EA Sucks

A lot of people talk about microtransactions in sports games, but like you mentioned the gameplay is what’s really atrocious.

With technology improving sports games should be getting better, especially the AI mechanics because 90% of the action involves players on the field. With the development model sports games have with yearly releases, there is no way these companies have enough time to create new mechanics, improve them, fit them all in before the next game releases.

In order for sports games to move forward, they need to stop yearly releases and spend at least 3 to 4 years making just 1 game. This would give everyone on the team some focus and a chance to really deliver.

This is just fantasy of course, because I doubt EA would leave billions on the table.

I’m to the point that I actually don’t want EA to bring NCAA Football back, because of how lackluster Madden has been since Madden 12.  I kept up with NCAA Football until 12, and then got 14 years later and love it. However, with the way EA is now, a new NCAA game would not live up to what they used to be, especially if they use frostbite. I don’t know what ever possessed them to force Tiburon to use that engine for football games. I actually really liked the Infinity engine for NCAA 14.

I bought Madden 20 so I could play the college football mod, but it is the last Madden I will be supporting. Here’s hoping 2K’s new game is good enough to stand against Madden, though not being able to be a simulation football game will probably hurt it.

The people who make the games aren’t idiots, so much as they are held hostage by a soul sucking corporate giant that only cares about the bottom line. EA hires a lot of contract work and new talent. Their benefits are pretty good actually, and so is the pay, but that’s not what inspires good devs. Zero creative freedom, and a ton of red tape. “All games must have an online component policy,” gives you everything wrong with the company culture pretty clearly. Shoving monetized crap into games sucks the joy out of game making, or playing for that matter. Lots of devs are willing to work 80 hour crunch weeks for rockstar, but I don’t think you’d see the same at EA.