Following Tuesday night's disappointing Madden NFL 21 (PS4/XB1) blog detailing limited updates coming to 'Classic Franchise' mode, the hashtag #FixMaddenFranchise became the top trend on Twitter. Fans took to social media to voice their displeasure, if not disgust, that the mode is seemingly receiving nothing more than a limited patch update this fall.
Thursday, the franchise's Executive Producer recorded a video for Twitter via the game's official Twitter account to inform fans that the development team is working on plans to bolster support for Franchise mode in M21 and beyond.
While it is a positive first step in seeing EA acknowledge the community's disappointment, fans will need to see action and results. They have heard how important EA feels they are for years, only for a major mode to not receive any highly requested community-based features.
The fact that EA thought they could release a minimally improved Franchise mode at the launch of M21 indicates the need for them to review how they receive, implement, and value community feedback. The Madden Franchise mode community has been very vocal for years in providing detailed feedback. If the development team needs to review tweets and trending topics for ideas/feedback, it is clear they have not been listening to or respecting the Franchise community.
This is likely a side effect of Madden NFL 20 being the 'most successful game in franchise history' as it set franchise records for pre-orders and monthly average players, as well as seeing a 30% increase in unique players versus M19. M20 set these records with a focus on X-Factors, Ultimate Team, and Superstar KO mode. With a record-setting year, it seems same to assume M21 will build on those modes/aspects as well.
Graddy's video also raises some questions: Will the Holiday 2020 launch of next-gen Madden NFL 21 see the same version of Franchise mode as current-gen? Or did Franchise mode resources go into the PS5/XBX version of the title and EA cannot disclose it at this time as they wish to focus marketing on current-gen? That would be a better alternative than EA not improving Franchise in either current or next-gen versions of the game. Time will tell on these questions.
An update from Executive Producer Seann Graddy pic.twitter.com/RFpco0KNH1
— Madden NFL 24 (@EAMaddenNFL) July 2, 2020
Here is a transcript of Graddy's comments from the video: "Hey, Madden Franchise community, I'm Seann Graddy - I'm the Executive Producer for Madden NFL. And on behalf of the entire Madden development team, we wanted to reach out and say we see your #FixMaddenFranchise tweets and we understand your frustration. Now, the Franchise community is critically important to us and we appreciate, of course, your passion for Madden NFL. We're reading your feedback and we clearly understand that you want more. We've seen your requests for details around what the Franchise mode community can expect moving forward and while I don't have a lot of details I can share with you right now, I can tell you that today, our team is actively working on bolstering plans to support Franchise in Madden NFL 21 and beyond. The development team is collectively right now working from home to prepare Madden NFL 21 for launch on August 28, but we're also committed to providing updates to you on our thoughts and plans around Franchise moving forward before the game launches. So again, thank you for all the passion and the feedback that you bring. For those of you that are going to participate in the closed beta, we look forward to more feedback later this weekend. Thank you."
