UPDATE: After EA Sports issued a denial of our report to IGN, SGO decided to give more information on what was learned
ORGINAL: If you’ve been patiently — or impatiently waiting — for the next major updates to franchise mode in Madden 22, you may want to sit down for this. The updates aren’t coming.
According to sources close to the game’s development, EA Sports has made the decision to cancel the plans for the remaining two large in-season updates for the mode. This comes just under two months since the game’s scouting update, the first of three planned feature improvements to the mode, was released to everyone.
The decision was made to cut the plans after moving a portion of the Madden development team over to the new EA Sports College Football game that’s currently in development. Because of the staff movement, EA Sports decided to put more of the focus on Madden towards year-over-year development.
Changes Leave EA Sports Staff Frustrated
After reaching out to various personnel, there isn’t a lot of happiness within the EA Sports development team at the moment. Many know how the decision is going to be viewed by the community, especially after another rocky launch. The company had spent all summer talking about Madden 22 being viewed and treated as a live service with its updates just to have that be all for naught.
EA Sports is a company that pulls in well over $1,000,000,000 in revenue from its Ultimate Team modes alone. With profits continuing to rise for the company, filling out the staff in order to meet previously announced goals is what the teams within the company wanted. Instead, SGO was told that there has been no mention of replacing the moved staff to help with the game’s development.
“They are stressed and frustrated,” one source said. “It’s not a good place right now.”
Madden 22 Franchise Mode Update Cancellation Was Teased
Back in October, Madden 22 executive producer Seann Graddy told IGN that new modes being added to the game wasn’t a priority for the team with its content updates. Instead, the team was focused on specific areas of the game that were already in place.
“I would say [the roadmap is] probably slightly less ambitious than years past because we are really focused on a few core areas of Madden 22 and also getting started up on Madden 23 in a big way,” Graddy told IGN then. “So I will stand by what we’ve always said the last couple of years: we’re a live service and we’ll continue to update the game, but we’re definitely not going to be talking about a brand new mode.”
One of those core areas, many believed, would be Madden 22’s franchise mode. Alas, that doesn’t appear to be the case any longer. While there are still likely to be smaller updates within the mode to address tuning issues and other various bugs, nothing larger is expected.
SGO has reached out to EA Sports for public comment on the decision, and will update the story should a response be received.
What are your thoughts on EA Sports’ decision to drop the two “live service” updates for Madden 22 Franchise Mode? Let us know in the comment section below and stick with Sports Gamers Online for more.
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For almost a decade nonstop, EA has shown folks consistently that putting in the work with Madden’s Franchise Mode is not a priority to them. After Madden NFL 12, they GUTTED THE MODE ENTIRELY. Imagine a car in a scrapyard on blocks, completely stripped of everything that makes it even resemble something that once upon a time was actually functional. That’s what it looked like from Madden 12 to Madden 13. The sad thing is, NCAA 13 was pretty good and playing a Dynasty Mode without the ability to send those seniors and underclassmen onto Madden, felt a bit empty.
Madden NFL 25, they brought it back and had something of a base that could be built upon. It wasn’t going to be what 12 was, but if the work went into it, perhaps it could’ve been better. From 15 to 17, it was tolerable. After 18 though, that was it. 21 was the literal rock bottom and when they didn’t think to finish that or even attempt to do much with it, 22 should’ve been where folks just chalked it. Nope. Folks had to learn the hard way and EA, ever the gracious teacher, let y’all pay for the lesson that should’ve been learned a long time ago.
When someone shows you what it is with them, BELIEVE IT. Especially when it is a steady, consistent pattern of behavior over a set amount of time. EA cares about turning a profit through Ultimate Team. Not Franchise. This really doesn’t speak well for the prospects of EA Sports College Football, cause those old school NCAAs stood out from Madden for two reasons above all else.
Solid gameplay that encapsulated the college experience and a deep, immersive Dynasty Mode that evolved over the years.
EA is pushing 10 years plus since the last football game they put out that had reasonably decent gameplay, much less an immersive Franchise mode. So when I read this, I can’t even say it shocked me. EA has been roping folks along with the promise of a better Franchise mode for some time now. People have made it easy on EA by continuing to believe the lie they told. So now, those who bought the game are stuck with a Franchise Mode that isn’t finished an d probably won’t function properly since the last update they installed was mean to be 1 of 3. Well, the other two aren’t coming meaning you’re stuck like Chuck. Good luck trying to get your money back, cause regardless of the game system or computer, it’s gonna be tough to play the….
‘We didn’t get what we paid for!’
When you got a game that works, has worked and short of proving that the thing is worth getting your money back. Reality is, folks should’ve peeped game from the jump and left it alone. I knew after playing the trial (twice), this wasn’t worth bothering with. EA’s first college football game since 2013 won’t be much better than this either. Spoiler, not a prediction.
So are we getting a refund, or at least a partial refund, being that they’ve cancelled updates we paid to have? Kind of feels like we paid full price for half the game. ?
Could you stop bringing revenue into the picture, that means little in the overall…so many things go into the health of a company then revenue. You can tell that you have no business education because you only talk about revenue… what about EBITA? the all important margins? Also, pay roll and replacing people are not based on revenue either. This article was written by a gamer with no education.
Wtf are you really talking about bro. FYI if you read along he speaks about his education afterwards. Also EA has been fxckin us over year after year while profiting.
NFL needs to do like FIFA and drop EA in favor of a new developer. This is a slap in the face to longtime madden players that bought this on their promises to franchise mode. This is the last straw for me. No next Gen on PC this year either sealed the deal, will def not be buying madden this year or ever again.
This will be my final madden I’ll wait for 2k I’m over this terrible money hungry mindset that trumps all other priorities including fan satisfaction
I wish EA games would just go out of business already. Sell its IP and licenses to a company that actually gives a shit. Fuck EA
This will officially be the last year I by Madden, all I play is franchise and they dropped the ball. I will give 2k a go.
*buy
2K listened and created a great game this year.
This is why you don’t buy annually released titles religiously. Be smart and wait till you see a feature/development that makes it worthwhile. Save yourself the mental & financial stress
I can’t wait for the NFL to strip these half-assed clowns of their exclusive rights. We deserve a company making football games that actually wants to produce a quality product. It’s really a damn disgrace the NFL has allowed this continue.
I’m just done with EA at this point. Lol
Madden has bren going downhill for the past several years especially franchise mode. I truly believe EA has started to take the loyal fans of Madden for granted. Madden was their first big money maker. Now they have branched out to other areas and games leaving Madden in the lurch. Refusing or not even thinking about hiring more people to your company which would in the long run help you is the epitome of American greed. The NFL needs to reopen the licensing rights for Madden maybe then the millions of consumers will get the game they deserve.
Bait and switch, this is ridiculous.
What the fuck
Fuck EA