Gridiron Notes: Franchise Updates Coming To Madden 21

Hey Franchise Fans

It’s been about four weeks since we last spoke and we wanted to share some of the progress and the path forward for Franchise improvements. 

There are four key things we’d like to update you on regarding Franchise mode in Madden NFL:

• Our Franchise team
• Madden as a live service
• High-level Franchise commitments in Madden 21 and 22 
• Your involvement as the community 

Our Franchise team

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. 

We are passionate Franchise fans, just like you and we’re placing some of our most-passionate Franchise voices to lead the creative path forward.

Madden as a live service

We operate Madden NFL as a true live service. That means that we deliver content, features, heck even new modes sometimes (ie: Superstar KO) throughout the year. In Madden NFL 20 post launch updates, you saw new X-Factors and Superstar Abilities, a new Mode in Superstar KO, new house rules and playbook challenges in H2H Seasons, new scenarios in Franchise, evolving celebrities and teams in Superstar KO, weekly commentary updates, weekly roster changes and of course the massive amount of ever-evolving content you’ve come to expect in Madden Ultimate Team.

The game you buy on launch day is only the beginning of the annual Madden NFL 21 journey. Our commitment to you is to deliver meaningful change to the game throughout the year. In Madden NFL 21, we’ll expand our dedicated live service team to allow for more focused delivery of Franchise improvements based on your feedback, while continuing to evolve the broader game for our wide cross-section of Madden fans.

Our current plan is to deliver the Madden 21 updates in two or three title updates over the course of the coming months. 

High-level Franchise commitments in Madden NFL 21 and Madden NFL 22 

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

1. Ability to undo transactions, reducing friction and control over player movement contracts and trades.
2. Ability to approve trades.
3. 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.

Your involvement as the Community 

So that is where we are at. There is still a lot of work to be done here and these things will take time. The target time frame for our next communication update is just before the NFL Season kickoff in early September, where we hope to share more specifically the roadmap for projected improvements for future title updates.

The last thing to cover is how you, as the community can stay involved.

During the Madden NFL 21 Closed Beta the team utilized a feedback platform called Madden Voice. This is an online forum where community members are able to share feedback and upvote priority topics that our teams are able to review, investigate and identify the best way to address them. Not only is it important that we collect your feedback, it’s important in how we communicate to you about new features and updates coming to our game. We look at every new feature reveal and live service update in the following way:

• New feature reveal
• Gather community feedback
• Analyze and evaluate feedback
• Make adjustments and share plans when possible

We look forward to the start of the Madden NFL 21 season on August 28! We will have more updates on the Madden Voice platform closer to launch.

As always, Thank you for your passion and feedback for Madden NFL. 

Thanks,

Madden NFL Team

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Madden NFL 21 is out worldwide on August 28. Pre-order the Madden NFL 21 Deluxe or MVP Edition and play 3 days early. Stay in the conversation by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and EA Forums. Sign up for the Newsletter today to receive updates on Madden, and other EA news, products, and events, all season long.