To call the response toMadden NFL 21"mixed" would be a massive understatement. While critics have given the latest entry in EA’s American football sim series rather average scores, fans have not been as kind and haveflooded the Internet with their outrage and frustration.
Not only have there been calls for the NFL license to be taken away from EA (a movement that quickly grew in popularity), but the game’s Metacritic page has been bombarded with negative reviews demanding that others don’t buy the game and have left it asone of the worst scoring games on the entire site.
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The backlash is a result of numerous bugs and glitches, as well as a belief that, despite a few gameplay improvements,Madden NFL 21is effectively the exact same game as its predecessor. And though there was a launch day patch to address some of the aforementioned bugs, it has done little to dissuade peoples' anger.
So, what could be out of a desire to prevent losing a sizable chunk of its player-base, EA has shared details early regarding the planned September update, which will go live on September 10th to tie in with the start of the NFL season.
The update will include a lot of fixes for issues with gameplay mechanics, menus, andMadden NFL 21’s unique Yard mode, which will also receive leaderboards and improvements to online stability. The full patch notes can be read on EA’s website.
As for the game’s story mode, Face of the Franchise, while it will be receiving a few updates of its own, EA states that it will outline future plans for it around the start of the next NFL season and share info about the first of three planned updates.
While we can probably expect to see the game be less buggy from this point onward, time will tell whether this next update will actually address the problems players are facing. And even if it does, it may not be enough to win some of its detractors back.
Part of the outrage comes from the fact that the game released in such a state to begin with and, as explained earlier, many are angered to have paid full price for what they believe is a carbon copy of the previous game. EA likely has plans for additional and original content further down the line, but it may be too little to late.
This isn’t even the only thing EA’s being lambasted for.Sims 4players are also unhappy withthe recentStar Warsexpansion, accusing it of being designed to try and attract new players and that EA is ignoring the wants of its existing player-base.
Madden NFL 21is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with PS5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X versions also in development.
