Game Informer - EA Sports Opens Up About The Challenges Of Developing During COVID

[Hooe]

I thought this was a rather humanizing article. Touches on how both the Madden NFL and UFC dev teams handled product development during this, well, interesting year.

https://www.gameinformer.com/2020/09...g-during-covid

[TarHeelPhenom]

They were definitely affected the same way everybody else was. This will get lost in the debate though. They are making video games for profit and we buy them for our entertainment. But, they are still human beings. Gotta take that into consideration man.

[kennylc321]

Well back in April I said this is not good. COVID, along with the new console launch was just a bad combination.

EA should have made the decision to abandon "The Yard" (I know I keep saying that and I know I'm biased because it's so stupid) and worried about it another day.

Between MUT, The Yard, CFM, and Storymode, they are essentially trying to produce four games into one disk. And since you got PS5 coming, it's double that... which tells me that PS5 will be nothing more than the PS4 with shiny graphics but I digress.

[dvdsaba]

They've had a decade to improve franchise mode but ignored it even before COVID. It wasn't going to be a priority for them this year as FOTF and The Yard still would have got the focus. No sympathy from me.

[RogerDodger]

I’m sure Covid affected EA as it did everybody. But in a year when the exclusive license was actively sought by them and would inevitably be received with a mixed reaction, their decision to go all-in on an arcade mode made the overwhelmingly negative reaction this year inevitable.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Quote: Originally Posted by dvdsaba

They've had a decade to improve franchise mode but ignored it even before COVID. It wasn't going to be a priority for them this year as FOTF and The Yard still would have got the focus. No sympathy from me.

Gotta say I agree strongly with this.

Look, we were all affected by COVID. There's two groups that are going to emerge on the other side: the ones who whine about how difficult it was to adapt to a changing workplace, and the ones who suck it up and find ways to thrive despite the additional challenges.

Of course I understand why they're releasing an article like this in the midst of all the hate they're getting... they need a PR win more than anyone right now... but there's plenty of devs releasing quality games in the middle of the same exact pandemic as Tiburon faced. No reason to complain about it and act like they faced some super unique set of circumstances that their consumers and other game developers didn't.

[lambo3500]

Quote: Originally Posted by dvdsaba

They've had a decade to improve franchise mode but ignored it even before COVID. It wasn't going to be a priority for them this year as FOTF and The Yard still would have got the focus. No sympathy from me.

Exactly, most of the fanbase isn't upset cause how awful M21 is. It's been awful arguably since 08. They have removed more features then added. And many of the features added were in the older iterations at some point. Covid doesn't excuse the previous 10+ years of poor gameplay, terrible presentation, and awful franchise modes.

[CujoMatty]

Quote: Originally Posted by kennylc321

Well back in April I said this is not good. COVID, along with the new console launch was just a bad combination. EA should have made the decision to abandon "The Yard" (I know I keep saying that and I know I'm biased because it's so stupid) and worried about it another day. Between MUT, The Yard, CFM, and Storymode, they are essentially trying to produce four games into one disk. And since you got PS5 coming, it's double that... which tells me that PS5 will be nothing more than the PS4 with shiny graphics but I digress.

The Yard does nothing for me at all. Not even a little bit interested in it.

This seems like an example of personal taste or opinion vs objectivity.

Reading that the goal of The Yard was to broaden appeal of an NFL game and the fact it's pretty much universally the only thing mentioned in any review, even the real bad ones, as a positive, tells me that maybe that's what they got right.

It just doesn't appeal to you and I so it feels like resources poorly used.

I think the reality is that Madden hasn't really done much to innovate long before The Yard was conceptualized so I guess I dont see the correlation between things really being different this year if The Yard wasnt a thing.

I will say that covid probably contributed to the game being a buggy mess but I'm confident patches will fix that.

Long story short, I have very little confidence that EA would have made great decisions that affect my personal enjoyment of Madden even without The Yard lol