EA business news - 5% of workforce layoffs.

Unsure if this will eventually impact Madden, but we can certainly hope MUT goes the way of FIFA, a la "Generic American Fatball Game `25" and I definitely dare to dream that their exclusive license with the NFL does not get renewed. 

CEO says, "We are also sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry. This greater focus allows us to drive creativity, accelerate innovation, and double down on our biggest opportunities — including our owned IP, sports, and massive online communities — to deliver the entertainment players want today and tomorrow."

https://www.ea.com/news/continuing-to-evolve-our-business-and-teams

Originally posted February 28th.

I hope NFL goes back to 2k

They know how to make a much better simulation based sports game

Madden has become closer to NFL blitz with XFactors, spamming meta, and DDA influencng games

jimshredder said:

I hope NFL goes back to 2k

They know how to make a much better simulation based sports game

Madden has become closer to NFL blitz with XFactors, spamming meta, and DDA influencng games

Well stated, sir. Very much on point. In between having fits of rage with the overall (poor, as you so aptly put it) condition of Madden, I've been tinkering with MyTEAM a bit in NBA2K `24 finally. No auction house sucks for trading card style games and overall definitely seems pay to win, as well, but the gameplay and depth are head and shoulders above this mickey mouse EA nonsense we're all stuck with.

Really unfortunate, killing a huge opportunity to help young kids and new fans learn to love the game. I'm pissing into the wind hoping for fair and balanced H2H comp play. Oh so sad.

Hopefully any other company takes over the EA license but sadly it’s not likely. EA won’t give up madden as it’s a huge money grab for them

AZCARDS said:

Hopefully any other company takes over the EA license but sadly it’s not likely. EA won’t give up madden as it’s a huge money grab for them

Sad, but oh so true -- that was definitely mentioned, as their focus would be on "sports" titles moving forward and these other live service games which are their bread and butter these days.  EA is disgusting... what's worse is the sheer number of rabid fanbois rushing to the defense of each and every single terrible decision this company makes.  Unbelievable (to me).

peatrick said:

Sad, but oh so true -- that was definitely mentioned, as their focus would be on "sports" titles moving forward and these other live service games which are their bread and butter these days.  EA is disgusting... what's worse is the sheer number of rabid fanbois rushing to the defense of each and every single terrible decision this company makes.  Unbelievable (to me).

Well they’ve kept saying they’d “focus“ on their sports titles yet they get progressively worse…. hmmmm makes you wonder what they’re actually putting money into

AZCARDS said:

Well they’ve kept saying they’d “focus“ on their sports titles yet they get progressively worse…. hmmmm makes you wonder what they’re actually putting money into

I think you basically just figured it out -- they're trying to NOT put any money into literally anything.  Art team used to be absolute fire, but now we're getting these lazy, one-color cards, which are essentially just a photo of the player.  Bleh.  Gameplay has been stagnant for years.  I can only imagine the sheer number of manpower / labor hours that went into something liek the new "Catalogue" in-game feature, which was a huge waste of time.

They've proven time and time again that they have zero ability to actually fix any of the glaring issues in the game.  I see them giving us Gift Wrapped and Pick/LurkArtist as an admission that they have no friggin clue how to improve pass catching on either side of the ball, so here's some abilities to fix our buggy ass shit.  Because of course our professional athletes should need Superstar style abilities to simply catch the damn ball.

And on and on the list goes.