Most people have at least heard of the Madden video game franchise. If not, it is the only up to date version of an NFL game consumers can purchase.
Back in the day, Madden used to be an amazing game series which kept players interested and excited. Now, due to a lack of improvement, the Madden title feels more and more lifeless and is just a $60 (now $70) roster update.
Madden has, in recent years, consistently failed to live up to expectations. Whether it's the subpar gameplay, game modes made solely for monetary purposes or the lack of change that will occur in the foreseeable future, this has led to fans resenting the franchise and yearning for change within the industry.
Madden is a husk of its former self, no exaggeration. If someone were to load up “Madden04,” a game from 20 years ago, they would see a polished game curated for fan enjoyment rather than something made just to fill EA executives' pockets.
The recent games are constantly filled with gameplay bugs on their release date, which are sometimes fixed in later updates, but never fully. Madden never bothers to fully fix or remove said bugs due to a lack of competition. Even EA’s newest game, "College Football 25," is much better than the Madden staleness. The reason is the producers of the game, who are different from the people who make Madden, put a ton of time and effort into building the game as explained in this article from ESPN.
That lack of quality gameplay could be credited to EA’s shift in what’s important for the company. Rather than making fans only pay $70 for the game, they heavily encourage buyers to spend even more money on in-game modes like "Ultimate Team."
"Ultimate Team” is essentially a mode where the player has to build an NFL team with player packs. These packs can be bought through hours of playing the game and receiving in-game currency or can be bought with real-life money to make the game more enjoyable by getting better players.
That dip in quality and improvement can also be traced back to 2004, when EA bought its way into a monopoly. In lighter words, EA signed an exclusive rights deal with the NFL to ensure the only NFL video game available would come from EA.
That deal took out EA’s biggest competition, “ESPN NFL 2K5.” That game was amazing back in the day, and remains legendary among the football community. There are articles praising it for doing something revolutionary not many game developers would do today: reducing the price of the game.
This, along with many other superiorities from “2K5,” led EA to monopolize the NFL name, causing outrage even 20 years later. This outrage is so prominent even in the NFL community that current NFL players still play NFL 2K5.
In 2020, Josh Allen was interviewed about his Madden rating, which he thought was too low. In response, at the end of the interview, Allen claimed to still play "2K5" because it is the better game compared to recent Madden titles.
While the future of football video games may seem as bleak as the price of streaming NFL games, there is slight hope. The current exclusive license agreement, after an extension, is set to expire in 2026. Any gaming studio can make a football game with an NFL license. The possibility of an “ESPN NFL 2K27” is very much real. If a college football video game can return to the market after a decade-long hiatus, another NFL game could return and make football games better for the fans.
Quinn Elfers is a sophomore studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to share your thoughts about the column? Let Quinn know by emailing him at me989022@ohio.edu.
