Madden NFL 21 Franchise Updates Scheduled to Arrive in Mid-November (First of 3 Updates)

Mid-November?
Jesus, really?
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I like that they are adopting these features. But Mid-November is disappointing. So basically we're waiting until next gen for those updates to come. Since it is update 1 of 3 , I can see the updates rolling out through out January.
Alot of people only play sports games until the real life season ends. So, if we have to wait until January or even later for all the updates are added, that would suck

First one just in time for the NFL playoff race to start 3 months after release
Second one is in Feb before Superbowl
Third one is Madden 22

Yeah I’ll probably be moved on to something else at that point. Probably NHL or FIFA who’s career mode is much more deep and refined at this point. I appreciate their effort for ‘21 but it’s just too little to late. We’ll see if they can reel me back in for ‘22

Hell, I'll have moved on to Cyberpunk at that time.
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I wonder what Franchise mode would look like in mid November, if people weren't vocal.
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So I went back and read it again, and noticed they said first of three updates then went on to list 4 features they would like to add. Are these four features just for the first update, or are they trying to implement these four adds evenly through the 3 releases? If it’s the latter that’s extremely disappointing if that’s all we’re getting

I'm happy this stuff is being added. But hopefully xfactor tuning in franchise doesn't mean that players will regress even faster so they lose their abilities.
Hopefully they have planned to fix some current bugs in franchise before November. Auto subs and upgrade screen.
November is a long way out but it's better than the nothimg that was originally planned.
#fixmaddenfranchise

Funny thing is these changes don't take much resource hours that should of been in the game. But kudos to them for trying
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I really like the additions, especially the career stats UI improvements, but I was expecting at least something out before October. Mid November is really pushing it.
I wonder if they're trying to line the update up with the launch of Next Gen. Not sure why they would be doing that though.

I'm genuinely curious, how do you know that it doesn't take very many resource hours?
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Generally updating data tables and screens that are already in place shouldn't cost a lot. But again it depends on how convoluted the Madden coding is. I'm assuming it isn't in the cleanest shape.
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Personally, I'm cool with the timeframe as long as the line of communication between devs and players stays open. We have something to look forward to, and we have to understand it takes time to build things.
The specific additions targeted for this first update are all frequently-requested features as well.
Finally, EA calling this out was also paramount, so I want to bring it forward so it is seen (emphasis mine):

Awesome thanks! I'm not sure what goes into the development side of gaming, so I was wondering.
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Agreed. I like the additions. Wish it was sooner, but no point on getting bent out of shape about it. Very glad to see them tell us up front we won't have to restart. That was critical. I don't want to spend time in my virtual world to lose it a few months.

I hope one of the updates includes a screen so you can at least see who won the Super Bowl and in what year they won it for your franchise. Maybe an award screen too. You know, a
Franchise history screen maybe.
Shouldn't be that hard to add....hopefully. Or at least for Madden 22...hopefully.

they need tune sim engine for stats in league leaders on RB and wr stats.. RB stats are pretty low on attempt and rushing yards

I don't to overreact here but, mid november? And out of what was listed which will be in this mid november update? If this is the first update when are updates two and three going to be out? I get they want madden as a live service but if you're going to make a live service game, then why I am spending 60 bucks to play something with features I won't have access to for close to 3 months after launch.
I know some people are enjoying the game and I would not want to take that enjoyment from them but this just keeps pushing me from caring about playing madden.

where are super bowl presentation improvement and ai roster management in this listen ??

The timeline is brutal, no doubt about that. Hopefully there's a chance that it could be pushed along sooner than that.
But wait-time aside, the career stats UI update including the past teams played for is major to me. Not seeing where a player has been is one of the hugest immersion-breaking aspects in the game. You're three or four years in and you can't truly track the history of the league. It may seem small, but it does wonders for longevity. A shame it took so long to have, but definitely a welcome addition.

Can’t start a Franchise, there is just SOOO many things wrong with this game.
Very disappointed..I realized that when EA puts out their game it needs tweaks and patches but I must say I really feel like I gut mugged here. I should not of purchased, it’s my own fault.
I’m back to 20 for now...I don’t see any thing in the patch notes for Sept 10th that addresses the Auto Subs within Franchise being fixed or the other numerous problems with this game. And I really don’t have any confidence in EA in making this disaster any better through out the year. Last patch actually hyped the speed and jerkyness in animations ..it’s made for people other than me, I’m a simulation guy and I’m afraid that will never be attained with EA and their fan base.
Again I purchased the game well knowing EA’s reputation and I blame no one but myself.

It is good that you shouldn't have to restart your Franchise, especially if you invested a lot of time. But, when there is an update that could potentially change the scope of the mode, I would rather restart anyway. It's like last year with 5th year options. I wouldn't want to continue if i was in my third season and 5th year option finally came and it could have been helpful in year 1
I was hoping that all the updates would have added by time of next gen release. I wouldn't want to start a franchise until all the updates are released. I would have to blown away with gameplay to give it a chance. There's a lot of games I want to play next gen so it might get passed on

I think that's just the first update. These are the areas they said we would be addressed for m21 that aren't listed in the November update.
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.
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.**
Improved progression and regression of players
TRADE LOGIC*- More fidelity, depth, and authenticityR
ETEREMENT UI*- Better insight into retirements each season to allow players to react/manage.
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
#fixmaddenfranchise

Welcome to gaming in 2020. Most games are live services now with roadmaps.
#fixmaddenfranchise

A reminder to folks that Madden's biggest selling season post launch week is genrally Thanksgiving/Christmas window. This goes for multiple sports games. Plus, next-gen should be around then.

We've waited 8 -9 years to have franchise get some major focus again. Whats 2 more months?
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Per one of the Good Morning Madden shows earlier this week, the hosts noted that they would be releasing this Franchise roadmap next week. I think the patch notes on Monday said the same or similar.
EA Sports is clearly in a full-court press of publicity this week. Patch notes 10 days early. Free codes all over Twitter. Today’s vague press release. And now this Franchise news earlier than they were indicating just days ago. Was it because of yet another new hashtag today? I really have never seen this heavy of a PR push from the Madden team in the week after release.
I haven’t even gotten to looking at the franchise news itself yet.
Edit: November? Lol, ok. They better have those playoff/super bowl presentation updates before the playoffs actually begin.
As long as they are able to get staff management in next year, I’ll be satisfied. Still not planning on buying this year. M20 modded in PC is good enough for what I need. Whether I buy 22 or not depends on if they keep their word on staff management.

This is major focus?

Maybe not in most peoples eyes but ea hasnt put any focus in cfm for 4 years at all. I would say them adding in a commited timelime and updates for cfm is major for them.
Is it enough to save face? time will tell.
Heck im just happy to see career teams on the stat page included... lol.
The bar is pretty low.
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None of those things that were announced really move the needle for me in Franchise. I guess they are nice to have, but they just don't amount to much. They aren't going to make Franchise feel new or fresh or play any differently. They are just kind of cosmetic in nature, other than the customization of the abilities.
I mean am I really supposed to get that excited about them adding a screen the pops up with no real context and probably no other dialog that shows the playoffs teams and then likely goes away forever until next season?
Also, all that stuff can't possibly take that much time to code. They are clearly just finding things they can squeeze in with some extra development hours.
I agree with whoever else said they are adding them in time for Next-Gen as well.

The fact that we went almost a decade without such basic information being on player cards is pretty embarrassing (especially since team names were already on Main Menu player cards), but I'll be very happy to have all of that back.
I really hope we're allowed to edit Superstar abilities and X-Factors via the Main Menu as well. But, everything I've read so far makes it seem like that will only be possible within Franchise.

Just curious, exactly what is suppose to be "next gen" about the XSX/PS5 title update? It is my understanding that it will be identical to what we have right now except for a slight bump in player likeness and ray tracing. Thank God we don't have to pay another $60 for that patch.

CFM already has Full Player Control toggle in CFM settings.
“Enabling/unlocking” Abilities tab to be part of player editing is not that intensive for a 2.5 month delay.
It is what it is though.

Well... I'm not sure how that can possibly take another 2.5 months to implement when they're adding such small things but at least we're getting some highly requested things... even if they're super tiny. Trying to be positive here but it's honestly a bit of a joke that it's going to take so long to add those changes.

Mid-November? Lol This is a yearly release game, once this gets put in we’ll only be 9 months away from M22. So maybe we’ll be 6 months away from M22 when all the updates are implemented?? We’ll see. I’m glad they’re doing something I guess, but with next gen madden launching later in the year it just feels like BS that they’re waiting until almost Thanksgiving to add these incredibly minimal features. I mean the nfl regular season will probably end before the second update for franchise mode drops.

Guess i'll tune in come November... Confusing. Is the below just for patch one? Or is the below split between the 3 patches? Are there more features or just this? If just this it doesn't move the needle much imo.

• X-Factor/Superstar Ability Customization: This highly requested feature by the community allows commissioners to assign X-Factors to any player via the edit player feature. Once a player has met the criteria to unlock an X-Factor ability, commissioners will be able to edit their player's Superstar abilities and Superstar X-Factor ability by selecting from those available within his position group. Users will have control over this functionality in both offline and online Franchises.
  
• Player Card Career Stats UI: A top community request for several years now, the team is revamping the statistics on the player card to include more context in season stats, like week, opponent, and outcome, while also providing what team the player was on for every year of their career.
  
• Dev Trait Regression Tuning: The team is doing tuning work to player development traits in Franchise mode to ensure a proper balance of Superstar and X-Factor players when progressing multiple years in a Franchise.
  
• Playoff Bracket: A visual playoff bracket will be added into the game that reflects the new Wild Card format, allowing users to see the full playoff picture.
  

I hear you. Trying to look at it as a positive but November? Get out of here with that nonsense.

Gotcha! I'm a huge football fan, but only play Madden casually, especially after having a kid, so I don't keep up with the development stuff that much. Thanks!
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This is insulting. 3 months after launch, more than halfway through the season, we get a tiny bone thrown our way. I know something is better than nothing, but this doesn’t even move the needle.
How is this even something we should be happy about? We have a crap mode that is getting an extra piece of corn put in this turd.
And no, I don’t want to hear that we should be happy they are doing anything. They bought our silence with this roadmap but the things listed and the timing still doesn’t do anything. Shame on you EA.
#fixmaddenfranchise
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Awesome news. Looking forward to these upgrades. They did a great job last year with updates throughout the year regarding game play so I'm hoping the same happens with Franchise.

Very excited about the progress and glad they put out a heads up. Keep working at it and we'll be there eventually

See this is the type of response I don't get. You have #fixmaddenfranchise at the end of your rant, but yet you're upset that they're trying to fix some things in franchise. Would you rather they do absolutely nothing at all? Because if they did that, then you STILL would be complaining. I understand that people have been upset about the lack of franchise updates, and rightfully so. But people want fixes and additions, and then when they get them, it's either not good enough or fast enough for their liking. These kinds of posts confuse me.
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the stats one is restoring something that was in madden years ago the other 3 are fluff in real terms imo. so nothing of substance. the stats was somewhere on the top 50 things we wanted but its wasnt top 10 iirc. we have so many things we want threads from prior years/games and nothing appears

I will try take a guess as to why the poster is upset.
1. Many of these things can not possibly take 2 1/2 months to implement.
2. On then surface, they are enhancements, but nothing that will move the needle for many franchise fans who want more GM/real life control. You know, the real stuff like contracts enhancements, FA additions, draft enhancements etc. When will these things come? March? Madden 22?
3. They gave themselves an out in the article by saying that things might change on the timeline. Which way do you think things will change if there are changes?
Fool people once...

the same as it did back in 2014..

I havent read every post in this thread. But I have been around here for over a decade.
I've played every madden since 98. I am a huge advocate for depth, immersion, and most importantly realistic true to life implementation into video games.
I'll applaud the optimistic nature here. But in 100% seriousness what is the last feature/mode/update EA has brought us that literally made us just "wow and clap" because they exceeded expectations?
We've gotten so used to them not meeting consumers expectations that now we are below the bare minimum and they are still missing.
I love football and play it professionally I love the game of football but im really tired of the NFL being the laughing stock of all sports titles
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So not till some time in “November” will we get a update for Franchise...November..hmm
Then two more are coming...That will put us where..March sometime..
Well Im certainly not excited about this...but I have plenty of time to try and get excited about.

Those fixes are crap. Let me preempt the arguments of “what did you expect” and “it’s better than nothing”. I expected much more to be done in development and then throwing us a bone months later doesn’t atone for that. And it’s not better than nothin when we know what’s able to be done. We’ve seen Madden at modes, other teams implement and develop quality features and additions. This team has shown me/us nothing.
So yes, I do want franchise fixed and no, I’m not happy with what they have. They took a dump on us and want us to say thank you.
“Thank you EA for patronizing us and making the weakest of efforts”.
Why can’t I/we criticize their so called additions. They added 17 games to the season, should I be super happy that a game that claims to be sim added the correct amount of games?
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I strongly advise you to realign your expectations to the reality that no video game company makes features happen overnight simply by snapping their fingers. Otherwise, I fear you are going to endure plenty more disappointments going forward.

I don't trust "don't have to restart your franchise part" one bit....

1 - You aren't qualified to make that assessment because you aren't a software engineer or development director at Tiburon.
2 - These franchise features are presumably not the only things Tiburon is planning to deliver to Madden NFL 21 on current-gen platforms between now and November. If nothing else there are plenty of bugs to fix.
3 - Tiburon has literally an entire second game to finish - Madden NFL 21 on PS5 and XBOX One X - by Holiday 2020.
4 - The engineers have to make sure these features work on literally eight platforms (XBOX One, XBOX One S, XBOX One X, XBOX Series X, PlayStation 4, Playstation 4 Pro, Playstation 5, PC). That is hardly insignificant.
5 - Informed by my experiences working in video games and also by conversations with people who worked on Madden in the past, the runway time for building these features likely includes, among other things: time for design and revisions, implementation itself, code review, internal QA (not only for function and bugs but for things such as accessibility and review by IP rights holders), and first-party approvals (which can take days if not weeks).
This update is absolutely not just "we need three months to build three screens".

Can I ask why? Almost always patches don't require restarting a franchise to have the changes.

I think a lot of people are feeling a bit wary given how Madden NFL 20 handled the Superstar X-Factors update which brought offensive lineman abilities into the game. That one did require a franchise restart, and it happened in like October after people had the retail version of the game as early as the end of July.
Most of Tiburon's track record about not requiring a restart is indeed good, but last year saw one very prominent blot added to that generally good record.

Riiiiiiight I forgot about that one. Ya that was a bummer.

I'm in the same camp with this post. I'll add, hopefully they get some title updates out that fix the glitches and have the game tightened up by the start of the season.
If I'm 3 or 4 seasons in by the time the first franchise update drops and don't have to restart my CFM, then I'll be happy.

All understood but it cannot take 2 1/2 months for a new playoff screen (which sound just like a screen only) and text based stat tracking to be added to the player cards. The other fixes I can see taking some time, but are irrelevant adds for me personally. And are we sure the new game is a really a new game and not just a “copy and paste port” for systems that we are not even 100% sure are coming out?

My expectations are already low. I did not buy Madden. And I said I expected more in the development phase of the game, which is not overnight. By the time this comes out in November, that will be 4 months from all this #fixmaddenfranchise movement, plus the 7-12 months of planning and developing Madden 21. None of that is overnight.
July to November is ample time. And that’s ignoring the initial development phase.
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Improvements are improvements. I'll encourage it and hope for more with that encouragement.

I’ll take it. Sucks that it’ll be mid-November, but I’ll take any win at this point.
I drew a line in the sand when Seann Graddy made his announcement on Twitter. So far they have delivered in communication. Now they need to deliver in improvements. Sounds promising that they will.

Where is the commish power to reset a game disconnected? It would have been one of the most important feature for connected franchise.
They promised. And now disappeared. Very good job

Been saying this for so long. Made a reddit post explaining a few tools that we need as admins for leagues.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Madden/comments/87jkv3/one_set_of_features_we_really_need_in_cfm
The ability to reset the game, or invoke "situation" mode like they had in the old Maddens where you could set custom games and adjust scored, time, timeouts, location, etc to match the game as close as possible before the connection. Also adjusting stats so players get the stats they earned for their players that game.

How about give us a commissioner mode sort of like universe mode in WWE and give us full customization. Allow us to play any game we want. I hate how if my team is eliminated or miss the playoffs I can’t play the remaining playoff games or Super Bowl. I want to control everything.
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If you expect nothing, you will not be disappointed. Everyone who has to do with EA should remember this.
Honestly?
X-Factor/Superstar Ability Customization: On PC we can to this so easy with our franchise editor.
Player Card Career Stats UI: These are a few menus with existing data - WOW
Dev Trait Regression Tuning: We have this allready on PC - AI Logic Mod
Playoff Bracket: and again WOW, one menu that should be in the game for years now ...
I would be ashamed of myself in their place.

Sometimes I just think to myself...how hard can it be ?
Like really, how hard can it be to come out with some features that the community has asked for and wants ?
If I was somebody at EA and actually wanted to make people who buy the game happy, I would look into it... See what they want and see how they are frustrated. Take their thoughts and opinions and put that towards a better Madden.
It's all out there. I mean, somebody from EA can head over here to these forums and quicky find out what is wrong with their game in under 30 mins. Do you think anybody from EA has ever been on a site this this ?
It's all there for them. We as a community have so much to say and we ask for things that really are not even too much to ask for. All these things for franchise mode that we want...it's all here. I can look on these forums and find 15+ features people want in the game with a quick search.
It's the inability to produce and the carelessness that EA and been so damn consistent at that makes more people every year not want to buy the game.
I love Madden. Been playing since Madden 98 on the ps1. I feel like I will always buy it because I have a craving to play a football game. It is terrible ? No. Does it need some love ? Yes, of course. I still have fun playing it and I'm glad they finally listened to us but it's sad that we had to put a hashtag out there just for them to put some TLC into a game mode they should know people spend a lot of time in.
The thing that upsets me the most is they have so much potential and they are not even scraping the surface.

I agree with most of the sentiment in here.
I'm surprised with the November release, however, having said that, I appreciate the transparency ahead of schedule. That, in and of itself, is unusual for any company releasing title update notes well before it's release, let alone EA.
The game reviewer from Forbes that has been critical of FM lacking features had this to say(don't shoot the messenger lol)
Brian Mazique
I am too. You have to give things a chance to change after you make a complaint. Communication hasn't been bad. I dont like November, but at least there is communication
totally agree updates are hitting really late, but i'm not sure there was enough time from when the first hashtag began until now to do much more, especially considering next-gen is coming. clearly, had they not been neglecting the mode for years, we wouldnt be here, but as it is
I have an entire list of stuff I'd like to see, but thing is, makes no sense in being mad about something that isn't practical to expect at this point. Now if Madden 22 rolls around after hearing Graddy say the mode would be a focus moving forward, then it's time to be more angry

Obviously the first few things they add were gonna be quick easy additions that have less of a chance to be buggy. I wasn’t expecting they were gonna add much to presentation on the first update. This is pretty much what I expected for the first franchise patch. The career stats is a big plus. I hope they have team career stats too, like past super bowl winners, etc. It would be nice if when a team wins the super bowl and the in stadium “champions screen” that appears on the jumbotrons actually switches to the team that just won the previous super bowl. It gets annoying when it’s 2028 in your franchise and we’ll still be seeing the super bowl champions logo in arrowhead stadium. Sort of ruins the immersion of your franchise.
The thing I loved about 2K5 was that the franchise mode felt not only authentic to the real NFL but it also felt completely separate from what was going on in the real world. There were times that I felt more interested in my own franchise than what was happening in the real NFL. EA has yet to create that kind of atmosphere in the game.
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That’s how I’m feelin. I already made the decision not to buy 21 so my expectations for them fixing things this release is already at a low. All these changes don’t mean anything to me. It just confirms that these will be in M22 and that’s all I can hope for at this point. So in my eyes, these are tweaks and changes to M22 CFM and I’m expecting bigger features to be announced next year

A mid November first patch tells me they've not been working on anything to do with franchise since they posted that first video when Graddy in a rather animated way claimed they were starting work on it that very day.

I guess this is the most disappointing part. Recognizing that this is probably the truth means that they legitimately had no plans to update anything about franchise until the hashtag hit.
I think that's the crux of where people are on both sides of this, we have people saying "they cant implement stuff that quickly", and on the other side people being like "we've been asking for this stuff for years, why did they just start 2 months ago?!?"

This is what it basically boils down to for me. We’ve been asking for the mode to improve for at least 10 years, they only started to “listen” when they were getting scorched on social media.
It’s nothing against the devs, they work on what they are told to work on.

Any franchise updates for 21 I expect will be mostly cosmetic and we wont see any major change until 22.

Kraelo just said on the GMM he is gonna try to have Tom back on the stream next week to talk more about their Franchise plans and why mid-November, mentioned it having to do with them wanting to make sure they have the tech working to where people won’t have to restart their Franchise for these updates.
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When did #FixMaddenFranchise start? June/July? So They actually have much more than just 2.5 months here, and this is update #1 lol More like 5 months.
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So, in effect, half a development cycle to add 2-3 cosmetic changes. Nothing much has changed.

That’s mediocre for a “big patch.” And since we got absolutely nothing in the release, a mediocre patch does not move the needle enough to give me any interest in buying it, even when it goes on sale.
Are we really starved out enough that something like being able to see career stats pumps us up?
I’m not buying for the simple reason that I don’t see anything in the game I’m going to enjoy, since I’m a 100% franchise player. But if you’re one of the “boycott EA” folks this just isn’t nearly enough to say any of the hashtags, boycotts, whatever you want to call them worked. Again, this is a very minor upgrade of things we should’ve had years ago. It’s nowhere close to what is needed.

November for this?

• X-Factor/Superstar Ability Customization: This highly requested feature by the community allows commissioners to assign X-Factors to any player via the edit player feature. Once a player has met the criteria to unlock an X-Factor ability, commissioners will be able to edit their player's Superstar abilities and Superstar X-Factor ability by selecting from those available within his position group. Users will have control over this functionality in both offline and online Franchises.
  

ALREADY A FEATURE IN MADDEN 20 franchise mode full player control allowed this in Madden 20 NOT A NEW FEATURE

• Player Card Career Stats UI: A top community request for several years now, the team is revamping the statistics on the player card to include more context in season stats, like week, opponent, and outcome, while also providing what team the player was on for every year of their career.
  

ALREADY A FEATURE IN MADDEN 20 in main menu roster! NOT A NEW FEATURE

• Dev Trait Regression Tuning: The team is doing tuning work to player development traits in Franchise mode to ensure a proper balance of Superstar and X-Factor players when progressing multiple years in a Franchise.
  

TUNING IS NOT A NEW FEATURE

• Playoff Bracket: A visual playoff bracket will be added into the game that reflects the new Wild Card format, allowing users to see the full playoff picture.
  

STUNNING AND BRAVE ADDITION! IS SUCH A THING EVEN POSSIBLE?

Not thrilled with the mid November updates but I will say at least they are doing something. Hopefully this springboards into a better franchise experience with the next Madden.

#fixmaddenfranchise

Exactly what I was getting at. Graddy came out with that video immediately after the first hashtag campaign, and it would not have taken long to decide what was possible to actually accomplish for 21. I don't know what the franchise team (they still have one, right?) has been doing since Graddy came out in June/July, but we're in September and you can't tell me FM updates have been in development for 2.5 months with 2.5 more months to go just to get a playoff bracket and some tuning tools.
It's EA's way of saying "See? They cried, we gave them stuff." And they will technically be correct about that, even if that "stuff" was miniscule and took 5 months to add to the game.
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Just let us use the face editor in create-a-player for draft classes & rosters. The engine is already there for the yard 'avatar' and FoF. Can't be that difficult to implement in roster editor/franchise mode. Every other sports game allows this so it can't be a 'likeness' issue.

I'm almost entirely convinced they are willfully sabotaging franchise mode to drive people to other more lucrative game modes. Many of the things people are asking for either already exist in other modes, or have existed in other versions of Madden. Almost everything we are asking for exists in other developer's games like 2K and SDS. Even other EA games such as Fifa and NHL have some of these features.
Especially anything to has to do with customization. With the "improvements" in the game being so small that they are almost non-existent, the ability to fully edit rosters, particularly assign audio to names, would negate many people's desires to even buy the latest Madden. Face scans are the least important in football, due to helmets, which makes the need for official roster updates less important than in NBA 2K, The Show, and even Fifa.
For example, why let users create and share historic rosters with assigned audio (which is really important for immersive commentary) when that might keep someone from paying for say a Barry Sanders card in MUT.
Too many of the things missing/partially implemented in Madden are so absurdly easy to do, as most of these things have existed in sports games for years, including many in previous versions of Madden, that it strains credulity that these things are beyond the ability and budget of the studio.
Frankly, it's hard to believe that franchise mode and customization options are this bad due to negligence. What is far easier to believe is that it is intentional and driven by greed. The hashtag was becoming too much negative attention and possibly becoming a threat, now or later, to the bottom line. Which is why they are making some small scale changes to lessen the intensity and scale of the backlash, while limiting as much as possible any potential reduction in revenue generated by microtransactions.
Fifa also has some key missing features that work the same way. One glaring example is created players cannot be assigned 5 star skills, forcing users to go through the My Player mode where they are more likely to spend money to upgrade their created player faster. 2k and SDS do not kneecap their customization options like EA sports games do. The tools ARE there but are mostly blocked in EA games, and I believe they are intentionally crippling these functions to drive people towards microtransaction heavy game modes.
There are only two solutions:
Boycott, or other developers getting access to the license. The first will never happen in enough numbers to have any effect, and the second is now at least a half decade away.
Maybe EA decides to change things for Madden 22 for Next Gen, and it certainly seems like they intend to at least add some features, but I still think trying to get them to implement anything that might threaten microtransaction revenue even the slightest will be like pulling teeth from them.
Rant over

Precisely, and if you watch the video he specifically says they are starting to work on it today, animated to emphasise that point. I don't believe for one second they started any kind of serious work on franchise mode on that day.

Yup but instead they just leave the same generic faces used for the last 8+ years as the only option in franchise. Kills immersion for me when everyone looks the same a few years into your franchise. Got NBA2k21 instead for my eSport fix and they even have this for WNBA players now as well as every other eSport game.
I noticed in their updates and M22 roadmap they never said they would add this. I'm not optimistic it will be added anytime soon.

Comments like these are why devs don't interact anymore.
You have to understand post launch features are tricky and time consuming.
In production it doesnt matter if you break something, you can fix it after the fact. You cant do that once the product is live.
They have to map out a plan, budget the plan, build the plan. Once the build a feature, it gets sent to QA. QA sends a bug report back upstairs and they start fixing bugs caused by the new code. Once they do that it gets sent back down to QA. Thus process repeats until there are no bugs.
This can taker a significant amount of time especially considering the scope of the Madden source code. People need to start being realistic.

Then it was probably a bad idea to say they were starting work on it "today", progress would inevitably be measured against that comment. Having seen what is thrown at devs on Twitter, I doubt my post would be reason for anyone not logging on here.

When they said working on it, im sure they meant they were beginning the brainstorming phase of what they could realistically add during the year, not actually coding out features.

Some of you have Stockholm syndrome. EA treats you like trash and the moment they give you the slightest bit of positive attention you want to walk on eggshells.

Its pretty sad they didn't think through getting these in at launch and folks that paid for it already have to wait months for a complete game. While I'm happy they are adding in some "improvements" I'm not going to praise them for selling an incomplete came and making folks wait months before it is actually completed.

To the bold, we're looking at around 5 months from Graddy's video to getting it out to gamers. 5 months for X Factor editing, a visual bracket, and some tuning/editing a stats spreadsheet. I'm not going to pretend these things can be done overnight, but 5 months? That's almost half a dev cycle for update 1.
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I understand and feel the same way about the November timeline, but X/D does have a point about their source code, too.
I just hope they do it right with no bugs instead of trying to rush it out.

Does that mean formation subs won't be fixed till then? I didn't even hear mention of that being in the patch, from videos about the 1st November patch, or is that something that won't be patched at all
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Two completely different things. This is to add features into franchise that should have already been there. Formation subs not working is a bug and, if fixed, would be done so completely separate of what this thread is discussing.
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Yawn // too little too late

I've been playing Madden since the mid-90s. They've said that before in the past with major Franchise patches; I ended up having to restart. Hoping for the best, EA can't mess this one up. It will break Twitter.

I hope so . . . at the moment, it is not enough to convince me to move on from Madden 20 . . .

I’ve bought every Madden first hand since 2001. I’ve waited to see how things would shake out this year, and it looks like that streak is going to end unless the next two updates are earth shattering. Disappointed, but maybe a year off will be for the best.

I'm sorry, but this is just unacceptable. There's so much wrong with the game launch, it's amazing they don't address these things quickly i.e., game breaking stat bug in Franchise which they never fixed pertaining to per game logs and career stats with each player in Franchise mode.
They should be pro active with this approach.

This greatly raises my expectations, and disappointment if it's not delivered. I guess I'll be waiting to make the final decision on whether or not to buy it until November.
EDIT- Wait a minute.... I just read what is going to take three months for them to add... rage reignited.
"A visual playoff bracket will be added into the game that reflects the new Wild Card format, allowing users to see the full playoff picture."
How is this not at launch?

Because modders have already been able to do half of it. Modders who have no idea how the game engine truly works...

If modders can do half of what's on that list, EA Tiburon could do the entire list in a couple weeks, if that, if that was their main focus.

AKA in time for the next gen releases, which is all EA cares about this year.

Kraelo said that Tom is gonna have another update on the Franchise update during the stream tomorrow.
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I think we would all benefit from tailoring our expectations a little bit. While I find these additions and there timeline to be absolutely ridiculous, what did we honestly all expect?
Tiburon and specifically EA’s mantra for the last 10 years has been the absolute bare minimum. I mean honestly when is the last time madden felt ground breaking??? Kind of hard to be disappointed when I expect so little as it is. But the sad part is I have been subject to the disappointment for so long that I find it completely un-disappointing at this point

It's quite obvious why they are willing to do the franchise adds. Easy to roll into NextGen madden. it's most likely on the list and like any other software coming out these days, Madden WILL become a subscription model.
The days of paying $60 for a game and getting updates are coming to an end. All software is going subscription.

This news really makes me skeptical that we will see franchise become what we hope it to be in the next year or two. My confidence in EA is at an all time low.
I'm a software developer. Granted I don't make videogames, I make enterprise applications, so there are elements to game development that I know very little about. But there are also elements that are universal to software development.
I'm going to speak plainly, once the hashtag campaign started the EA suits entered "oh snap" (only using a different 4 letter word starting with s) mode. They then went to the franchise development team and said guys we are in trouble, what can you commit to and when. The dev team then gives them the answer.
And if the answer was these 4 items in November...yikes. I have zero confidence they'll be able to add the big requested features in time for next release. Even if they drastically increase the size of the dev team, there is this thing in development called ramp up time and it can be a doosy, especially if you are working with an old legacy codebase. It would take those new developers months to even familiarize themselves with Madden's codebase. They can try to get around this by just dropping the new feature code on top of the old code, but that kind of "solution" is exactly how you end up with unworkable legacy code in the first place.
Like I said, I know little about game development, hell I don't even know if they follow Agile development, but as a software developer if it takes this long to get these items in that speaks to a much larger problem.

Dude...no. If you enjoy the game then by all means enjoy it and don't let me tell you what you can and cannot enjoy.
BUT, that mindset is exactly why EA feels like they can get away with minimal effort to franchise mode to begin with. "Springboard into a better franchise experience" is another way of saying step in the right direction or building block for the future, and that has been the apologetic line of defense for Madden for years.