A Two Year Development Cycle

[Godgers12]

Do you guys think that a two year development cycle would work for Madden? I'm not talking about releasing the game every two years, because let's face it EA is all about their coin and would never agree to something like that. Nevertheless, what I'm referring to is something similar to what Activision does with CoD. Bring in another development team, so you have two different teams working on different games at the same time. For instance one would be working on Madden 21 and the other would be working on 22.

I honestly think if we had a two year cycle such as this, the finished product would be so much better, and each game would feel fresh and new, as you would have two differing visions working in unison. Just something I think would be beneficial for all involved...

...thoughts?

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[Rayzaa]

Quote: Originally Posted by Godgers12

Do you guys think that a two year development cycle would work for Madden? I'm not talking about releasing the game every two years, because let's face it EA is all about their coin and would never agree to something like that. Nevertheless, what I'm referring to is something similar to what Activision does with CoD. Bring in another development team, so you have two different teams working on different games at the same time. For instance one would be working on Madden 21 and the other would be working on 22. I honestly think if we had a two year cycle such as this, the finished product would be so much better, and each game would feel fresh and new, as you would have two differing visions working in unison. Just something I think would be beneficial for all involved... ...thoughts? Sent from my SM-G965U using Operation Sports mobile app

Not sure it would matter if the NFL wont allow the game to have certain things. However, for the sake of just fixing things that havent been fixed in 3 years, yes another team should certainly get a shot.


Id be all for having another team have a crack at Madden than having Tiburon do it. They just dont seem to get it right.

[tg88forHOF]

Yes, it would improve quality.

It would also introduce more inconsistency from a consumer perspective year-to-year.

2 years is a long time from a development perspective...it encourages teams to think and build long-term and "big picture". This is both a benefit and a drawback; in this case, communication of features and requirements between teams becomes a bigger factor, and a development truism is that more handoffs usually means more drops.

Pretend this is reality, and team A is working a 2-year cycle toward the release of Madden 22. A year in, team B starts development of Madden 23. 2 years in, team A finishes Madden 22 and starts work on Madden 24.

Team B can start Madden 23 with whatever team A has in the pipe, and build off it. They make long-cycle plans based off whatever team A has in place. So far, so good.

Now say team A has to make a mid-cycle change after that point. Something they were working simply isn't feasible, blows up in testing, whatever. Not only do they need to scramble to make the changes themselves, they need to cleanly communicate those changes to team B. That's a handoff, and thus an opportunity to drop something on the floor. Even if they do manage to do it relatively cleanly, there's a good chance it could disrupt some of team B's longer-cycle (and thus more inflexible) plans. That increases both the odds that team B needs to make additional changes to compensate, and the number of changes they're likely going to have to make.

This results in more changes that have to be communicated back to A when they go to work on 24...more handoffs, more chances to drop something.

From having worked for a developer who used something close to this strategy, the complexity and sheer volume of those communications continue to build up cycle over cycle, to the point where a lot of the long-term fixes the system was intended to produce don't come to fruition...even with the longer cycles, everybody's still scrambling to keep up.

It can work ok, and there would probably be some net positive changes that came from it. But those positives would be balanced by more inconsistency version-to-version.

I'm not sure how well the Madden community as a whole would tolerate that additional inconsistency. More to the point, I don't feel like EA specifically has a track record of the kind of command-and-control and internal communication necessary to pull it off.

[oneamongthefence]

Madden isn't also made year to year. Certain aspects of the game have continuous development that may not be seen until a year later. Things such as Long shot, protak, frostbite, took more than one dev cycle to complete. Tue only advantage I could see if there could be more playtesting and polish to the final game which is sorely needed which would hopefully lead to less bandaid fixes that don't get properly resolved.

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[mtmetcalfe]

I would be down for Madden to take the Call of Duty approach. I think you’d basically be getting 2 different games which could be a good thing. Maybe if you don’t like Madden that comes from developer ‘A’ theres always the ‘B’ teams game to look forward to.

That being said, I’m not sure why EA would take this approach because I don’t know if it would have any financial benefits for the them. In fact, probably the opposite.

[DeuceDouglas]

I don't think this approach would work very well with Madden and I'd argue it hasn't really helped with CoD either. Those games are accomplishing less and releasing in worse states with three year cycles than they were with two year cycles. The thing with CoD as well is that while each year the game is under the CoD umbrella, it's basically a standalone title each year where it's completely different than the previous year and the three (now two studios) didn't really collaborate at all.

With Madden it's more of a true yearly title and I think involving two studios creates a lot more room for conflict of design, vision, etc. You see that within CoD as well where Treyarch has always been more about balance and competitiveness while Infinity Ward focuses more on catering to new and lower skilled players. It works for CoD because each year they're entirely different games but with Madden there has to be some kind of continuity from year-to-year.

I think there'd be more of an argument for remaining with one studio and allowing for a bi-annual release. That'll likely never happen but I think the game would benefit more from that than a multi-studio approach. It's tough though because games are so predicated on post-launch content now that even an additional might not help or change much.

[Ladygreat1]

I agree, I subscribe to every word

[tg88forHOF]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas

I think there'd be more of an argument for remaining with one studio and allowing for a bi-annual release. That'll likely never happen but I think the game would benefit more from that than a multi-studio approach. It's tough though because games are so predicated on post-launch content now that even an additional might not help or change much.

Agree this is much more likely to be successful and get the benefits people want out of a cycle change.

Also agree it's vanishingly unlikely to ever happen...that's simply too much money left on the table for all parties (EA, NFL, NFLPA) involved.