EA recently premiered both the cover art and reveal trailer for its upcoming Madden NFL 21, and fans are upset over the apparent lack of changes. EA's Madden franchise releases once a year around each August, and with that time drawing near, EA has begun drip feeding information releases online.
EA has been the sole developer of officially licensed NFL games since the 2005-06 season and recently signed an extension to make sure that stays the case for at least the next few years. EA is no stranger to yearly sports releases,it also develops the FIFA series and, while it doesn't have complete exclusivity with that title, it has still managed to become the soccer game most associate with the sport. These two separate franchises have a lot of parallels, including in-game microtransactions, and the common outrage among fanbases when new installments premiere with minimal changes.
To kick off its Madden NFL 21 rollout, EA took to Twitter to first debut this year's cover athlete, Lamar Jackson, then followed up with a brief video showing Jackson (and various other players) demonstrating the new changes it has added to the game. The new additions included more control over actions such as tackling, pass rushing, user skill moves, and celebrations. However, many Madden NFL fans were not amused, as the clips of gameplay shown look largely unchanged from Madden NFL 20. In the replies to EA's tweet, many have pointed out that there is no discernible difference between the game in the video, and the one they have now.
Another common complaint that would appear was, despite players' well documented requests, Madden NFL 21 does not look like it will be improving the game's long neglected franchise mode. According to fans, the Madden NFL franchise has been far more preoccupied with upgrading their ultimate team mode, to the detriment of other modes. Going back to FIFA, EA has already seen the incredible value of in-game purchases and extrapolated it to its other titles, despite pushback from players. While it was just a reveal trailer, at the time of writing, the YouTube video has 20K thumbs down against 14K thumbs up, highlighting the frustration that has been building among Madden NFL players.
Madden NFL's usual release window of August is still about a month and a half away, so of it is safe to assume that EA will show more of Madden NFL 21 as the release date nears. Yet, considering that EA has already listed the different Ultimate Team rewards as bonuses for preordering, it does not appear that EA has had a change of heart regarding its yearly strategy.
Source: EA/Twitter