EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are The Details

[Steve_OS]

The Madden NFL 21 team is currently working through the testing and certification phase for title...

Written By: Steve Noah

Click here to view the article.

[Hassan Darkside]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

3 patches already lol

[BaylorBearBryant]

Where is the fix for the Squads QB glitch? Are you kidding EA? How do you screw something like that up and not make it priority #1?

[YabaDaba]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

Patch notes for a patch that’s 10 days away? Has that ever happened with Madden, or any EA Sports game?

Between that and the onslaught of free game codes on Twitter today, it seems clear to me that the Madden PR team is in overdrive to clean up what’s quickly become Madden’s most toxic release.

[Hooe]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

There's a lot of good and frankly necessary stuff in this update.

Aside from that: "frienderboards" is a really dumb word.

[Hooe]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

Patch notes for a patch that’s 10 days away? Has that ever happened with Madden, or any EA Sports game?

Ignoring any and all Twitter hashtags, there are a few things that are simultaneously true:

- Madden is one of EA's most important releases annually
- EA positions Madden as a continuously-updated live-service game now
- this year's release, thanks to a variety of reasons, came in hot; Madden 21 right now is notably unpolished, even by typical AAA sports game launch window standards

I assume one reason among many for announcing patch notes so early is to get ahead of the bugs they knew about as much as they possibly could to maintain confidence of the game's early adopters such as people on OS.

[YabaDaba]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

Ignoring any and all Twitter hashtags, there are a few things that are simultaneously true:

- Madden is one of EA's most important releases annually
- EA positions Madden as a continuously-updated live-service game now
- this year's release, thanks to a variety of reasons, came in hot; Madden 21 right now is notably unpolished, even by typical AAA sports game launch window standards

I assume one reason among many for announcing patch notes so early is to get ahead of the bugs they knew about as much as they possibly could to maintain confidence of the game's early adopters such as people on OS.

The 10 days advanced notice is still unprecedented though, or is it not? Screams of “clean-up on aisle 5”. The patch cleans up the bugs. The patch notes 10 days out cleans up bad publicity.

And I really don’t think you can separate the unprecedentedly early patch notes from the game’s poor launch state and public backlash. It’s all tied together.

The game launched last week. If EA is already having to “maintain confidence of the game's early adopters”, then the problems run far deeper than anything this individual patch could hope to fix.

[JoshC1977]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

EA was pretty clear in pre-launch streams that there were things that would be addressed early in the post launch cycle. These aren’t things (at least gameplay wise) they are reacting to, those things would be a month out. Pretty clear to me that these are the updates they’ve been working on and that are referenced here.

[50West]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

Kinda sad to see it'll probably be several more weeks before we see anything on the franchise updates.

[khaliib]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

I keep waiting for the ability to assign SS/X-Factor to any type player before buying.

2nd is to see what/if these patches/updates affect gameplay in a negative aspect, because we can’t revert back to a pre-patch aspect of the gameplay changes.

[ChaseB]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

The 10 days advanced notice is still unprecedented though, or is it not? Screams of “clean-up on aisle 5”. The patch cleans up the bugs. The patch notes 10 days out cleans up bad publicity.

And I really don’t think you can separate the unprecedentedly early patch notes from the game’s poor launch state and public backlash. It’s all tied together.

The game launched last week. If EA is already having to “maintain confidence of the game's early adopters”, then the problems run far deeper than anything this individual patch could hope to fix.

It's somewhat rare for this generation to announce patch notes this early, but not unprecedented in a more historical context. I'm not sure if the certification process is weirder right now with next-gen/COVID ongoing right now though. Also Madden was probably working towards these patches before launch due to coming in hot and have a more robust post-launch plan by default.

I would assume it's more PR than anything though for the timing though, yes. I don't think it has much to do with maintaining the confidence of peeps who already own the game in relation to that.

[callmetaternuts]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

Not sure the change to when a WB gets hit on his throwing arm makes sense.

Also, they’re going to announce roadmap for franchise stuff around first week. Does that mean it’s in the works and close, or just another stall tactic for an update that will come out when everyone has already given up on Madden?


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[ChaseB]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

Not sure the change to when a WB gets hit on his throwing arm makes sense.

Also, they’re going to announce roadmap for franchise stuff around first week. Does that mean it’s in the works and close, or just another stall tactic for an update that will come out when everyone has already given up on Madden?


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Uh, I think anything huge is still probably not happening this year, and they've pretty much said as much. Their promise in the short term is to be more clear in their communication and providing at least a couple updates (3) for this year before bigger stuff next season.

[50West]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

Uh, I think anything huge is still probably not happening this year, and they've pretty much said as much. Their promise in the short term is to be more clear in their communication and providing at least a couple updates (3) for this year before bigger stuff next season.

And unfortunately the fine print said none of those features were even confirmed for next year. They had to make sure and leave themselves an out.

[ChaseB]

Re: EA Targeting Madden NFL 21 Title Update #3 To Arrive on September 10 - Here Are T

And unfortunately the fine print said none of those features were even confirmed for next year. They had to make sure and leave themselves an out.

Well, you'd be committing PR malpractice promising any features in a video game a year out after you were first and foremost just in damage control because you didn't expect the backlash. It would be equally foolish to be panic promise stuff you have no idea you can deliver on as of yet.