The video game franchise Madden owned by EA has dominated the world of football gaming for years. The games have always had a great software and operating system. In recent years, the games have taken a decline and fans have voiced their strong opinions on the matter. Many of these problems include lagging, glitching, and computer crashing.
Luke Viscardi, a student at Georgia Gwinnett College, and a frequent Madden player, shared his story. He said, “I was playing the AFC Championship, and winning in the fourth quarter with a few seconds remaining. Madden’s computer crashed before the game had ended and closed me out. When I opened the application back up, the computer decided to replay the game for me and lost. I have now been kicked out of playing in the playoffs, because of Madden’s computer crashing problems.”
Fans would expect problems like Viscardi’s story to arise on a new game with a much smaller budget, but Madden has no excuse.
Jack Kenmare from Sport Bible stated that across all sports franchise titles, including FIFA and Madden, EA generated a total of $1.49 billion through the Ultimate Team platform, which is a $120 million increase on last year’s revenue total of $1.37 billion.
With such a large profit, fans are curious and quite angry as to why they experience issues that should not occur. Especially since a typical Madden game can range from $59.99 to $99.99 depending on the edition. For a video game at that cost and caliber, there is no reason for players to express anger and frustration over lagging, glitches, and frequent crashes.
Brandon Moore, Sportskeeda, said “A huge issue across all platforms is crashing. PC, Xbox, and PlayStation players have all run into crashing issues with the newest Madden title. It could be anything from needing an update, having damaged software, or just simply a random game bug. Whatever the case, it can more than likely be fixed.”
While the problems seem to be easily fixed, the corporation of Madden and EA need to make these changes. The suggestions stated by Moore can help, but it is nowhere close to being a solution. Gamers are still experiencing problems even after going through these steps.
Viscardi said, “It’s like a Jeep, there is no competition to improve the product and they can charge whatever they would like.”
With all these problems still on the rise, Madden could potentially face losing money, although the likelihood is very low. Maddens Ultimate Team brings in an enormous amount of revenue for the company. Through the Ultimate Team gamers can purchase packages of players to use on their teams. To get these packages, you must earn coins, but what most gamers do is purchase them with money. These packages can cost from tens to hundreds of dollars. While it is a smart marketing tactic for Madden, many people see it as a form of legal gambling.
Viscardi explained that you are purchasing packs of players and have no idea who or what level of player they are going to receive. By taking this gamble on players for your team, you are gambling money. Once the money is spent on the game, there is no cash out option. Once the money has been turned to coins, they are stuck in the game and cannot go back to money.
A big concern of the platform is Madden is rated E for everyone. This means children can purchase packages without a parent’s knowledge. If a credit card is linked to the account the game is being played on, kids could potentially be scammed into gambling their parent’s money without the parent or child knowing.
With all the known problems, gamers and football lovers are still sucked into buying the game each year in order to unlock new players coming into the NFL. Recently, EA sports announced the return of the NCAA football video game. There is no set date for its return, but this causes fans to question if Madden will get the improvements it needs with this new possible competitor.
