'Madden 21' (Image courtesy of EA)
Things have not been looking so good for the Madden franchise. The latest game in the series, Madden 21, not only is the worst-reviewed game in the series on Metacritic, but it also has the distinction of obtaining the lowest-rated user score on the website. As of September 3, the PlayStation 4 version of the game sits at a critic score of 63 (meaning mixed) based on 23 reviews and a user score that sits at 0.3 based on over 3,600 users reviews. Making matters even worse, unhappy customers have been venting their anger on social media, with trending hashtags including “#FixMaddenFranchise” and “#NFLDropEA.”
Many complaints have been focused on the lack of refinement, numerous technical issues and missing features. Now, after a few weeks after release, EA has announced on its website a list of features coming to Madden 21 in mid-November. “We have been listening to your feedback and are targeting mid-November for the first of the three planned post-launch franchise updates, which will address community requests…”
The following content will be added to Madden 21:
- X-Factor/Superstar Ability Customization: This highly requested feature by the community allows commissioners to assign X-Factors to any player via the edit player feature. Once a player has met the criteria to unlock an X-Factor ability, commissioners will be able to edit their player’s Superstar abilities and Superstar X-Factor ability by selecting from those available within his position group. Users will have control over this functionality in both offline and online Franchises.
- Player Card Career Stats UI: A top community request for several years now, the team is revamping the statistics on the player card to include more context in-season stats, like week, opponent and outcome, while also providing what team the player was on for every year of their career.
- Dev Trait Regression Tuning: The team is doing tuning work to player development traits in Franchise mode to ensure a proper balance of Superstar and X-Factor players when progressing multiple years in a Franchise.
- Playoff Bracket: A visual playoff bracket will be added into the game that reflects the new Wild Card format, allowing users to see the full playoff picture.
All content will be made free for all players.
Madden 21 is currently available for PS4, Xbox One and PC. The game will also be available for PS5, Xbox Series X, and Google Stadia. Those who own the current-gen versions can upgrade to next-gen for $10.
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