Madden's future of CFM is alarming

[Crimsontide27]

NBA Live was going to be canceled this year, and the only reason it is releasing at all is because they pooled their resources from other departments. The budget for NBA Live has been all but reduced to zero. It sells so poorly that it loses money year in and out.

They are already in the works to rebrand the franchise and release with the next wave of systems hitting the shelf.

As far as Madden goes, CFM will also be rebranded and the focus will shift more to the the ability to monetize "scenarios", like Longshot. The long term vision is to basically sell Madden as more of an episodic choose your own adventure and have your Create a Player basically play out across multiple years.

Unless something extremely drastic changes and there is clearance from well above a few peoples pay grade Madden will continue to actually regress in the franchise mode while all efforts are put in to place to monetize "episodic" content to generate a more long term revenue stream.

[Smallville102001]

Quote: Originally Posted by Crimsontide27

NBA Live was going to be canceled this year, and the only reason it is releasing at all is because they pooled their resources from other departments. The budget for NBA Live has been all but reduced to zero. It sells so poorly that it loses money year in and out. They are already in the works to rebrand the franchise and release with the next wave of systems hitting the shelf. As far as Madden goes, CFM will also be rebranded and the focus will shift more to the the ability to monetize "scenarios", like Longshot. The long term vision is to basically sell Madden as more of an episodic choose your own adventure and have your Create a Player basically play out across multiple years. Unless something extremely drastic changes and there is clearance from well above a few peoples pay grade Madden will continue to actually regress in the franchise mode while all efforts are put in to place to monetize "episodic" content to generate a more long term revenue stream.

So when are the next like consoles going to come out? Nba live surprised me with how good its game play is but its franchise mode is not good and is going to cost EA a lot of sales.

[msdm27]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

Not sure how NBA Live's franchise mode, which is presumably being built from scratch under really aggressive time constraints due to the turmoil that game has been through over the past decade, is relevant at all to the future of Madden's franchise mode, which is an infinitely more mature and stable, if imperfect, feature.

I'm pretty sure we were sold that CFM took a backseat to Live's Franchise mode this year (in terms of John White's involvement in the latter) but that it would result in CFM being able to pull cool features from Live so that development time for CFM feature would be more efficient in the feature.

Based on playing and seeing other reviews for Franchise mode in Live, the only thing CFM could pull from that excuse of a game mode is the menus/UI (which would actually be a great thing because Live's menus are second to none).

The reality is, if Madden was to ever get a feature or idea from Live's Franchise mode, it seems reasonably to think that would not be feasible until a couple of years down the road.

I think the one alarming thing is the fact that instead of being a source of inspiration for future Madden change, Live has actually been made a copy of CFM's disastrous XP model, so it actually makes it harder to imagine CFM going away from XP since now EA has 2 modes tied into it

PS: *Advancing the NBA calendar by weeks?*
And then they get all upset when we call them out for lack of attention to detail

[RogerDodger]

Quote: Originally Posted by Other Guy

This is the cold, hard truth right here, and I fear things will get worse before they get better. I could go into a long-drawn-out post about out; I'll keep it simple instead. From a corporate standpoint, it doesn't make a lot sense for EA to prioritize CFM.

If the bottom line is the one, single defining factor that influences the design and implementation of developing existing or implementing new features then they would update the rosters and throw out the same game every year.

We joke about Madden being just a roster update and at times it certainly feels like it is, but there's more influenceses than simply the bottom line imo.

But maybe I'm just being naive and hopeful for a future that no longer exists but what EA have added to the FIFA 18 franchise mode this year gives me some hope at least.

[Grey_Osprey]

I'm concerned from the point of view that if competition (NBA2K) couldn't get them to design and implement a decent franchise mode, then why would they ever feel the need to do so in a "non-competitive" environment like Madden?

And I wouldn't be shocked if offline franchise disappeared at some point in the near future.

[fballturkey]

This year shouldn't scare you, last year should've. We were told this was a year CFM wasn't getting anything, which is awful and it was done for awful reasons but is what it is. Last year they "focused on CFM" and we still hardly got anything and what we did get wasn't even what we wanted. That was when I knew CFM was not on a good trajectory.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by Crimsontide27

NBA Live was going to be canceled this year, and the only reason it is releasing at all is because they pooled their resources from other departments. The budget for NBA Live has been all but reduced to zero. It sells so poorly that it loses money year in and out. They are already in the works to rebrand the franchise and release with the next wave of systems hitting the shelf. As far as Madden goes, CFM will also be rebranded and the focus will shift more to the the ability to monetize "scenarios", like Longshot. The long term vision is to basically sell Madden as more of an episodic choose your own adventure and have your Create a Player basically play out across multiple years. Unless something extremely drastic changes and there is clearance from well above a few peoples pay grade Madden will continue to actually regress in the franchise mode while all efforts are put in to place to monetize "episodic" content to generate a more long term revenue stream.

That's a harrowing scenario.

I made a protest vote this year and chose not to spend my money on an iteration that didn't value CPU AI and offline franchise mode enough for my tastes. My own position is that they're not getting my money until they can prove--not just in words, but in deeds--that they're all-in on CPU AI improvements for the solo, offline gamer, and that they're all-in on offline CFM being as dynamic and immersive as competitors' games are.

If the situation you describe obtains, I won't be able to say that for a long, long time. That's a bummer.

[mykelmosinee]

Seriously, I've wondered over the years WHY Madden has been so stagnant. The devs always fall back on "layers of old code breaking this or that" when they fall short of expectations.
But, after these last 2 years especially, I honestly believe it is all a matter of TALENT, or lack thereof.
Let's face it, EA is not bringing well known, experienced developers...they're saving money bringing in people with little, or no experience beyond school. They are getting exactly what they're paying for.
And we're the ones filling their coffers with an ailing, boring, and unenthusiastic effort they continue to put out.


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