NFLPA when the simulation license nears expiration. Madden will never get better for Franchise fans unless forced to do so, either by social media pressure or direct competition. As it currently stands, Madden's Franchise mode is so lacking that another AAA company could probably surpass it within a couple of years. I just hope this isn't lip service and we get more of the things Deuce asked for.

I’m not sure the NFL cares at all. EA pays them for license then they sit back and collect their share.

Not falling for the "banana in the tailpipe again".
Most of the list was normal yearly maintenance and cosmetic changes. A couple of things I would consider additions/enhancements. But nothing like a real commitment to franchise.
CCM/CFM was the death of a realistic, in depth franchise. I've given up. It is what it is.
Anybody that enjoys Madden for what it is (on line leagues, MUT, etc), I'm honestly happy for them. But sad for me and others like me.

Wait, so your just trolling people who want Franchise improved? That’s dandy around here?
I am of the belief the Madden team is making a sincere effort right now. The EP is putting his professional reputation on the line. I think EA deserves the chance to atone. If they fail to do so, they lose more business. They know they’ve already lost business, like mine for the time being, and they’re working to get it back.
They are rolling with a 12-month development plan. It seems we will be getting roadmap updates every other month, with one promised for September. If they can follow through with their stated goals over the course of the next year, it’s great progress. If not, like I said, they lose business.
But trolling at this point in time is more harmful than helpful, because it only serves to fracture the community, which only benefits EA.
edit:

Dude, what the hell does attacking the people who want old features back accomplish?

Absolutely zero. Other companies seem to be able to manage a robust franchise mode with the sticker price on the box. Just throwing money at things isn't always an instant fix for the better. EA Madden struggles with implemention & follow through in many areas. I think next gen games are now going to be 70 bucks? I think that's extra enough. Even with a paid sim franchise mode it's a pipe dream that most would even be satisfied.

He's done it before, multiple times. Not sure if he has been addressed privately or not but on the surface it seems he gets a pass that most, especially those highly critical of Madden, are not afforded when it comes to trolling and personal attacks.
It could be because his thinking ("If you dont like it then leave!") is in line with that of a few of the more pro-active moderators.

I agree with everything except the very last sentence. If Madden delivered a quality franchise mode that had all the past features that are beloved and had a few new things as well, the majority of people that are upset with the mode would be happy. There's definitely some out there that will never be satisfied by anything EA does, but I don't think we should act like the upset franchise crowd is irrational and that they cannot be pleased.

I think you're giving to much credit to the internet. I don't need to act like anything I read about it everyday & not just game related.

I guess we will agree to disagree.

You know why companies like 2k and EA ignore franchise mode communities?
Threads like this....
The ONE time the franchise community has had any semblance of unity in the last 20 years is the #FixMaddenFranchise movement. It's not a coincidence that it's the FIRST time we've seen anything even remotely close to the detail of EAs blog communication (that was strictly about franchise mode). Will it amount to anything? Who knows? But; we actually accomplished something (i.e. getting them to acknowledge us).
Now...it's back to the same petty bickering it has always been that has directly resulted in our community being ignored for years (and I am disappointed in myself for having contributed to that).
I'm done with this...

I think you're giving the vocal minority way too much power here. Obviously there will always be the crowd screaming about how unhappy they are, but the majority of people who enjoy the game will stay quiet. Over the years Madden's franchise community has been quiet outside of the vocal minority. People enjoyed the mode enough. This year is simply different because EA literally did zero work to the mode outside of a few bug fixes and updating the playoff format. That struck a nerve and pushed the community over the edge. If they deliver on their promises then we all know the masses will quiet down again and be content. The vocal minority that can't be pleased will continue to shout, but there won't be another trending hashtag criticizing the game.

This thread hasn't even been that bad? Most comments here express a little disappointment, some hope, and a lot of wait and see approaches. The majority of the "bickering" is taking place in the off topic discussions that have appeared in this thread a few times over, but the on topic discussions have been perfectly fine outside of a few hot takes demanding the mode be rebuilt in 4 months.

You think the total disregard of franchise mode is a direct result of devs seeing threads like this?
That's both hilarious and delusional.
It's a direct result of a shifting paradigm in gaming -- across all platforms -- towards persistent monetization and microtransactions. Period.

That's just asinine to believe. If you're fine with taking the scraps EA gives to the mode and its fans every year and are cool with being dragged along the 'hey, it's a start of something nice' train by all means.
EA finally spoke up because their decade of neglect caught up to them and major social media outlets started to blast them. That makes the heads of the company turn to their inferiors and say 'hey, I don't like all this bad press, do something about it.' So they stretched the tiniest amount of attention that they could to make it appear like they're recommitting to the mode.
EA ignores franchise mode because there are no direct competitors to make it look bad (same sport wise I mean, just about every other franchise mode makes Madden's look awful) and they have shifted their resources into making modes that will get casual gamers into the game so they can bait them into micro-transactions. That's the bread and butter of Madden in this day and age and that's their own choosing. They ignore this community because they cater to the exact opposite community, they know it and don't care because it rakes them in millions every single year.

Putting aside the decade plus of neglect for a moment:
1: Does the Madden team deserve the opportunity to follow through on the 12-month development plan they laid out?
2: If they follow through with every single thing they mentioned in this update, between now and the release of (and including) next year’s game, is that enough? That would mean re-tuning everything, giving historical stats, presentation updates, coaching/staff management, commissioner tools, new scenarios (preferably the ones previously promised)..... If they can accomplish that over the next year, is that enough to satisfy Franchise fans (for now)?
3: If your answers to 1 and 2 are “yes”, then how do we as a community encourage this progress? Does more vitriol help the case? Does insulting those who want these improvements help the case?
Burying the hatchet only works if everyone’s involved. I’m not saying the Madden team deserves the benefit of the doubt, but I do think they deserve the chance to atone, and to follow through on their plan.

Best post of the thread.
Mic drop.
"Show Me Don't Tell Me"

Indeed. However, the pressure of #FixMaddenFranchise should be sustained until they actually do follow through and their promises become proof.

Even what they have promised so far isn't much. It may be something compared to nothing, but it still isn't much.
Keep #FixMaddenFranchise pressure until they really get serious about a commitment to Franchise.

No doubt. Just hold their feet to the fire with a degree of respect (whether one wants to admit it or not, Grady’s video response, this first roadmap, and the promise of regular updates, is EA showing a degree of respect. A small one but worth acknowledging), and don’t try to instigate the community from within.

Agreed once more but that respect must be earned. They have not earned it yet despite the few positive signs that they may be listening. The respect will be earned when the results are tangible.

I don't believe a single word. They'll throw it together and it will be buggy and lame and half done. Just like they've done for 15 years now. This doesn't even address the real problems with Maddens old coding and bad tackling. It's just so broke, I don't see a way to get them to fix it while the money is still rolling in.

My thoughts exactly. Sharing any insider information or covos is just pointless with the community imo. Any personal interactions I've had with the devs through the yrs I just keep to myself. It's really not worth the energy.

Has any gameplay been released yet?:confused:

Anyways, besides fixing the franchise, do you guys feel like they've improved much of anything else consistently? I mean, is the game really any better on the field? Probably a little, but isn't it the same as it was ten years ago basically?
I dunno, to me they pretty much admitted fraud. I can't imagine this attitude didn't seep into every other part of the game excluding the money aspects. It's really underhanded and almost actionable. Just think if they actually tried to make the game better and not just how to monetize it more where we'd be today. I feel genuinely manipulated and ripped off after all these broken promises.

The game play is a lot different from ten years ago. How much better depends on who you ask.

I still feel their biggest issue is not rebuilding the game from the ground up. Based on all the noted issues the legacy code has caused, it is probably the biggest thing handcuffing the devs. The game has changed in the last decade, but I don't think it has evolved.

"YOU'RE so full of crap!" -- :lol:
And you won't share "Intel" anymore? Oh no! What shall we DO? Perhaps use the past to predict the future, or even -- gasp! -- "wait and see"? I feel so abandoned.
See ya!

Can we chill on the personal stuff?
Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Just one of the many reasons Madden Devs don't visit/interact OS EVER except 1.

I dont know about any future franchise or off-the-field changes, but I can assure you that Maddens gameplay is working as intended. Thats why they took away physics.

On the money with that last part for sure, it has been brutal this year. The fact that the number of personal attacks here hasn't drawn the ire of the overwatchers (but God forbid someone advocates for dice roll/non-absolute results) is telling. There have been some off the wall jabs in this thread, we gotta chill out just a little.