Madden NFL 21 'Classic Franchise' Update Leaves Community Underwhelmed
Attached to the bottom of today's Franchise Updates blog, EA SPORTS announced the 'updates' coming to Classic Franchise mode (current gen).
While many Franchise mode fans tried to be optimistic, they found the updates to read as little more than patch notes. Some of the first items highlighted on the blog entry included new X-Factors, the expanded Wild Card Playoff round, updated rookie contract amounts, among others.
#FixMaddenFranchise was a trending topic late Tuesday evening on Twitter. Some of the disappointment stemmed from an April 2019 Game Informer article entitled 'Madden NFL 20 Makes A Recommitment To Franchise Mode.' At the end of that article, Creative Director Michael Young stated: “Franchise has come back to being a big focus on the game and it will continue to be. We just want to add this rich depth and immersion to it so we're starting to think about it more like a sports RPG.” Fans expected to see the depth and immersion, but instead were left with numerous bug fixes instead of new features.
The new branding of 'Classic Franchise' also raises some questions. Has this change been made to differentiate it from Face of the Franchise or will 'Franchise' be the mode's naming for next-gen Madden, launching this fall? How different will next-gen Franchise mode be - if at all?
Continue on to read the list of Classic Franchise updates coming to Madden NFL 21.
MADDEN NFL 21 CLASSIC FRANCHISE UPDATES
- The new X-Factors make their way into Franchise. More details on X-Factors in Madden NFL 21 coming soon!
- Franchise has an expanded Wild Card Playoff round to match the real-life NFL which now features 3 games for each conference instead of 2.
- Updated all rookie contract amounts to be more authentic to the actual Draft rookie contracts for all 7 rounds
- Retuned every position's available Abilities to better consider in-game effectiveness of the ability and archetype authenticity. Also made the 2nd ability unlock for most positions 85 OVR (was 80 OVR in Madden NFL 20.)
- Fixed multiple cases in logic of players considered for a Dev Trait upgrade at the end of the season not checking the correct stat types.
- Updates to all team back-end depth chart philosophies so they match the team's scheme.
- Added position-specific Offensive Lineman archetype progression buckets for OT, OG, and C to capture variance in OVR formulas based on positional expectations. Previously, all OL were pulling from the same progression bucket.
- Fixed issue where defensive playbooks and schemes for our fictional coaches would be misaligned (e.g. 3-4 playbook with a 4-3 scheme.)
