IGN: You Can't Compete with Madden... EA and the NFL Won't Let You

[FroznYogurt]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/114/1148006p1.html

Thought this was a great read from IGN about the exclusive licence.

[roadman]

It's something that I've always believed.

Article was ok, nothing new or earth-shattering information, just the cold hard facts.

[RedZoneD25]

The truth hurts, and most of the people on here know it.

I understand it's a business, I really do. That doesn't mean it's right. I bought both games from each company from 2002 to 2005. It's a real shame that we are left to wonder where each game would be today if Madden still had competition.

[BlueNGold]

Great article. It would be nice if IGN did more of this and showed as much knowledge on sports games as they did here.

Also it's good that a site like IGN wrote something like this. Not saying OS doesn't have a voice, because it most definitely does, but I'm sure upstairs at EA an article like this might speak a little louder to them than a random dude's post on a message board.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to Madden this year. I have my reservations about it because 11 wasn't as great an improvement as I thought it could have been, but I have faith in the current dev team.

[43M]

Amazing article.

Not because there is alot of new light shed...but because its the cold hard truth I didnt think IGN would ever tell.

[Hooe]

This article is written with an obvious bias against EA. I agree with the premise that the lack of competition hurts the consumer, but there were plenty of changes between Madden 10 and Madden 11 that are completely ignored by this article. Madden Ultimate Team is completely ignored, for example, not to mention the addition of online leagues, online co-op, a plethora of presentation features, and significant work to the core game on-the-field.

Also, to say that franchise mode was "completely untouched" is inaccurate; there were improvements to things like the stat simulation engine and touch-ups here and there. The point stands that they should have done more, but to say they didn't touch it at all is simply wrong.

[FootballDetails]

Great article.

It covers familiar territory, sure, but until the exclusive license is a thing of the past, that's fine by me.

[Step2001]

Read the article and don't see the bias against EA! They state how gameplay has improved. Did they go into detail? No! We who purchased the game now the level of improvement Madden has underwent in two years.
The amount of things this dev team had to fix has been noted. They themselves have been upfront about this and it's appreciated.

I think this is frustrations about Franchise mode not getting touched last year. Going two years with a sub-par mode that the majority of people buy Madden.