Madden NFL - killed by greed.

[Mage]

Starting in 1988, the Madden Franchise kicked off one of the biggest franchises in Video Game history, Once an arcade-style game that resembled Techno Bowl, Madden NFL evolved into an Immersive Sports Simulation that would make you feel as if you were in control of everything in the National Football League.

Many argue that the Golden Age of Madden (and sports games in general) was between the period of the Late 90s all the way up to the Mid-2000s as the 6th Gen came to a close. And as Madden was reaching its peak, the franchise began to crumble as Electronic Arts was consolidating its 2004 monopolistic deal with the NFL that would grant them the exclusive rights to make an NFL game in any shape or form.

Starting with Madden 06 on the Xbox 360, the series downfall had began as EA themselves had slowly (but surely) started to shift away from what originally made the series beloved. And after Madden 12, the series franchise mode would become unrecognizable as Madden 13 would remove pretty much everything that made said game mode great. Instead, EA would focus on the online-based and the microtransaction-infested Ultimate Team mode that many might see as either "gambling" or "predatory".


Even though I can go on and on about how Madden went downhill in quality and respect among fans, I will leave you with a few screenshots and links that should summarize everything for you. -
EA Employee calling critics of the series "clowns". -
Clint Oldenburg not caring about the negative user-score. -
13 year difference:
One out of many glitches:

Link to Ryan Moody's accounts:

RyanMoody21

Daily uploads of Football Gaming and semi regular Nascar Heat Content. Exclusive content from Madden, Axis Football, Doug Flutie Football, Football History, ...

www.youtube.com

https://twitter.com/ShutdownSafety

Softdrink's accounts:

SOFTDRINKTV

SOFTDRINKTV is a channel that analyses sports, video games, and more. Here you will find video game reviews, retrospectives, documentaries, commentary videos...

www.youtube.com

https://twitter.com/SOFTDRINKTV

The Devs:

https://twitter.com/ClintOldenburg

https://twitter.com/Swami_EA

https://twitter.com/Ty_Stover

 

[The Doom Slayer]

EA should be nuked.

 

[OJ Simpson]

Madden 04-08 on the PS2 are the only Madden games that matter. Everything else after was nothing more than ok at best (Madden 10 being a "highlight", which isn't saying much). I know the sentiment amongst people that don't play sports games is they're just $60 roster updates, and at this point they're right. I would have argued the point a decade ago but not now. All the revolutionary and game changing mechanics in these games were added years ago, only to be removed and re-added and marketed as "new features" since.

And more on topic, this series is the definition of mediocrity at this point.

 

[Future Physical Violence]

Madden and other trash sports games are probably the only thing keeping the consoles afloat, since smooth-brain knuckle-dragging retards will spend a total of 700 cock sucking dollars for a console and video game they play once or twice all so they can experience the HD sweat smell technology in the new madden or whatever the fuck

 

[albert chan]

The NFL Street series at one point was more popular than Madden, even when in the 2000’s it was gaining popularity. I still can’t figure out why they can’t remaster it for the new generation.

 

[Immortal Technique]

I was really hoping EA's monopoly was going to end this year for NFL rights, but like two greedy entities do, the exclusivity has been extended to 2026.

 

[Pissmaster]

EA should be nuked.

They've been a great stock for me over the years. Thanks for consooming.

 

[some Sketchy dude]

I miss the NCAA football games, where you could raise athletes from freshman to pro leagues in an RPG-lite fashion. Those characters could then be drafted in the Madden games, allowing you to have some ridiculously overpowered teams.

But greed destroyed that as well, when lawsuits against EA and the NCAA itself surfaced from not paying royalties to college athletes for their likenesses. The NCAA decided it would rather keep it's free slave labor and continue to not pay their athletes, ending the NCAA football game franchise. This has also lead to NCAA Football 14 to be very expensive now that it's the last to be released.

 

[albert chan]

Not to double post, but the “Sports gamers are not real gamers” trope (might) be a real thing. You could say that Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, Super Mario, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, etc. may make the same type of games, but series like Madden, NBA 2K and FIFA are not the former.

Those games on the former are actually diverse and interesting, while sports games are getting more one dimensional as time goes on. Not even NBA JAM/NBA Street, NFL Blitz or MLB Slugfest forced you to play the same game, since they had different game modes and challenges.

 

[The Doom Slayer]

Not to double post, but the “Sports gamers are not real gamers” trope (might) be a real thing. You could say that Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, Super Mario, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, etc. may make the same type of games, but series like Madden, NBA 2K and FIFA are not the former.

Those games on the former are actually diverse and interesting, while sports games are getting more one dimensional as time goes on. Not even NBA JAM/NBA Street, NFL Blitz or MLB Slugfest forced you to play the same game, since they had different game modes and challenges.

Modern sports games are basically bottom of the barrel trash that normie consoomers gobble up in droves, no matter how shitty/lazy they are or how many exploitative monetization schemes they cram into them. Just look at the developers in the OP, they literally talk shit straight to consumers' faces and yet the new comically bad Madden still made money hand over fist.

EA outright said they planned to implement their sleazy sports game tactics into their other franchises in one of their financial reports a few years ago. What came of that was Battlefront 2 and there was of course a full on rebellion against it. People tried to get a similar "hashtag campaign" going against this Madden but it was futile. Aforementioned normie sports consoomers are unfortunately just too braindead to realize they're being bent over a barrel - so EA has no incentive to change anything.

 

[StraightShooter2]

I always thought Madden was just a generic, EA sports title primarily designed to cash in on the NFL fanbase.

 

[Immortal Technique]

I always thought Madden was just a generic, EA sports title primarily designed to cash in on the NFL fanbase.

Madden was fun when their franchise mode/gameplay mechanics were the focus. It was fun to LARP as the owner/gm/scouts/trainer of the team. It was basically a RPG mode you could do for (in game time) 20 years. A lot of the times I would just sim the season and play the playoff games to get to the off-season for the draft, free-agents portion of 'Franchise Mode'.

 

[Secret Asshole]

Holy fucking shit, these mongoloids are spending nearly a BILLION FUCKING DOLLARS on shit that DOESN'T LAST A YEAR? What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you fucking retarded? Good God, I can't even fucking believe that.

Yeah, they thought they could do this in other games and got face fucked for it. The normies consume this fucking garbage like pigs eating slop, so why fucking bother? If fucktards are spending a billion dollars to start from scratch...well, I don't know what to tell you. Normies are consumerist trash that ruin everything they're involved in, which is why gate-keeping is a thing. Sports games won't be getting better until retards stop buying shit that expires after like 9 - 10 months. Its basically a glorified mobile game at this point. and the Eurotrash with FIFA, holy shit.

 

[The Last Stand]

Madden had a good soundtrack during its early PS2 days.

2004 in particular.

 

[ShortBusDriver]

I had no idea Madden went back to 1988, but Tecmo Bowl on the NES was stuff of legends.

Personally I always liked NFL Blitz once we got into the modern era.

 

[albert chan]

Madden had a good soundtrack during its early PS2 days.

2004 in particular.

You can’t forget about the commercials they did, either.
Back when EA used to get the real players to do it.

Even the players back then were treated as if they were athletes, not over glorified celebrities with $100-150 million dollar contracts.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Sadly I'm not in a country that plays Football, so I'll just put the AVGN awesome rant about the series:

 

[Salubrious]

Holy fucking shit, these mongoloids are spending nearly a BILLION FUCKING DOLLARS on shit that DOESN'T LAST A YEAR? What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you fucking retarded? Good God, I can't even fucking believe that.

Yeah, they thought they could do this in other games and got face fucked for it. The normies consume this fucking garbage like pigs eating slop, so why fucking bother? If fucktards are spending a billion dollars to start from scratch...well, I don't know what to tell you. Normies are consumerist trash that ruin everything they're involved in, which is why gate-keeping is a thing. Sports games won't be getting better until retards stop buying shit that expires after like 9 - 10 months. Its basically a glorified mobile game at this point. and the Eurotrash with FIFA, holy shit.

I'm not going to say this is a GOOD explanation, just that it's an explanation.

The people that play these types of games and spend money on "packs" are not the same type of people that go out to bars and get drunk (assume this is 2019).

So what's the difference between spending $30 on "packs" or spending $30 to get hammered?

The main difference from a social standpoint is that you can actually spend time with other people, hang out with friends, maybe get laid, et cetera. The downside is that you can get a DUI or spend more money than you had intended making drunk decisions.

If you spend $30 on packs early on, that money lasts the whole year. Even when those players get replaced by better players, you can still sell the inferior players in the marketplace and get a good chunk of coins to spend on better players.


Again, not a GOOD explanation, but if you see it as weekly entertainment it at least becomes "more" understandable.