Madden NFL 25 News Post

Eight Features the NFL Removed From the Madden Series

02:27 PM - March 12, 2014 by roadman

Over the years the Madden series has removed quite a few features the fans loved. Many times they were removed because the NFL wouldn't sign off on them.

Check out the article written by Jon Robinson at SI Extra Mustard and find out which features are gone because of the No Fun League.

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# 1 dghustla @ 03/12/14 03:34 PM

wow No Fun League...still not giving EA a pass because essentially the removal of these aspects should mean a greater focus on gameplay.

# 2 NicVirtue @ 03/12/14 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dghustla


	wow No Fun League...still not giving EA a pass because essentially the removal of these aspects should mean a greater focus on gameplay.

This.

This also makes me think that even if 2K were to make an NFL game, they would be under the same ridiculously stupid restrictions.

# 3 4thQtrStre5S @ 03/12/14 04:05 PM

The NFL has really gotten to a point of uselessness and corporatism, above and beyond acceptable levels....Masking and manipulating facts to suit their desired, FALSE, image of the NFL....

#1, which I hold as true is, The NFL does not care about player safety, it cares about it's wallet...Anytime Goodell or someone else talks of player safety, I just stop listening, because it is all lies...Hockey might be my next spectator sport, the NFL and Goodell are wearing my patience....(/rant over)

# 4 kjcheezhead @ 03/12/14 05:08 PM

Interesting read I guess. I can see the NFL's point on all 8 really and none of these are difference makers that would take madden from an 7-8 game to a 9-10.

1 Ambulance. It was funny originally because it ran other players over. It wouldn't translate to the ps4 version.

2. Concussions. So EA was forced to refer to them as head injuries...ok. so?

3. Hit stick violence. You don't see heads snapping back, but the hit stick still lays people out. The physics contortions make for some painful looking moments as well.

4. Losing helmets. I do miss this one, it doesn't happen enough in real football to need it in game and I can see the NFL not wanting it. They don't let players remove them on the field at all.

5. Design your team colors. This one is stupid but I think it's a niche group who do this. I don't notice it isn't there.

6. Celebrations. I won't give EA a pass here either. Most of the ones they discussed were flagged in real life. Not to mention EA is probably allowed to do celebrations like real football where teammates wait for them to finish the dance before celebrating. Instead EA uses cut scenes that eliminate the other players all together.

7. Laying out sideline guys. This just became an issue with the new systems, the old sidelines have been cut outs for years. I won't complain about the NFL taking this out either. Living worlds needs a lot of work with or without this.

8. Dynamic attendance. Another non game breaker. It seems the problem was centered around small market teams looking bad. Makes sense, EA should still be able to change it so every team has lighter attendance in preseason or if the home team is being blown out as long as it's universal.

# 5 number1thumbs @ 03/12/14 09:34 PM

Wish the NFL would make EA remove all the crappy animations...

# 6 DeuceDouglas @ 03/12/14 09:48 PM

Man. All of these make me wonder what other ridiculous stuff they don't allow.

The concussions thing is stupid. I can understand maybe if they depict a guy getting up off the ground walking around like Glass Joe or something but it just makes me wonder how long it is before injuries altogether are eliminated so the NFL can try to continue to create the illusion that nobody gets hurt in the NFL.

The attendance thing is stupid too. If he got pissed because fans didn't show up in the video game, he must be really pissed every home game when no real people show up either.

The owner mode uniform just seems like a big contradiction. "We don't want to see the Raiders in pink uniforms" but.... "We're entirely okay with teams looking like rejects from the Arena League or the XFL.

# 7 hanzsomehanz @ 03/12/14 10:01 PM

I look forward to seeing more wrap tackles, less helmet to helmet trucks, and less trucks that gut the defender and decleat him off the ground - that needs to go.

Im indifferent to much of anything else on the mentioned list.

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk

# 8 Trick13 @ 03/13/14 01:59 AM

I read the article and my take away is this - nothing in there that is of particular impact.

I may be wrong but it seems as though ticket sales are impacted by team performance, just EA is not allowed to show the stands being empty - meh I never pay any attention to the stands in game anyhow...

The celebrations deal brings up a huge point of irritation for me. I am fine with there being no celebrations that would be flagged - but the fact that I have no control over celebrations at all is dumb. Edit player should include "NFL approved" celebrations that I can assign to different buttons. once a play has ended I should be able to hit a button within a certain time window to cause the celebration. Hitting no button would result in no celebration (useful for when you make a great play while you are getting killed on the scoreboard). This should be in, if for no other reason than to kill the "cut scenes" which annoy the hell out of me. It is old tech that is tired and not even well done anyhow, so I want see "real time" celebrations that I have some control over...

# 9 Shadymamba @ 03/13/14 12:26 PM

because obviously everyone from the NFL down forgot it was a VIDEO GAME! - this is so dumb!

# 10 JazzMan @ 03/13/14 12:32 PM

I bet that the NFL will only allow us to play one game a week next year.

# 11 Aggies7 @ 03/13/14 12:35 PM

Wish the NFL would make them remove MUT under the condition they can bring it back after they fix other issues that have been requested since I believe 2005.

But Honestly though I don't feel as though any if them are really game breakers for me

# 12 phantomremix @ 03/13/14 01:02 PM

I still think a Next Gen Football Game that allows you to customize everything from a web based system and import it into the core game would be perfect. Because no one is selling the teams or logos, they are just sharing or using their own created ones you don't have to follow the NFL rules. You can build a game with all the controversy you want. It represents American football, not the NFL. give different formats, High school, College, Arena, Canadian, Professional football. Custom or template stadiums, Custom playoff formats, Custom ranking systems, Custom drafting or recruiting dynamics. I just think that people would be interested in something like that. I pledge if i were to ever win the lottery, i will have this game built

# 13 roadman @ 03/13/14 01:32 PM

Ah, like Backbreaker tried?

Been done once before and didn't sell.

# 14 NicVirtue @ 03/13/14 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadman


	Ah, like Backbreaker tried? Been done once before and didn't sell.

I don't think it didn't sell because of that. I think it didn't sell because people couldn't play it like they play Madden or any other traditional football game, as well as it not having the NFL stamp. I think if NM would have given the option to adjust the camera yourself, and provided better player models, the game would have done a lot better. I don't know why they were so stubborn to give users options.

# 15 elgreazy1 @ 03/13/14 06:56 PM

These are the breaks of dealing with a billion dollar entity. Just because EA has the NFL license doesn't make producing the game any easier, if anything, the client dictates heavily a lot of things like this which really holds back the development team.

# 16 onac22 @ 03/13/14 09:27 PM

This is all good and well and confirms my dislike of Goodell and the NFL as the largest non-profit organization in America. The NFL as a name pays no taxes, and Goodell is one of the highest payed CEO's in the world.

More going on than just censorship.

# 17 mestevo @ 03/14/14 01:06 AM

Don't think there's many surprises here other than Madden himself chiming in and making changes related to player injuries and the commentary related to them. Wonder what else he had a hand in, guess everyone will have to hate him too.

# 18 dghustla @ 03/14/14 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GiantBlue76


	I have yet to see a document from the NFL to EA stating they must: Remove the proper tie breaker mechanisms from CFM Remove the proper calls from the officials when a ball is intercepted in the end zone so it calls it a safety Remove all fundamentals when it comes to proper tackling technique Remove any proper ball physics that resemble realistic bounces Remove delayed blitzes Remove Realistic player movement Remove all presentation elements that we actually see on TV Remove a realistic player progression system Remove practice squads. Remove the injury system that the NFL has along with statuses Remove the ability for to have more than one commissioner for a league Remove the ability to create a draft board for when league members can't make the draft Remove the ability to play scrimmages with your online franchise roster Remove proper gap control and assignments from player sense Remove any quality commentary I'm sure I missed a bunch here. Apparently this document that states to remove all of these items has been issued to Tiburon, we just haven't seen it or heard about it. However, we've certainly seen the proof that this document was indeed sent!

This times 1million. everything else after this comment is dead.

# 19 NicVirtue @ 03/14/14 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FaceMask


	Maybe. But certainly, I can't disagree that having robot-like player models and a trippy camera angle hurt their chances a lot. You'd think they would've listened given how many fans were telling them not to do this long before release when the game was just getting into early beta. 2K was the same way. I don't understand why these companies want to just shrug off the demands of the very fanbase they're selling to. You go back to the boards prior to APF's release and people were literally screaming at 2K not to use some of those awful team names that were being suggested. Overall, BB was just missing too many things. Being that it was a mid-level development, I gave it a lot of passes. But The core of the game was just broken. Before the patch, I could get a sack on nearly every play if I felt like it and that was just awful. After the patch, I couldn't run or complete a pass despite holding down the right trigger like instructed. Receivers dropped everything unless it was a wide-open pass that allowed the WR to make a controlled stop and catch, and even that was 50-50 most of the time for me. The one thing BB did right that APF didn't was the logo editor. Though I would prefer a TeamBuilder style editor, you gotta hand it to NM for the layering system. Being able to create the exact logo you want is too important not to have in a customizable game. Not being able to build my own team like this in Madden is one of the many gripes I have with the game. I'd like to just start a franchise with my own created team from day one.

It's funny you mention those things, like the holes in the gameplay. I not too long ago bought the game back, and downloaded a roster file. I must say that game is VERY refreshing, to me at least. Knowing the games issues, I can deal with them, because it forces me to play football a different way. Even if you run a play that is designed to beat a particular defense, depending on your players form for that game, the play can either go well, or bad. That's 1 thing I liked about BB, was players not playing the same every game if you put the form on Random.

# 20 ForUntoOblivionSoar∞ @ 03/20/14 02:23 AM

One thing I'm almost certain of:

TATTOOS were NOT removed because of NFL pressure. If that was the cause, why were they still in Madden iterations on PS2?

Everyone always says it, but no one ever provides proof. It's nothing but speculation that I have seen. They were still there in the PS2 games, so did the NFL really remove them or did the detail required of the PS3/XBox 360 require too much time to get in the game? I think it's the latter. Until someone shows me PROOF, I won't believe it (because again- they were still in the PS2 version of the game!)

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