MADDEN 24 A “MAKE OR BREAK” RELEASE FOR MANAGEMENT

[illwill10]

I fall in the camp of "I'll believe it when I see it". Madden's too big to fail. It'll still sell well regardless of of what are minority crowd thinks. Even if it is "better", it will still get review bombed. I don't really see the "make or break" thing. We are headed in the middle of the console generation and their exclusive license isn't up until '26(27 if they reach revenue benchmarks). I don't know if they would rock the boat, unless sales actually dip. I don't think the NFL cares as long as it's sells well and there's no scandals.

I definitely agree that Franchise isn't "small additions" away. It's not close at all. My problem has always been that they keep building upon this same foundation essentially since Madden 13. Madden 24 likely is the last cross gen iteration with current gen consoles starting to become more accessible. I really hope we see a big jump when these sports games go current gen only. Sports games as a whole, has been disappointing. When I look at other genres with great games, I don't think any of the Sports games are on that level. Part of it might be annual releases. But, I'm hoping we eventually see true next gen Sports games that can be on the same level as other genres

[BlackBetty15]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

I honestly don’t really understand why next year would be “make or break”. I am not under the impression that this is how game studios owned by major publishers working on massive popular IPs operate. Taking this article at face value, though: I would love to know what this source considers a “smaller” addition because there are significant components of real life NFL team building which still aren’t represented in Madden. Contract mechanics would be a correct area of focus because that’s still woefully out of date. I know I’ve said this over and over again but things like compensatory draft picks, contract restructures, annual roster bonuses (as opposed to only money guaranteed at signing), void years, no trade clauses, the transition tag, etc. are all still absent from Madden. Restricted free agency has been missing since the PS2 era. Exclusive rights free agency has never been included. CPU trade AI has no awareness of or intelligence about the salary cap so making it agree to trades which put its teams underwater is easy and frequent. Heck, the game doesn’t even enforce the salary cap; you’re allowed to be over the cap as long as you don’t sign anyone, which is a slapdash solution to CPU teams not handling their cap business properly. I would not characterize anything in that minor wall of text I just wrote as a “minor addition”. So I would love to hear the context of the idea that Franchise mode is “close”. And this doesn’t even address the mode’s single-greatest shortcoming in that it doesn’t tell good stories which would keep players (especially offline solo players) invested. I actually enjoy the XP and Skill Points system as a game-y player progression mechanic, but that can’t be the only hook. The presentation of the NFL in real life is comprised of interweaving narratives and storylines which doesn’t always have clean resolutions, winners, or losers. It is a soap opera for jocks. That narrative hook which makes the NFL such a big draw throughout the entire calendar year is not included in Madden literally at all.

I am honestly thinking its a ll lip service at this point. Maybe a hard attempt at letting us know "they mean business" I guess. Reminds me of when the MLB2k series tanked and all the noise of "we mean business and will fix it" ran about.

[MizzouRah]

Considering this was supposed to be the most finished and bug free release in awhile, seems more like lip service to me.

I'm with those that say I'll need proof before I even consider purchasing M24.

[roadman]

I know writers need to keep their sources confidential at all cost, but, just my opinion, I have

a hard time believing someone said it's a make or break year. And that is purely judged

based on how Madden is selling.

And yes, that includes my thoughts on FM, whether there are small improvements or

shall we say, big improvements.

[illwill10]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

I know writers need to keep their sources confidential at all cost, but, just my opinion, I have a hard time believing someone said it's a make or break year. And that is purely judged based on how Madden is selling. And yes, that includes my thoughts on FM, whether there are small improvements or shall we say, big improvements.

I agree. Unless, they highly upset that they have to offer the game at a discount to those affected the franchise issue, I don't really see it. Even then, there's always a ton of codes given out and the game always goes on sale within 2 and half months of release anyway.

Only thing I can believe is that if there is another of game wrecking bug, there might be a change. It would be a bad look if there is another bug that affects so many. But, I just can't see a bug free clean Madden. Not because I don't think they're capable, but because I think it's hard to do in an annually released game. A lot of Madden's issues requires time(more than one cycle) and I don't know if they have that luxury to fix it. Part of me wants to believe once they go current gen only, they'll have more resources to devote to the game.

[jfsolo]

I feel like a shakeup is only really likely to occur if catastrophic database and servers failures happen again.

As has been referenced people probably already have asked ChatGPT to write their review bomb of M24 with all the usual chestnuts so it's hard to see EA top brass using social media complaining as a metric besides the aforementioned technical ones.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[Dingo72]

I've been playing Madden since it's first release. After this latest disaster, I will not even think about buying another release until they build the game over from the ground up. The code they are using is so old it's a guarantee they can't fix or improve much without breaking and removing other parts.

I'm hoping Maximum Football 2023 and the new 2K will give me my football fix. I just can't give in again to a company that should have rebuild this game at least 10 years ago when it was very obvious the old code was creating problems for the developers.

[Broncos86]

So long as people keep shoveling money into MUT, EA will keep shoveling out Madden. These articles are just someone trying to spin a story. Anyone who looks at franchise mode and says “it’s almost there” is insane.

I’ll judge Madden 24 solely on what I see, AND I refuse to buy it on launch day. EA fooled me last year with the “most polished” line. From here on out, I’m waiting until I see heaps of praise and multiple patches.