The Sad Decline of the Madden NFL Series

[Music] to the average person madden nfl 21 may seem to be nothing more than an average sports title as the years go on many of those who played older madden titles move on from video games altogether as their lives get busier as younger generations replace them a trend starts to occur i've noticed that older madden titles specifically the ones from the sixth generation of consoles are becoming more and more forgotten each year you have some of the largest and most influential madden personalities such as mmg creating videos titled playing every madden in one video despite the fact that he starts with a madden game from 2013 madden 21 is an improvement over madden 20 and madden 19 and 18 and so forth so on the surface madden's true decline has almost been covered up while there are some smaller youtubers such as myself and others who try to spread the word our communities are a vocal minority why do you think the largest youtubers who make videos on sports games almost always exclusively stick to newer titles the money is in the ultimate team pack openings the flashy new games and online competition my point here is that if you actually compare madden 05 on the ps2 for example to madden 21 on the playstation 5 the older game actually bodies the newer one there were other football games such as espn nfl 2k5 that were not only better than madden in madden's prime but are still better and more feature filled than any modern matting game and while the hardcore sim heads and those of us born in the late 90s maybe early 2000s or earlier are mostly aware of this each and every year we become more and more of a vocal minority there's also the fact that madden is a sports game most hardcore gamers don't care about sports games nor do they even consider them to be true video games to the uninformed or to the young madden 21 might just be their favorite madden ever because it's better than the last few what people don't understand is just how low of a bar that was to hurtle and how much of a slap in the face the last decade of madden titles have been to the hardcore crowd what if i told you that 2k's old football games were so good that ea became a snake and signed an exclusive deal with the nfl effectively killing off 2k's nfl games rather than simply competing with them as you would expect in a free market what if i told you that ea still hasn't come close in 2021 to matching the gameplay depth or presentation of these 2k football titles from 2004 what if i told you that ea's own madden games from the early to mid 2000s had an insanely large number of features and game modes that are absent from madden 21. in this video i'm going to cover 89 significant features that were in older matting games and are now gone yeah you heard that right despite more powerful consoles than ever before ea not only fails to match their ps2 error competition from 2004 today but they also can't even match their own games from that era either expecting the exclusive simulation nfl game to be better than decade and a half old titles is not asking for too much it's asking for the bare minimum the sad truth is madden has been on arguably the greatest decline of any video game franchise ever in terms of quality yet the game continues to hit record sales numbers every year why is that between marketing schemes such as rating reveals a closed beta nostalgia bait removing features only to bring them back years later to advertise them as new an exploitative program called ea game changers journalists with a conflict of interest irresponsible internet personalities with an easily impressionable young audience and of course a monopoly over simulation nfl video games ea has gotten away with this decline for over a decade and as ea continues to cater to online competitive gaming filled with predatory microtransactions that target children and as journalists continue giving the game's reviews they are not worthy of and as the older madden and nfl 2k titles continue to be forgotten as time moves forward ea scam keeps chugging ahead while there are plenty of areas to place the blame for this from ea to the nfl themselves to content creators to celebrities and to journalists this video is not meant to attack anyone the purpose of this video is to hopefully reach a large audience and inform people who are likely unaware of arguably the largest and most successful and most profitable scam in all of video games these older games cannot be forgotten because they are all that's left to hold ea accountable if journalists the media and the average consumer became more aware of just how far madden games have truly declined there would be mass outrage there already is just on a small scale i don't hate maddie i just hate what madden has become as a child there was no game i would have rather played this isn't just any decline this is a sad decline before diving into the missing features in detail let's take a look at a brief timeline of madden's decline in 1988 trip hawkins the founder of ea who i interviewed in my fall of ea sports video got john madden an all-time great nfl head coach to be the face of the game madden's requirements were that the game would focus on simulating the nfl and would remain realistic to the sport the first madden game was critically acclaimed and the series continued to have success in the mid-90s hawkins left yata found the 3do but madden continued to find success near the end of the 90s madden moved to the 3d era but faced stiff competition from numerous other nfl titles nfl 2k released in 99 which proved to be madden's main foe nfl quarterback club nfl game day and nfl fever all followed suit while it's debatable if madden was ever the true king of nfl games it was the most popular and in return it had the most influence nfl fever microsoft's exclusive nfl game for the xbox was cancelled after ea pressured microsoft by threatening to withdraw madden from xbox live nfl 2k being a third-party franchise like madden was catching up fast however in 2004 2k5 released for only 20 in an attempt to undermine ea and win in the sales department ea had to release matano 5 for only 30 down from 50 to compete at the time both games were fantastic madden featured more arcade style gameplay including the introduction of the hit stick alongside a very deep and feature-rich franchise mode 2k had better graphics blue madden away with presentation had more realistic gameplay and the franchise mode was also good but not as good i could see the argument for either game being someone's favorite but in my opinion nfl 2k5 was the greatest football video game ever made however unhappy with their brand getting discounted due to the natural effects of a free market economy the nfl signed an exclusive rights deal with ea so that ea and only ea would be the sole creator of nfl games from that point forward nfl game day and nfl 2k the last two competing titles standing died off instead of continuing to compete to give people the best possible product ea in the nfl decided to take the easy way out now madden was the only nfl game left and it was listed at full price again after dropping arguably the greatest sports video game ever made 2k could no longer make nfl games this is when madden's decline started to begin while matano 6 through 12 were still great games on the playstation 2 and the other 6th generation consoles that was mostly because they were a re-skinned madden 05 with some new additions such as superstar mode the next-gen versions of madden that followed on the xbox 360 and ps3 were huge steps backwards and while the graphics improved the actual gameplay got clunkier and the game's depth suffered as ea was either unable or unwilling to port features over to the new consoles in 2007 2k decided to jump back into the football video game scene although due to ea in the nfl's exclusive contract 2k could not make an nfl game so they got creative and made a generic pro football game titled all pro football 2k8 which featured a deep team creation suite where you could create custom team uniforms and logos and play with a roster of retired nfl players such as jerry rice or barry sanders while the game didn't have a lot of depth the on-field gameplay is still the greatest we've ever seen in a football game from player movement to ai to pocket formation to animations to ball trajectory this was the game that played the most like nfl football despite ironically not having an nfl license if john madden was more aware of what was actually going on he would have been proud of this game madden08 however is my all-time favorite madden game on the sixth generation of consoles so it's not like madden was close to being bad when all pro football 2k dropped but when comparing 2k8's gameplay to matan08 side by side it's very clear that 2k was miles ahead unfortunately for 2k and luckily for ea the game sold poorly the casual consumer wants an nfo licensed game not a generic pro football game and although 2k8 could have been marketed much better 2k accepted defeat and stopped making football games altogether despite this madden still wasn't bad but it was on the decline madden 12 was in my opinion the last madden i would call good as it still had a lot of great features from the ps2 era maddens present on the next gen consoles with madden 13 however ea started fresh and stripped the game of everything that made it great for madden 13 and on ea refused to make changes to franchise mode despite removing nearly all the depth from it and began catering to competitive online gameplay and pushing microtransactions in a new mode called ultimate team which today makes ea the vast majority of their revenue madden 25 was a bit better than 13 but after 25 the games barely changed with madden 18 madden jumped to the frostbite engine and gameplay became worse than ever before ea slowly added old features back into the game every few years at a snail's pace only to advertise them as new and today madden is still the only aaa developed pro football game on the market madden 21 is slightly better than madden 20 and 19 but it's still a terrible game and it's still a far cry from where madden once was and it still cannot compete when compared side by side with the gameplay of 2k8 or the presentation of 2k5 or the depth and game modes of older madden titles so what exactly is missing in madden 21 for those unaware it seems like quite a stretch to say that madden games on the playstation 2 had more features in depth than madden 21 i mean that just doesn't make any sense current madden games run on much more powerful hardware ea has a lot more money at their disposal to put into the game and how could matting continue getting good reviews year after year if the series was losing features unfortunately despite all of that madden games from over a decade ago actually did have a lot more features in depth other football games from that era did as well nearly every other major sports video game out today also outclasses madden in nearly every category don't believe me let's start with all the features that were once in madden games and are now completely missing create a team where you can create a team with any logo color or uniform template you want instead madden has relocation teams which are presets you cannot edit and have not changed since madden 25 historic teams and all time teams are available to import into franchise mode or use and play now with customizable rosters in mountain 21 all historic players are locked behind a paywall and only available in ultimate team create a playbook with creative play where you could design your own play and use it in games if you think that would be broken online today i can see that argument but there is no excuse for why it shouldn't at least be available for offline use training camp drills during the off season in franchise mode madden 21 skips training camp and goes straight from the draft to pre-season a standalone game mode like training camp called mini camp full coaching staffs featuring licensed offensive defensive and special teams coordinators you could sign another team's offensive coordinator to be your head coach or sign a fired head coach to be your defensive coordinator for example rookie workout drills for scouting players before the draft at the combine that unlock detailed scouting reports including the player's injury risk ceiling and more in madden 21 you simply see a letter grade for three categories and that is literally it playing the senior bowl to further scout players pre-draft crowd reactions to draft picks during the draft the ability to sign a player to a customizable contract length mid-season from the free agent pool in madden 21 you are forced to sign players to a preset one year deal during the season the ability to view pro bowl votes mid-season allowing you to check and see which of your players are close which can give you an incentive to feed a specific player the ball to get more pro bowl votes restricted free agency during the off season contract holdouts from players unhappy with their current deals real time for agency bidding the ability to back or front load a contract position battles during the preseason a dedicated retirement screen where you can go back and view the career stats of recently retired players before they are gone forever a functional team column when viewing career stats that actually works this did not exist in madden for nine years after being removed in madden 13. they just added it back as part of their franchise update in response to the fix madden franchise hashtag yet it doesn't even function properly teams are wrong as you can see here adrian peterson never played for houston it took them nine years to add a simple column and yet it doesn't even work retired players could re-enter the league as coaches to hire relocation used the create a team customization suite and allowed you to create a stadium and customize the field art scoreboards tunnels and more nfl europe teams with their actual stadiums uniforms and rosters available for play now an expansion draft in franchise mode matting cards with offline sheets such as a fifth down card or an instant fumble card situation mode and practice where you can create a custom starting point in a game and jump in perhaps you want to create a situation where a team is up 28 to 3 in the super bowl and then try to come back maybe you want to put the game on rookie and try to come back from a 100 point deficit i don't know it's a video game fun things like that shouldn't disappear a true nfl superstar career mode where you could play as any position even a kicker and play through a career with your own apartment along with activities outside of football like movie acting this was much better than the super cringy long shot or face of the franchise game modes we've recently seen where you can only play as one or two positions in your career as dictated by cutscenes tournament mode you could import created teams or historic teams here for example you could recreate the xfl and do an 18 tournament or you could do a sweet 16 bracket with a fantasy draft when friends come over imagine being able to do this online today a fantasy football mode as seen in madden 08 you could create a team with all-time greats not hidden behind a paywall like they are an ultimate team today rival history and stat tracking for example if you started a franchise as the giants the game would track your history against the cowboys eagles and football team with your record average stats and highs against each team total control simulation allows you to pick plays real time and see the outcome without having to be in the game great for simulating through franchise mode the ability to jump into any game in franchise mode regardless of whether your team is playing or not did your rival win your division and you want to control another team to knock them out of the playoffs out of spite go for it it's your league and it's a video game things like that again shouldn't be locked down in offline franchise mode legitimate player morale not the dumb confidence attribute they recently changed to morale actual morale where players would have a bar throughout their career and after getting traded or underperforming based on their draft stock morale would plummet some players could lose morale after getting lowballed and remain a free agent while demanding a larger deal player roles such as the first round pick roll players with that role would expect to develop into a player with over an 80 overall after a few seasons or their morale would tank they also expect a big payday in a few years there were many other player roles shown here player weapons which were seen in madden 08 kind of like x factors but less overpowered the ability to customize your schedule end of year financial statements in owner mode more in-depth pregame scouting showing your opponent's best players at every position with keys to stopping them your opponents most ran plays and more the tony bruno show a radio show that discusses news within your franchise throughout the season antoine winfield is reportedly skipping out on most of training camp so he can play basketball that's right you heard me right basketball not nba of course but semi-pro hello what's going through this guy's mind right now does he think he's immune to attending the team's camp where players begin their long haul towards getting in shape learning the system bonding with one another etc etc what kind of reception does he think he's gonna get when he finally shows up this is just another step in the wrong direction all right it's time to see what our listeners think about this hey tony you said it i can't believe that a player of his stature made this decision i mean the guy's an icon and doing something like this is so far beneath him his reputation is going to be sold forever mark my words i mean his total disregard for his teammates since other players it's clear now and i've never seen it before you know maybe it was bubbling underneath that smooth exterior he always had but the truth's out now and there's not going to be anywhere to hide when he finally does drag his unappreciative butt back where it should be this guy makes me insane makes me mad bruno has said publicly he would be down to return to the games and there's really no excuse for why ea dropped this feature they could easily hire anyone to record lines and place it back into franchise mode it was a fan favorite feature a newspaper for the team you're using in franchise such as the atlanta journal constitution for the falcons showing team news from injuries to big games to contract negotiations there was also a national newspaper the usa today which had news from all around the league these had much more relevant information than the bland social media news tab we have today as well as better presentation an email inbox with messages from players coaches and agents in franchise mode asking about increased playing time contract negotiations or maybe just a congratulations for making the playoffs for winning it all here priest holmes threatens to be a distraction if i don't start him that's cool the ability to sort the player pool during the draft by combine stats such as their 40 time a coin toss pre-game presentation with captains greeting each other the ability to customize which players can wear mouth guards in what color in franchise mode after being missing for a decade mouth guards finally returned in a madden 21 patch but you can't edit them or add them to players in franchise mode in matino 5 you could importing draft classes from the ncaa games or import your nfl street character into superstar mode the ability to export franchise rosters do you have a dominant team in their prime export the team for use in play now tournaments or to import back into another franchise mode later when you want to relive the good old times after your players have aged and the roster gets blown up in madden 21 if you build a great team a few years later it's gone forever and there is no record of it at all in free agency if a player made the pro bowl you can see that under his name when signing him in madden 21 when a player is in free agency you can't even look up his career stats his former team or anything about him it's a clean slate in matano 5 you could hold two buttons and pull up his entire career like that local media contracts sponsorship deals for your stadium do you want to take a deal and become the att stadium and make more revenue go for it you can lose the sponsorship if your team starts to suck and bad teams only get offers from small brands create a fan design a fan and watch him appear in the stands during a game injury rehab where you could attempt drills with injured players to speed up their recovery but risk re-aggravating the injury in the process accurate simulated stats have a fast quarterback if you simulate a season he can run for 1000 yards in madden 21 lamar jackson barely rushes when you simulate a season logic has regressed detailed player interests when negotiating contracts such as a player's want to play for a contender be a starter etc a sideline reporter leslie what have you heard pat i caught up with coach holmgren to get his pregame thought and he told me that he really thinks that his team is ready to put all the components together and dominate their opponent we should be in for quite a battle out there pat thanks for your report when a player gets hurt you used to be able to always see that player in pain holding the injured part of his body in madden 21 players will get hurt and often walk back to the huddle only to then disappear the extra point weekly show and franchise similar to nfl 2k5's weekly sportscenter wrap up live opponents in franchise mode basically in a one person franchise you could choose to play a random person for your game rather than the cpu the ability to sign draft picks to whatever contract length or amount you want for full cap control and madden 21 the game does it for you and after the draft it goes straight to pre-season view draft grade showing each team's best and worst picks pre-game warm-ups and predictions ea sports it's in the game player intros defense win championships it's in the game nfl 2005 the ability to purchase upgrade points for players get enough xp and you can upgrade a player's speed rating for example a drive summary overlay in-game trailers for other ea sports games not exactly the most important feature that has to return like the others but i think they are nostalgic and worth mentioning actual practice jerseys during practice drills rather than 21's full game day attire multiple practice fields for scrimmages referees they even throw flags onto the field yeah refs aren't in madden 21 madden moments allowing you to control a historic team going up against another historic team and recreate real life events meeting the president after winning the super bowl rather than the same generic celebration we've had for years position strength comparison during the pre-game presentation coach history and coach stat tracking players or coaches returning from retirement to make a comeback coach ratings and progression rather than the shallow traits in madden 21 the cpu offering trades fantasy draft classes including players like leon sandcastle or tim trevo basically reincarnations of famous players the ability to slot receivers at running back on the depth chart mid game fan expectations attendance and ticket sales charts for owner mode broken record notifications in game the nfl network mode in matano 7 skill drills with the giant dummies as seen in madden matan008 the madden iq test in matano 9 unlockable fantasy teams such as the canton greats the madden developers and teams like the mummies or monsters imatino 3 all year teams east alumni team the ability to add tattoos to players in roster editing the nfl film's music you know those cool classical instrumentals that you'd play if you were sick of the game's soundtrack well now those are gone helmets popping off although this was removed due to the nfl's request along with concussions as an injury an ambulance driving onto the field to pick up injured players and dynamic attendance where fans would leave during blowouts these last four features were removed due to the nfl's request however but they are still worth pointing out everything else on this list was removed because ea is dumb and because ea is lazy yes all 89 of those features were in previous matting games and then removed i know a lot of people might look at some of the smaller ones like meeting the president and say wow who cares but the majority of these features were major and the fact that you can name this many features in previous madden games completely absent over the last decade is insane one of the biggest removed features create a team is said by random people online to be the nfl's doing but this is actually not true and was basically a rumor spreading from an article that was misinterpreted about al davis not wanting a raiders logo on a pink helmet rex dixon the former creative director of madden from 13 through 19 confirmed to me directly that the removal of create a team had nothing to do with the nfl if ea wanted to they could create a custom suite and get logos uniform templates and more approved by the nfl and give the player the option to change colors swap logos and swap uniform templates and basically do exactly what create a team always was ea is simply too lazy to do that when you're the only nfl game on the market and people are going to buy the game regardless why bother now as if those 89 features weren't enough here are all the features from older football games that weren't madden such as nfl 2k5 nfl game day and more that are also absent from madden 21 keep in mind these games are from over 15 years ago and ran on the hardware of a playstation 2. pre-game halftime post game and weekly shows from nfl 2k5 from chris berman going over highlights at half time to showing highlights of games you didn't even play in sportscenter to giving retired players a career retrospective to trey wingo going over free agent signings tamel kuiper jr grading each team's nfl draft picks immersion that is still unrivaled the crib a house you could decorate with nfl memorabilia you unlocked by playing the game mini games such as paper football or air hockey in the ability to play against ai versions of celebrities who trash talk you during the game with the reward of unlocking their fantasy team if you win the vip system 2k5 tracked everything you did from carries outside left to two point attempts to completions right deep it then created a profile based on how you play that you can assign to the cpu and basically play an ai version of yourself you can share your vip profile with friends and basically play against each other without actually being there you could download the vip profile of a professional player for example and train yourself every coach in the game had their own custom vip profile as well making the ai actually play realistically playoff stat tracking that's right in madden 21 there is absolutely no record of any stats or anything that happens in the playoffs you could realign divisions and conferences you could actually challenge a play with multiple options for what exactly to challenge as well cheerleaders yeah madden doesn't have those they also have physics apparently a playstation 2 could do it but not a playstation 5. fantasy draft in play now if you have a friend over you can easily draft skill position starters and a defense and then jump into a game just like that in espn broadcast package with people like chris berman suzy colbert mel kyper trey wingo and more espn graphics camera angles and music did you know ea currently has the espn license they've had it since they bought out the exclusive nfl license in 2005 and they haven't used it in a matting game once the espn 25th anniversary mode which was similar to madden moments in that it allowed you to play situations from classic games with historic rosters the ability to front or back load contracts when scouting college players you can view a prospect's gpa and college stats the chain gang would come out when a ball spot is close to a first down first person football it puts you inside the helmet of a player the ability to pay players to come out of retirement weekly training where you could give injured players therapy or surgery increase eli manning's agility by giving him ballerina lessons or yelled the team during an angry team meeting counter trades from the cpu during games the presentation of 2k5 was so ahead of its time you could see a blimp shadow crossing over the field at certain moments incredibly deep reference guide with nfl jargon playbook information and more in nfl game day every single historic stadium is in the game every super bowl stadium ever along with custom stadiums like ones in outer space that make your players astronauts those games ran on the playstation 2 and had all of that depth those games rivaled madden back then and today now that madden has dropped at least 89 features from their own game that i listed earlier these games have more depth than madden 21 if all of this is new information to you you're probably shocked but wait there's more [Music] you

Channel: SOFTDRINKTV

Views: 546,543

Rating: 4.9203396 out of 5

Keywords: softdrinktv, softdrinksports, retrospective, documentary, sdtv, madden nfl 21, espn nfl 2k5, fall of madden, decline of madden, madden is bad, review, the sad decline of the madden nfl series, cover curse, john madden, ea sports, franchise mode, removed features, part 1

Id: Nxt6XeOlOSA

Length: 31min 23sec (1883 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 25 2020