Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Every year it seems like there are major issues at launch. Last year it was the pass/run indicators, the year before there were major CFM bugs, and this year the bug thread is 19 pages long and official release was only 5 days ago.

In contrast to EA keeping the game under wraps until a week before it released and not having any beta, Fifa has a private beta every year and many other games are having betas before they release as well, like Destiny and COD WWII.

Check out this article that details the feedback the devs for COD WWII received and are working on as a result of their beta: https://community.activision.com/t5/.../ba-p/10364905

Do you guys think Madden should start having a private beta each year to avoid all of the issues that the game seems to launch with year after year?

[SteelD34KC]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

Every year it seems like there are major issues at launch. Last year it was the pass/run indicators, the year before there were major CFM bugs, and this year the bug thread is 19 pages long and official release was only 5 days ago.

In contrast to EA keeping the game under wraps until a week before it released and not having any beta, Fifa has a private beta every year and many other games are having betas before they release as well, like Destiny and COD WWII.

Check out this article that details the feedback the devs for COD WWII received and are working on as a result of their beta: https://community.activision.com/t5/.../ba-p/10364905

Do you guys think Madden should start having a private beta each year to avoid all of the issues that the game seems to launch with year after year?

Why would they do that? They still get paid, year after year. MUT makes them millions and millions and that community basically runs the show.

And they are out there playing, not caring about a bug here or there. Out there playing and PAYING. Thats all EA Cares about.

[ksteward84]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

One year development cycle is really a 9 month development cycle. Subtract 2 months for testing would be a 7 month development cycle.

In theory if they took the time to make a perfect game they would probably have "No New Features, just all bug fixes" written on the back of the box (Heck, I'd buy that).

[Rebel10]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

Completely agree.

This year it was worse because those who had a chance to play the game weren't allowed to talk about it, provide feedback, or show anything other than clips of approved gameplay until the EA Access trial dropped. And, of course, that video footage wasn't allowed until just a week before release, as well.

EA seems to operate under the incorrect assumption that preventing bugs from being discovered until post-launch is good for business. This is a common, but wrong software development mindset. In software development it always costs more to find and fix bugs after they're shipped than it does to find and fix bugs before they're shipped, always. It's an axiom of software development, but one that marketing and sales often doesn't understand, thinking, if you obscure a bug or make it harder for consumers to find bugs, then they're more apt to buy the product when it comes out. This is false, but it's a common misconception especially in game development, but less so in traditional software development.

Many of the bugs that shipped and have since been reported could have easily been found with a controlled beta (because we know how secretive EASports is with their products) or by allowing GameChangers to post their video content online. Things that the individual GameChanger may not notice, like the bug with the wind that's broken special teams play in CFM for 4 years now, would have been caught before shipping the game. Instead, it wasn't caught until the EA Access trial went live, and then development leads had to admit that they hadn't fixed that bug, despite that it has been reported and documented for at least 3 iterations of Madden.

Further, you can even point to past betas saving EA millions of dollars. The beta/demo for NBA Elite 11 dropped about a month ahead of the release of the game. The game was so riddled with bugs that were immediately apparent to anybody playing the game, that EA had to make a quick decision and just cancel the game from shipping. Had that game shipped in its broken state, it would have cost EA millions in production, shipping, and refunds, as well as lost revenue having to buy back unsold retail space. People who downloaded that game found the bug within one day, something that had apparently missed QA (or that development leads didn't disclose to management, or that QA didn't report to development), and the management team behind the product smartly said that shipping this game would cost us millions of dollars, and they canceled the game.

Likewise, today, with the ~20 pages of bug reports 5 days after the game came out, with untold legacy bugs carried year over year, with hundreds of posts on the internet detailing bugs and issues with the game, EA could have saved money by getting those bug reports sooner, rather than waiting until post launch. When you find bugs during development, it is much cheaper to fix them than when you find them after the software has shipped. I'm sure most developers at EA know this, but stubborn product leads or marketing leads don't get it.

One year development cycle is really a 9 month development cycle. Subtract 2 months for testing would be a 7 month development cycle.

In theory if they took the time to make a perfect game they would probably have "No New Features, just all bug fixes" written on the back of the box (Heck, I'd buy that).

This isn't really realistic for modern software development. For consistently released software, whether it's software that's released once a year, once every 6 months, once every 2 weeks, or every day, it's not very common for work to only be done on the next iteration or the next release. Typically, work is concurrent for several planned releases, and on software that's released annually, you'll have development teams working on features for multiple releases. So, hypothetically in the case of Madden, one team would have started work on a feature, say, in February 2017 that they're targeting to ship in August 2018, while other teams will work on features that are shipping in that iteration, and then other teams work on multi-year release cycles.

It's typically not common for an entire development team to work on one piece of software, cut a release, and then transition to the next annual iteration. If EA runs that way, well, I wouldn't be completely surprised, but it's very wasteful and not modern.

[timhere1970]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

They don't care. It does not affect sales enough to justify the expense. They know we are not going to go buy someone else's game.

[Sheba2011]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

Why would they do that? They still get paid, year after year. MUT makes them millions and millions and that community basically runs the show.

And they are out there playing, not caring about a bug here or there. Out there playing and PAYING. Thats all EA Cares about.

While I would love a private beta and think it could do wonders for the game, the whole "blame MUT" argument has never really held up. MUT is a gold mine for EA, there is no doubting that but if MUT was really all they cared about why would they invest so much time and money into Longshot this year? The reason CFM and Gameplay have issues this year isn't because of MUT, it's because of Longshot and NBA Live.

[deu22ces]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

While I would love a private beta and think it could do wonders for the game, the whole "blame MUT" argument has never really held up. MUT is a gold mine for EA, there is no doubting that but if MUT was really all they cared about why would they invest so much time and money into Longshot this year? The reason CFM and Gameplay have issues this year isn't because of MUT, it's because of Longshot and NBA Live.

Longshot was made over the past 4 years tho, not just this cycle. This just happens to be the year they felt ready to include it. And J.White said only he had to move over to help on Live, his CFM 'team' stayed behind the whole time on Madden.

EA also supposedly has a 'team' that tests the game "thoroughly"; one of those guys did an interview too. So all the 'excuses' are just that...excuses to try to hide bad management. How many people and what level(s) the bad management comes from we don't know for sure. At some point people are going to be finally fed up with EA's routine (it seems to be really taking hold this year).

IMO, the 'testing' issue comes from a management level person who does not hold enough accountability over the people who do the supposed testing OR management knows about all the issues and purposely decides to see what the public notices and what they don't. Then they gauge the 'uproar' in order to prioritize what the issues are this year that they "must" fix. It's sad that they need to see who they piss off the most before they take action. And that's also a sign of bad management...reactive to problems instead of proactive to prevent problems. But that's just my take, could be wrong of course.

[SolidSquid]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

While I would love a private beta and think it could do wonders for the game, the whole "blame MUT" argument has never really held up. MUT is a gold mine for EA, there is no doubting that but if MUT was really all they cared about why would they invest so much time and money into Longshot this year? The reason CFM and Gameplay have issues this year isn't because of MUT, it's because of Longshot and NBA Live.

Longshot is designer as a shared feature between EA sports games though. FIFA has The Journey, and I'm sure they used the same assets to make Longshot.

[Shogunreaper]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

developers seemed to have moved on from bug testing themselves and started using the players to do that after release.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

I appreciate that they patch the game, Fifa doesn't do that unless it's for MUT. But most of the things people are dealing with seem impossible to go undetected by the dev team unless they never played the game. The framerate issues, the OT freeze glitch, the broken zones and man coverage, etc etc etc all would have been noticed if anyone was paying attention and they shouldn't wait until this point in the dev cycle to fix these issues.

I would personally rather have them push back the release of the game to the Tuesday before the season starts, Sept. 5th, and the game be mostly free of bugs then deal with all these issues and not know how long it will take for them to get to them.

[Brightline]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

The real reason?

The game is good enough. They are the only football game in town so consumers don't have another option and its not like the bugs make the game unplayable. And Madden is just so massive of a game that it still gets good reviews for the most part.

[bodean]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

Why would they do that? They still get paid, year after year. MUT makes them millions and millions and that community basically runs the show.

And they are out there playing, not caring about a bug here or there. Out there playing and PAYING. Thats all EA Cares about.

What a shame. Personally can't stand MUT. My main play is online H2H or off line single player franchise, or quick play games.

[4thQtrStre5S]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

Rock Star games like GTA and Red Dead Redemption take years to be released; and they still have bugs and issues.

Just the way programming is.

[Black Bruce Wayne]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

How do we know they don't?

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[XxKnicksRules215xX]

Re: Why Doesn't EA Test Madden Thoroughly Before Launch?

They don't care. It does not affect sales enough to justify the expense. They know we are not going to go buy someone else's game.

Winner winner, the honest truth is your correct, other can argue about this and that but the sad truth is if it doesn't effect the goal which is money then there's no need to address anything or do proper QA. THe proof is in the pudding what more does anyone need?