Joe Alread wants you to know about Madden Ultimate Team.
Alread, an Associate Producer for Madden, is behind the creation of new assets for the mode and keeping it up to date with what you are seeing in the real to life National Football League.
“When a player has a good week, you see that in our mode when we release new card packs,” Alread said about Madden Ultimate Team.
The mode, which saw 90% jump in revenue this past year over the prior year, has begun to assert itself as one of the main modes which gamers turn to when they think of Madden. Following on the success of FIFA Ultimate Team, which has become a cash cow for EA, the company has literally saw lightning strike twice now with the success of the mode in Madden NFL.
Earlier tonight, locked in a virtual war room keeping tabs on the draft, Alread and his team were hard at work inserting new players into card packs within Ultimate Team to give Madden players their first chance to play with members of the 2014 Draft Class in the game.
While there have been cards for new draftees in the past, the 2014 NFL Draft marks the first time that EA has rolled out Madden Ultimate Team Cards for the entire cast of first round draftees.
You are now able to access highly-rated versions of the rookie players in Madden Ultimate Team, and those with special collectibles can upgrade their players to an even more game changing version of the player.
Currently, each and every All-Pro pack in Madden Ultimate team is guaranteed to contain at least one draft-related item.
Having the ability to play with each rookie before next year’s game is something once believed unthinkable in a dark gaming yesteryear — but thanks to Madden Ultimate Team it is now reality — now with the full first round class available. This is undoubtedly a shrewd maneuver to try to get more players to try out Ultimate Team, but the mode’s track record and ability to grow year over year speaks for itself.
The Ultimate Team crew at EA uses their virtual war room year around to keep an eye on the action within the league in order to offer up timely, new, and exciting content that players will want to add to their collections, the NFL Draft is no different.
“We literally have the draft up on the big screen and watching each pick come in. Our goal is to get each player out within a few minutes of being selected,” Alread told me before draft night.
During the season, Alread commented that there are usually several games on at any given time in the office, allowing the Ultimate Team crew to react to events each week quickly to provide new and relevant content to the mode.
With his work on the mode and with the recently announced financial success of Madden Ultimate Team, it seems as if Alread’s goal of people knowing about Madden Ultimate Team is on track. With fresh and interesting new content being delivered regularly, Ultimate Team is likely to continue to see rapid growth as more Madden fans adopt the mode as a primary destination for their time.
For now at least, it appears as if you can say mission accomplished for Alread and crew in delivering a memorable experience with Madden Ultimate Team.
Be sure to check out the new Rookies in each All-Pro pack now in Madden Ultimate Team and be sure to stay tuned for more from our conversation with Alread!