why hasn't Madden lived up to expectations?
 

what are some of your opinions on this subject.....

re: why hasn't Madden lived up to expectations?
 

gameplay is fine... franchise needs major overhaul... Some presentation changes should be made as well... franchise specific presentation.. the biggest thing missing in franchise mode is the feeling of being in a league not just being one team.. we should hear all the news that we hear in real life... "the bengals signed Joe Player"... "The eagles qb wants a trade".. etc.

Basically HC 09

as for the poll, you need to have an all of the above because the problems are caused by all of those

re: why hasn't Madden lived up to expectations?
 

Lack of competition is my guess. Don't get me wrong; I don't think the game is putrid but there are a lot of small things holding it back. It's fun, just not as fun as it was in the EA vs. 2K days. Just my opinion.

I just think it's human nature to lose a bit of an edge when you have no competition. Think about how some people "let themselves go" when they get married and they're not trying to impress people of the opposite sex anymore. That extra push and motivation can make all the difference between mediocrity and greatness.

re: why hasn't Madden lived up to expectations?
 

haha great point...married people do in fact let themselves go

Re: why hasn't Madden lived up to expectations?
 

While I completely agree with the no competition point, along with all of the other points in the poll, I think the one single thing holding Madden back the most is the addition of MUT. Think about it, in 06-09 the game slowly but surely got a little better each year. Franchise was still a bit dry, but it got minutely better each year. In Superstar we had the "how you play" thing going where you chose like lone wolf, team player, etc, and there were practices, workouts and things like that that made the mode better.

Then, in came MUT. They introduced it, saw that hey, idiots will waste dollar after dollar after dollar on virtual "trading cards", and subsequently forgot about the rest of the game just to improve MUT to keep getting more money on top of the 60 everyone pays for the game. The fact is wholly evidenced by the title update 4, the most recent update. The few fixes they did all had to do with MUT, leaving the rest of the game completely ignored.

Re: why hasn't Madden lived up to expectations?
 

I didn't vote in the poll, partly because I think it's potentially a combination of all of those things.

Obviously a lack of competition doesn't help, it never does, but that doesn't mean there can't be a good game, it just means it's less likely.

I think the dev team are knowledgeable about football, but don't necessarily get how to transform that into a video game. There is a fine line between realism and a game that is fun to play. Maybe EA have erred on the side of "fun to play" in order not to alienate casual gamers. That might not please the sim crowd, but unfortunately it can make money.

Maybe there are too many gimmicks, but again, gimmicks don't in themselves make a bad game (1st person football in 2k5 comes to mind). The question is whether the game is only gimmicks with no substance behind them.

I think that there is enough time between titles, just. All yearly sports games have the same problem though, and in Madden's case a yearly game is part of the exclusive license agreement, so really there isn't anything EA can do.

Re: why hasn't Madden lived up to expectations?
 

I picked no competition because there are two other options that are a direct result of that. EA is more interested in gimmicks and money because they're spending so much money on the license that they don't have any room in the budget for solid development. The staff, the engine, or lack there of, the reason that EA seems to be more interested in DLC content and gimmicks to "further take advantage of the customer" are all a result of the hefty licensing fee that EA has to pay the NFL every year.

There simply isn't any room in the budget to make a quality football game. Hopefully EA isn't foolish enough to extend the deal because sales have dropped every year since EA gained the exclusive license. What's the point of the paying all that money if sales aren't increasing ?

Madden 05 sold eight million; Madden 10 sold 5 million. EA figured, when the first got the exclusive deal, that they would get 2k5's market share, which was four million, but they didn't. Their plan backfired, and there punishing us in the process.

Re: why hasn't Madden lived up to expectations?
 

The game-play is putrid, but I agree that franchise needs an overhaul.