Madden's franchise mode. Where it all went wrong.

[rooney8]

Firstly this is just my opinion. I don't work at EA so I don't really know.

It all started unsurprisingly with the signing of the exclusive license. EA decided with no competition they could greatly water down franchise mode in Madden and release a seperate game that all the franchise junkies would have to turn to while hopefully still buying Madden for gameplay. And so NFL Head Coach was released. It was rushed out, buggy and didn't sell very well. So they went away for two years and came back with NFL Head Coach 09. A really excellent game that hardcore franchise guys loved but unfortunately sales were poor and the series discontinued.

On the bright side the main men behind HC09, Josh Looman and his sidekick Donny Moore, were brought back to the Madden team. Josh was immediately put in charge of franchise mode for Madden10 but arriving late and with a short cycle he only tweked the very shallow franchise mode. Still with a full cycle with Madden11 hope rose for a franchise mode similar to HC09. However for Madden11 Josh was put full time on Madden Ultimate Team and Donny mainly just the "ratings czar". Why did this happen? Possibly the poor sales of Head Coach told the bigwigs franchise mode isn't as important as they thought. Or after Madden10 recieved big investment Madden11 seemed to get a much lower development budget. And rebuilding franchise mode needs big investment. Or possibly because Madden is trying to copy how Fifa turned itself around by perfecting gameplay before touching Career Modes. Whatever the reason franchise mode was left alone meaning Madden11 had the same watered down version we saw back in 06.

So how does the future look for this once great mode. Well Josh Looman has shown with the PS2 franchise mode and Head Coach he can deliver a great franchise mode. Also the Madden devs have indicated that franchise mode may be getting alot of the work it needs for Madden12. However, with a new CBA unlikely to be agreed until March it just doesn't make sense to try and rebuild the mode now. So basically the future of franchise mode is as uncertain as ever. But with Josh Looman possibly discussing the subject in the next podcast I know all franchise junkies will be listening closely.

[RedZoneD25]

I personally believe that franchise took a monster hit when they didn't port it from the PS2 version for Madden 06 360. One that I don't honestly think they've recovered from yet. Here's to hoping Madden 12 can break the mold and deliver an engaging mode like we have never seen in a single-player football simulation.

[PantherBeast_OS]

Quote: Originally Posted by rooney8

Firstly this is just my opinion. I don't work at EA so I don't really know. It all started unsurprisingly with the signing of the exclusive license. EA decided with no competition they could greatly water down franchise mode in Madden and release a seperate game that all the franchise junkies would have to turn to while hopefully still buying Madden for gameplay. And so NFL Head Coach was released. It was rushed out, buggy and didn't sell very well. So they went away for two years and came back with NFL Head Coach 09. A really excellent game that hardcore franchise guys loved but unfortunately sales were poor and the series discontinued. On the bright side the main men behind HC09, Josh Looman and his sidekick Donny Moore, were brought back to the Madden team. Josh was immediately put in charge of franchise mode for Madden10 but arriving late and with a short cycle he only tweked the very shallow franchise mode. Still with a full cycle with Madden11 hope rose for a franchise mode similar to HC09. However for Madden11 Josh was put full time on Madden Ultimate Team and Donny mainly just the "ratings czar". Why did this happen? Possibly the poor sales of Head Coach told the bigwigs franchise mode isn't as important as they thought. Or after Madden10 recieved big investment Madden11 seemed to get a much lower development budget. And rebuilding franchise mode needs big investment. Or possibly because Madden is trying to copy how Fifa turned itself around by perfecting gameplay before touching Career Modes. Whatever the reason franchise mode was left alone meaning Madden11 had the same watered down version we saw back in 06. So how does the future look for this once great mode. Well Josh Looman has shown with the PS2 franchise mode and Head Coach he can deliver a great franchise mode. Also the Madden devs have indicated that franchise mode may be getting alot of the work it needs for Madden12. However, with a new CBA unlikely to be agreed until March it just doesn't make sense to try and rebuild the mode now. So basically the future of franchise mode is as uncertain as ever. But with Josh Looman possibly discussing the subject in the next podcast I know all franchise junkies will be listening closely.

Wellthe CBA has nothing to do with EA and madden 12. Ian and Crew will redo franchise no matter what. Madden 12 will come out next year no matter wheather there is a NFL lockout or not. Madden 12 franchise mode will be overhauled period as Phil has already stated months ago in a blog right before E3. I trust Ian and crew will give a good franchise mode for next year for us. I looking forward to see what they do to improve it for next year.

[cletusdog]

Quote: Originally Posted by Legend Killer

Wellthe CBA has nothing to do with EA and madden 12. Ian and Crew will redo franchise no matter what. Madden 12 will come out next year no matter wheather there is a NFL lockout or not. Madden 12 franchise mode will be overhauled period as Phil has already stated months ago in a blog right before E3. I trust Ian and crew will give a good franchise mode for next year for us. I looking forward to see what they do to improve it for next year.

that's not what he's referring to. They are rebuilding a new franchise mode for Madden and the CBA has yet to have the very rules that they are trying to build the game with.

[carnalnirvana]

call me crazy, but they dont even need to rebuild it righ now to get it right....

yes more presentation, yes more immersion

but these are only annoyingly lacking becuase of how bland the gameplay really is IMO.

whats good is having a half time show when its showing gameplay highlights thats not authentic to that team or not representative of the talent of the team.
ex. i am playing the falcons but the highlights in the beautiful presented half time show is the FB getting 4 catches and the slot WR catching 2 TD's while White and turner is nowhere to be found.......

MAKE THE GAMEPLAY AUTHENTIC.

the game needs NFL PRIORITY(stars first role players second) in on field execution.

sim stats has priority, yet when i play a game there is none.. if the falcons lost with turner getting 25 caries for 40yds and white having 2 catches for 20 yds but they threw to him 10+ times, no one could complain

but when they lose becuase turner got 10 caries and white saw 1 pass thats when a franchise game becomes boring because now i cant get hype about my accomplishments during the game.....

think about it, if a team could cover A. johnson with a LB then where is the hype about shutting him down, where is the hype about the upcoming FA and getting a beast CB or the draft

our fun factor is closely tied to gameplay, if the gameplay cant force you to do something in the front office why are you playing a franchise....

how to fix it IMO

1. stop letting QB's pass to the first open guy as a PRIORITY,,, unless he is 10yds down the field. this is why they all play alike no matter OVR rating. in the nfl this is stupid SUGGESTION i know but in a video game that does not have situational judgement its a necessary evil...... this is why the cpu cant get A first down consistently, 3 & 15 4th Q down by 7 ....leave the FB open and the cpu wont make another read they will take that dump off.....no situational judgement of a human, you cant make that initial READ a priority, it should be based on skill or lack there of...

2. USE your star players, to express the coache's shceme, go down swinging with your best players, i dont know which predictability is worse, knowing the cpu wont go to their best player or knowing they will go to him even though he is covered,but i'll take the latter and this is where the best smarter QB's come into play, they will find a way or try........

3. let us customize coaches schemes so over time we can adjust teams to their personnel.

4. make me mortgage the team is i want a 99 player in FA, for too long we have been able to have 4 DL in the 90's, 3 LB in the 90's and a beast secondary.....this rarely happens for more than 2 seasons....you should not be able to afford the colts offense and a D with no holes......

anyway for franchise to be worth playing we first have LOSE GAMES becuase of a void. and that void has to be very hard to fill.......

[rooney8]

Quote: Originally Posted by Legend Killer

Wellthe CBA has nothing to do with EA and madden 12. Ian and Crew will redo franchise no matter what. Madden 12 will come out next year no matter wheather there is a NFL lockout or not. Madden 12 franchise mode will be overhauled period as Phil has already stated months ago in a blog right before E3. I trust Ian and crew will give a good franchise mode for next year for us. I looking forward to see what they do to improve it for next year.

I am sure franchise mode won't be left untouched but it needs to be rebuilt. The question is will it be rebuilt or just have some cosmetic changes to make it look new but would still have the same bad code like what was done for Madden10. The CBA just seems to be something that needs to be in there from the start and not something that could be thrown in when everything else is done.

[ashantewarrier]

Quote: Originally Posted by rooney8

Firstly this is just my opinion. I don't work at EA so I don't really know. It all started unsurprisingly with the signing of the exclusive license. EA decided with no competition they could greatly water down franchise mode in Madden and release a seperate game that all the franchise junkies would have to turn to while hopefully still buying Madden for gameplay. And so NFL Head Coach was released. It was rushed out, buggy and didn't sell very well. So they went away for two years and came back with NFL Head Coach 09. A really excellent game that hardcore franchise guys loved but unfortunately sales were poor and the series discontinued. On the bright side the main men behind HC09, Josh Looman and his sidekick Donny Moore, were brought back to the Madden team. Josh was immediately put in charge of franchise mode for Madden10 but arriving late and with a short cycle he only tweked the very shallow franchise mode. Still with a full cycle with Madden11 hope rose for a franchise mode similar to HC09. However for Madden11 Josh was put full time on Madden Ultimate Team and Donny mainly just the "ratings czar". Why did this happen? Possibly the poor sales of Head Coach told the bigwigs franchise mode isn't as important as they thought. Or after Madden10 recieved big investment Madden11 seemed to get a much lower development budget. And rebuilding franchise mode needs big investment. Or possibly because Madden is trying to copy how Fifa turned itself around by perfecting gameplay before touching Career Modes. Whatever the reason franchise mode was left alone meaning Madden11 had the same watered down version we saw back in 06. So how does the future look for this once great mode. Well Josh Looman has shown with the PS2 franchise mode and Head Coach he can deliver a great franchise mode. Also the Madden devs have indicated that franchise mode may be getting alot of the work it needs for Madden12. However, with a new CBA unlikely to be agreed until March it just doesn't make sense to try and rebuild the mode now. So basically the future of franchise mode is as uncertain as ever. But with Josh Looman possibly discussing the subject in the next podcast I know all franchise junkies will be listening closely.

Great summary! It's a daggone shame that Madden11 on PS3 is miles behind earlier versions that resided on last gens. If they do not implement a competent franchise mode comparable to earlier versions on the next version Madden 12 then EA will lose me for good as a future customer!

[jbrew2411]

It all went wrong when they started removing features. I know they changed systems but it's Madden 11 now and we still are missing stuff from Madden 05. I have hopes for a better Madden 12 and the one mode I play but I want hold my breath. Once you have lost my trust I don't just give it back because of things you say but by actions you take. EA win the trust of a long time customer of yours back.