Madden 21

[JBURGE]

16 minutes ago, BayRaider said:

No, you act like they don’t need to focus on offline modes because you associate it with your own style and justify it. These horrid reviews Madden keeps getting that are like 0.1/10 on all user review websites, are because they ignore these modes. There is probably just as many offline mode players as MUT players. And it’d be in EA’s interest to keep all of their purchasers happy, otherwise as soon as they don’t have the exclusive license, they will be toast. 

The issue is they continue to have the exclusive rights. They signed an extension last year until like 2026. I know 2k will be making a game but I don't think it will be a "realistic sim" like Madden is [supposed to be] 

[showtime]

43 minutes ago, BayRaider said:

No, you act like they don’t need to focus on offline modes because you associate it with your own style and justify it. These horrid reviews Madden keeps getting that are like 0.1/10 on all user review websites, are because they ignore these modes. There is probably just as many offline mode players as MUT players. And it’d be in EA’s interest to keep all of their purchasers happy, otherwise as soon as they don’t have the exclusive license, they will be toast. 

I was just giving my point of view that I don't care about offline stuff.

From a business standpoint, it also makes sense. They make no money from offline franchise players after initial purchase, so it makes sense they don't put resources into that mode. They make TONS of money from Ultimate Team players, so it makes sense they invest more resources into that mode. That's simple business to me. Doesn't matter who agrees, it just makes sense for the company to do that.

[JBURGE]

57 minutes ago, showtime said:

I was just giving my point of view that I don't care about offline stuff.

From a business standpoint, it also makes sense. They make no money from offline franchise players after initial purchase, so it makes sense they don't put resources into that mode. They make TONS of money from Ultimate Team players, so it makes sense they invest more resources into that mode. That's simple business to me. Doesn't matter who agrees, it just makes sense for the company to do that.

From a business perspective they will also sell more copies of the game and have greater client retention if they catered somewhat to the large portion of players who list Franchise as their favourite game mode (no citation that I can find but remember reading an article within the last couple years about this survey).

A lot of businesses have shifted over to subscription based services because it provides year round consistent revenue, and microtransactions have become massive in gaming partly for this reason, however if they produced a better product perhaps many people would be willing to buy some microtransactions (like me). 

You can say "from a business standpoint, it makes sense" to basically anything. 

I'm not saying you're an EA apologist. I think people on here can get a little aggressive with the "if you buy Madden you're a shill" standpoint. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by JBURGE

[August4th]

looks like EA is gonna start putting more resources into franchise mode going forward.

I found these comments from the operation sports forum to be interesting

Quote

---

Haven’t been around much, been busy so not sure if this is the place for this or not. From what I have been told over the last few months there is a massive focus on franchise this year. They hired in more developers to work on it and the majority of all dev work for M22 is on franchise. In terms of the news today, this is only a slice of the feature sets for franchise you will see in M22. One high up developer told me today that M22 they hope will go a long way towards mending fences between EA and the community.

Basically, everything I had been hearing for a couple months was confirmed with the “leak” but also with some follow up conversations today. Will it be enough to appease a beaten up fan base? I can’t say, but I have heard about some of the other feature sets that will come with launch, but also after, and I think many will be happy.

and this article

https://www.ign.com/articles/ea-is-putting-the-future-of-its-franchises-including-titanfall-into-its-studios-hands

Quote

“We have recently added advanced innovation teams that are heavily focused on tech development and dedicated to long-term game development,” Miele added when talking about EA’s sports games. “These teams explore innovation initiatives that players will get to experience in two to three years.”

 

[showtime]

2 hours ago, JBURGE said:

From a business perspective they will also sell more copies of the game and have greater client retention if they catered somewhat to the large portion of players who list Franchise as their favourite game mode (no citation that I can find but remember reading an article within the last couple years about this survey).

Okay, so let's look at this point. This is a good point that many people make. I don't have any facts to back this up, but I'm willing to bet FIFA, Madden, and 2K make more money off microtransactions than they do from selling the actual game.

If you look at real reviews of all three of those games, many people will say the franchise/offline modes are literal copy and paste, yet they still make a ton of profit off the game.... why? Because of Ultimate Team and MyPlayer game modes.

From a business standpoint, why would you pour resources into an offline game mode that generates $0 after purchase vs Ultimate Team when generates billions of dollars?

EDIT: EA enjoyed a year over year growth of 27% from microtransactions, earning $993 million during its third fiscal quarter 2020. Of that, $317 million was profit, a 16% growth YoY. Some of the company’s most prominent live service games include FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL, and Apex Legends. In the past 12 months, EA earned $2.835 billion from microtransactions alone. This is an increase in over $800 million in revenue when compared to the same time period in fiscal year 2018 (ending December 31, 2017). As the data shows, the company is steadily earning more from microtransactions each year.

[43M]

10 hours ago, showtime said:

Huh? I make excuses? I don't really play Madden anymore. I bought the PS5 version of the game because it was new and half off. Outside of that, I hadn't bought Madden in like 2 years. Not sure how I'm always making excuses for them.

Personally, I don't care about offline modes. Never have and never will. I only play sports games online, so I don't care if franchise mode is good or not.

I guess just because I don't come in here and bash the game non stop I'm making excuses for them lol

No, its because you simp for them.  You dont actually give a logical defense for their sub par effort....you just basically tell people they should just accept how mediocre the game is in almost every single way.  Even the one mode you claim they care about barely gets much love.   Its the same exact dynamic every year with updated UI and rosters.

I have no control over what EA does.   None of us do.   They make enough money from kids, esporters and gullible morons that they can do whatever they want.

Doesnt mean its right or that we should just accept it.    I trash EA because they deserve it.  They are everything wrong with the videogame industry.

 

[43M]

6 hours ago, showtime said:

Okay, so let's look at this point. This is a good point that many people make. I don't have any facts to back this up, but I'm willing to bet FIFA, Madden, and 2K make more money off microtransactions than they do from selling the actual game.

If you look at real reviews of all three of those games, many people will say the franchise/offline modes are literal copy and paste, yet they still make a ton of profit off the game.... why? Because of Ultimate Team and MyPlayer game modes.

From a business standpoint, why would you pour resources into an offline game mode that generates $0 after purchase vs Ultimate Team when generates billions of dollars?

EDIT: EA enjoyed a year over year growth of 27% from microtransactions, earning $993 million during its third fiscal quarter 2020. Of that, $317 million was profit, a 16% growth YoY. Some of the company’s most prominent live service games include FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL, and Apex Legends. In the past 12 months, EA earned $2.835 billion from microtransactions alone. This is an increase in over $800 million in revenue when compared to the same time period in fiscal year 2018 (ending December 31, 2017). As the data shows, the company is steadily earning more from microtransactions each year.

ONCE AGAIN....if you wanna simp for them and accept the fact that they are exploiting gamers (primarily children) and their exclusive stronghold on the NFL license, so be it.   Thats up to you....but quit acting like it isnt an absolutely disgusting and immoral practice to release a marginally improved game every year, sell it for full price EVERY YEAR,  and make billions off of microtransactions that are only good for that years iteration.

Accept it all you want....but its not remotely defensible how they do things.   

[showtime]

4 hours ago, 43M said:

No, its because you simp for them.  You dont actually give a logical defense for their sub par effort....you just basically tell people they should just accept how mediocre the game is in almost every single way.

 

I don't know man. The game sucks, imo, so I don't buy it or play it. I bought the PS5 version because it's a new console and I wanted to see the upgrades, plus it was half off.

I think over the last 5-6 years, I've bought Madden like 2 times. I just mostly check in this thread every once in a while to see what's new with the game.

 

Also, I hate Ultimate Team type game modes. I don't play it in Madden and I dislike it in NBA 2K as well. Those game modes are full of non-stop grinding or spending to stay competitive. So them supporting Ultimate Team doesn't benefit me at all.... in fact it's one of the reasons I stop playing the game.

I mainly play online ranked matches with the default NFL teams, so game play is what I'm most concerned about. The game play of Madden has been horrible for years and years now.

With all that said, I completely understand why they focus on Ultimate Team. If it were up to me, i'd love to see them revamp the game and improve the game play, but I get why they don't.

[JBURGE]

On 3/6/2021 at 6:02 PM, showtime said:

Okay, so let's look at this point. This is a good point that many people make. I don't have any facts to back this up, but I'm willing to bet FIFA, Madden, and 2K make more money off microtransactions than they do from selling the actual game.

If you look at real reviews of all three of those games, many people will say the franchise/offline modes are literal copy and paste, yet they still make a ton of profit off the game.... why? Because of Ultimate Team and MyPlayer game modes.

From a business standpoint, why would you pour resources into an offline game mode that generates $0 after purchase vs Ultimate Team when generates billions of dollars?

EDIT: EA enjoyed a year over year growth of 27% from microtransactions, earning $993 million during its third fiscal quarter 2020. Of that, $317 million was profit, a 16% growth YoY. Some of the company’s most prominent live service games include FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL, and Apex Legends. In the past 12 months, EA earned $2.835 billion from microtransactions alone. This is an increase in over $800 million in revenue when compared to the same time period in fiscal year 2018 (ending December 31, 2017). As the data shows, the company is steadily earning more from microtransactions each year.

I am certainly not going to argue that MTX is a huge part of their revenue. I would be interested to see the avg $ paid per consumer of MTX. Something that will skew these numbers more going forward is the addition of EA Play to XBOX Gamepass. The people who are willing to wait until March will get Madden at basically no cost except if they do any MTX. 

There is a dollar value for reputation, goodwill, and EA is losing there and has been for a decade. 

However EA announced that 21 sold better than 20 at launch, which is unfathomable to me. 

[RaidersAreOne]

Stoked they are finally taking franchise more seriously.

[BayRaider]

17 minutes ago, RaidersAreOne said:

Stoked they are finally taking franchise more seriously.

What did they do? They always say they are gonna do something and it's usually just hype... Franchise needs a lot more work than just adding a few things. Needs a total overhaul.

[RaidersAreOne]

10 minutes ago, BayRaider said:

What did they do? They always say they are gonna do something and it's usually just hype... Franchise needs a lot more work than just adding a few things. Needs a total overhaul.

They haven't done anything majorly drastic yet, but seemingly added more little things recently than they have in years. Add that to the above talk (if true) about it being a focal point going forward and that makes me happy.

Trade logic is/was by far the most annoying thing about franchise for me. You couldn't trade 3 high firsts for a certain player, yet if he was on your team you couldn't even get a second for him. We are past the trade deadline in my online franchise with my friends so I haven't had the chance to see the trade change yet, but I am looking forward to it.

Besides that I think contract negotiations is the next most annoying atm. 

[RaidersAreOne]

Actually I'd say the draft is the most annoying thing about madden franchise. The prospects each and every year are soooo weak. You're lucky to get more than a small handful of stars in the first round. 99% of high picks are normal dev, so there's never really any good players who develop into 90+'s. Also there are NEVER any elite OL guys, only above average G's. We're ~8 years in our league and the only 95+ elite dudes are real players who are in their 30's.

They need to completely overhaul how prospects are made. I'd say make it closer to how Chel has it's draft every year, and have 5-6 elite guys, a good amount of good then a lot of average. Mix in the odd franchise guy (who'd be like a 84 SS off the bat or something).

[BayRaider]

Salary cap/contracts and the draft are totally broken in Madden. I usually just turn salary cap off, and use custom draft classes because EA’s are garbage.. only players that ever develop is a QB or two. 

[JBURGE]

8 hours ago, RaidersAreOne said:

Actually I'd say the draft is the most annoying thing about madden franchise. The prospects each and every year are soooo weak. You're lucky to get more than a small handful of stars in the first round. 99% of high picks are normal dev, so there's never really any good players who develop into 90+'s. Also there are NEVER any elite OL guys, only above average G's. We're ~8 years in our league and the only 95+ elite dudes are real players who are in their 30's.

They need to completely overhaul how prospects are made. I'd say make it closer to how Chel has it's draft every year, and have 5-6 elite guys, a good amount of good then a lot of average. Mix in the odd franchise guy (who'd be like a 84 SS off the bat or something).

The scouting and progression needs an overhaul. Unfortunately they just did progression. I would rather they adopt a NBA 2k style progression where there are developments, and the players just develop over time. I don't want to choose what to upgrade, let the game do that. 

Scouting is a mess. I don't even have any suggestions, but showing that a 4th round pick has 1st round talent is stupid. Just have the projections and the combine stuff, and then let us figure out the rest by scouting the skills. I don't want to know if they are a 1st round pick talent, that makes it cheap.