While Madden NFL 22 has not been officially confirmed, there are already rumors about who will be on the cover. No, rumors of Derrick Henry being the cover athlete doesn’t mean Madden NFL 22 is coming. However, Electronic Arts has not announced its long-running Madden series is taking a year off. At this point in the development cycle, it certainly seems like if the company was going to take that unprecedented step, it would have done so already. This franchise offers the very definition of an annual release. So, accepting that there will be another installment, it’s also not all that difficult to have some expectations of what will be packed in it.
The first thing to keep in mind when discussing expectations for Madden NFL 22 is that the fact that an annual game can hamper wholesale changes from time to time. That’s not to say that there absolutely isn’t the time to add in a new mode or make big jumps in quality from one year to another. The series has added two new modes to the game over the last few years. It’s possible to revamp and recharge from one year to the next. It’s just not always that likely.
Speaking of new modes very recently added to the series, Face of the Franchise arrived with Madden NFL 20. There’s no reason to think it won’t return for a third installment, other than it saw a big drop in popularity in Madden NFL 21. When the mode first arrived, it got quite a bit of attention even from players who might not be all that interested in other modes.
Face of the Franchise is a story based mode that offers a traditional conversation tree component. Yes, users can also play some game action, but that’s definitely not the focus. The intent of this mode is to allow people to live the life of a star athlete as they go from high-school to college to the pros.
One thing players may be able to expect is more immersion into college life this year. Electronic Arts recently announced it scored a deal with the biggest college sports licensing organization around. Until EA Sports College Football arrives, however EA might start testing the waters even more in Face of the Franchise. Last year, users had the option to sign onto some college teams. How exactly that gets expanded will be interesting to keep an eye on.
Having said that, Face of the Franchise in general took a step back in 2020. If EA plans to have this mode be part of the long-range aspects of the series, there’s going to need to be quite a bit of improvement in Madden NFL 22 in regards to both the writing and the mechanics of the exclusively single player mode.
There was a time when Madden‘s franchise mode was the focus of this series. In fact, there was a time when “play now” and the franchise mode were all that game was. Then, in 2010, Madden Ultimate Team arrived on the scene and EA’s focus seemed to officially split. The ability to stock a team with a ton of different players, as long as the player first had their “card” in their digital deck, has made the mode quite popular. It’s also made the mode quite lucrative for Electronic Arts as it is able to sell card packs for in-game currency which, in turn, is purchased with real money.
Those who are looking for big changes to Madden Ultimate Team are likely not going to find what they are looking for. Lovingly referred to as MUT by those who play it most, the mode is carried out as close to perfectly as any specific mode in the Madden series these days. Last year, players were able to change up the uniforms of their teams a bit more, but there weren’t a ton of other big additions or adjustments. There’s no reason to expect there will be a massive revamping or changing up of the mode for Madden NFL 22.
The Madden NFL franchise mode has been the mode that gets the most negative comments, the last few years especially. The arguments have ranged from being janky mechanically, to the feeling that players that don’t take advantage of the other modes are paying $60 for a roster update. There’s also the fact that EA has actually removed some of the features that used to be in franchise mode. The version that’s released on the last few installments is noticeably scaled down from the height of the series.
To EA’s credit, the development team acknowledged the complaints early on. The development team also promised there would be improvements to the mode in Madden NFL 22 and moving forward. However, the company did not lay out what those improvements would be. Players have pointed out over the years that the mechanics in functions like negotiating contracts or player stats seemed off. So is EA planning a big rebooting of franchise mode? Or little tweaks here and there?
It depends on how seriously the company is taking high profile Madden players rage quitting the game. The annual release schedule of the franchise seems to limit what big changes can be made to this mode, most of all. Installments in the series tend to release in August. That means the game is only about five months away. That’s not to say that those changes haven’t been worked on for a year or more, but it feels like a total revamping of the mode would be met with enough excitement that the company would want to announce it sooner than later. For now, expecting anything more than small tweaks – which are definitely still needed as well – is probably unrealistic.
Madden NFL 22 is in development for unspecified platforms.
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