Madden NFL 21 Talks Post-Launch Franchise Mode Support

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e0317a3722.jpg

One month ago, underwhelming Franchise Mode additions to Madden NFL 21 left the community frustrated and taking to Twitter, leading to #FixMaddenFranchise becoming the top trending topic on the social media website. Days later, EA emerged to post a video stating that they heard the cry from the community.

Today, the Madden NFL development team began to lay out some tentative future plans for the Franchise Mode. In M21, post launch support plans to focus on: Tuning, Commissioner Tools, AI Personnel Management, Playoff & Super Bowl presentation, X-Factor/Superstar Ability Customization, Career Stats UI, Trade Logic, Retirement UI, & Playoffs Update. In M22, the team is creatively exploring Coaching and Staff Management, Scouting improvements, new scenario engine enhancements, new team chemistry system, Commissioner Tools improvements, & more content, such as Rebranding/Relocation Assets for Franchise.

However, the blog leaves a few questions by the community that will likely never be answered. Would there be little to no Franchise Mode additions had there been no community outcry? Or were some of these requests (all known and largely requested by the community for years) already in the works and simply being presented as a #FixMaddenFranchise response? Why was Franchise Mode not led by some of the dev team's "most-passionate Franchise voices" previously? In recent years, the mode had a Senior Designer dedicated to it as well as a team helping to support it in Austin, Texas. What is their current role and influence over the mode that has left many fans underwhelmed the last few years? Why did it take social media outrage for the team to acknowledge long-standing Franchise Mode community feedback?

Continue on to read excerpts from today's blog.


As we said in our video update in July, to better deliver on community feedback, we are reshaping our Franchise team to increase our focus specifically on the direction described ahead. We are making changes, including dedicating a higher percentage of team bandwidth, to deliver a greater investment in core Franchise features through Madden NFL 21 post launch support, Madden NFL 22 launch, and beyond.

So, to that end, we’re sharing with you some of the areas in Franchise we’ll target both in our live service in Madden NFL 21 and next year for Madden NFL 22. We have to first acknowledge that this work requires a lot of planning. So, while we can’t commit to an exact timeline right now, we can share areas where we are targeting meaningful change in Madden 21 and beyond. We are targeting these based on your feedback from our social channels, our game changer program, and how we see you playing our game.


MADDEN NFL 21 - Post Launch Support

Based on community feedback (subject to change)

With each update, this list may shift as our plans for M21 and M22 come more into focus. We will share with the community as the list evolves.

TUNING - Improved progression and regression of players. Improve core player progression into the future such that X-Factors and other abilities for older players work well with incoming rookie classes.
COMMISSIONER TOOLS - See a more detailed summary below.
AI PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT - The AI will make better team management decisions in the draft, free agency and trades.
PLAYOFF and SUPER BOWL PRESENTATION - Improve and refresh.
X-FACTOR / SUPERSTAR ABILITY CUSTOMIZATION - Introduce the ability to customize X-Factor and Abilities on all players, allowing you to customize your roster as you see fit.
CAREERS STATS UI - Improved UI showing historical player performances. More immersion and depth on how players have progressed in your Franchise.
TRADE LOGIC - More fidelity, depth, and authenticity.
RETIREMENT UI - Better insight into retirements each season to allow players to react/manage.
PLAYOFFS UPDATE - Add an authentic playoff bracket screen to see who’s in, who’s won and who’s up next.

Commissioner tools is a large bucket of items with a lot of opportunities and a lot of work. We see this as something we’ll continue to work on to give you more control over your Franchise in the year(s) ahead. For Madden NFL 21 and 22 we are looking at the following tools:

Commissioner Tools Priority Ranking

• Ability to undo transactions, reducing friction and control over player movement contracts and trades.
• Ability to approve trades.
• Ability to reset a game in case of a disconnect.

MADDEN NFL 22

For Madden NFL 22 it is still very early. We are at the very beginning of the planning and pre-production of next year’s product. That said, we’ve been actively discussing some of the areas we’d like to focus on, stemming from your feedback and player engagement. Here are few of the areas, while not fully committed yet, we are exploring creatively:

• Coaching and staff management
• Scouting improvements
• New scenario engine enhancements
• New team chemistry system
• Commissioner Tools improvements
• MORE CONTENT - Examples: Relocation/Branding Assets for Franchise - New uniforms, names, and logos to relocation options for more variety and depth in deeper careers.

Plus other key additions that we’ll reveal as we get deeper into the year for Madden NFL 22 development season.

I give credit to the masses for pushing EA Tiburon to address franchise. There is some good stuff in here IF EA actually sticks to the plan for 2022. That said, I still want to see a return of a weekly wrap up show and/or a significant expansion of the half time show. Franchise is still very dull and repetitive in terms of immersion... even with the potential changes stated above. In order for the mode to be a success it cannot feel like a one off experience every week. The new playoff stuff will help for sure but we need to see more depth re: presentation.