The Madden NFL series is again in the headlines, as furious Madden NFL 21 players are demanding that the NFL drop publisher and developer EA after a glitchy launch. Released just a few days ago, the latest entry in the football-simulation franchise was immediately panned by players.
EA has been the sole developer of Madden NFL games since 2004, when they signed a deal with the NFL to make them the only video game company authorized to use real player names, team names, uniforms, and stadiums. Earlier this summer, EA, the NFL, and the NFLPA reached an agreement to extend EA's contract, making them the only developers of football-simulation games for years to come.
With the buggy release of Madden NFL 21, this deal is already frustrating players to great lengths, Per Comicbook.com, players have taken to Twitter to voice their disappointment with both the latest Madden NFL entry, as well as the franchise's direction as a whole. Fans (or perhaps, former fans) of the series began using the hashtag "#NFLDropEA" to show various screenshots and clips of the game's poor condition, as well how similar it looks and feels to the last few Madden NFL games. The hashtag trended for the entire day and, at the time of writing, new tweets are continuing to pour in.
The Playstation 4 version of Madden NFL 21 currently has a 62 percent critic score on Metacritic, and 0.3 percent user score, making it one of the lowest rated games on the entire website at the time of writing. For the past few years, once players of the Madden NFL games have continuously voiced their displeasure at EA's monopolistic grip on the series, and many have stopped buying the games out of protest. The situation has gotten to the point where players are demanding that the NFL strip EA of its exclusivity, and allow developers like 2K to again try their hand at making NFL games, something they have not done since 2004's ESPN NFL 2K5.
The status of major sport-simulation releases is incredibly ironic to say the least. EA has continuously disappointed fans with annual lackluster releases, to the point where fans are begging for a competitor, which is a direct mirror of the issue fans of the NBA 2K series have with 2K (although 2K does not have an exclusive license with the NBA like EA does with the NFL). Compounding the issue is that, since these companies are the only ones making realistic sports-simulations, fans have no choice but to either buy the latest title, or just not play at all.
Considering that the two companies just came to terms on a new deal a few months ago, it seems unlikely (to say the least) that the NFL will end what has been an extremely lucrative deal for them. The road ahead for NFL fans who want a good football-sim outside of the Madden NFL series seems bleak and serves as yet another reminder of the dangers of monopolies in a field that is increasingly controlled by some of its largest players, such as EA.
Madden NFL 21 is now available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and will launch on Xbox Series X in November 2020 and on PS5 and Google Stadia in Q4 2020.
Source: Comicbook.com, Metacritic