Madden 22 Franchise continues to be a core focus for many players, and it's one that also left some disappointed once again this year.
Madden 22 Franchise updates were on the agenda long before the title was even released, and now EA has responded to rumors that this year's next ones were cancelled.
EA responds to Madden 22 Franchise updates cancellation rumor
Back when Madden 22 launched earlier this year, they had already promised Franchise Mode updates were on the agenda just one month later.
The focus then turned to an improved scouting system, and during the build up to release they promised that upgraded scouting would land in September.
They heavily hyped that update, going so far as to make a nearly hour-long EA Play Live Spotlight Series all about scouting.
While they did eventually deliver that new scouting system, it landed a month later than expected, and Franchise is far from finished at this point.
Constant bugs plague players across Franchise, and while some were remedied in the December Title Update, not all of them have been fixed.
Back at launch, they promised three separate updates to Franchise after launch as part of their "Franchise as a live service plan," but a recent report by SGO indicated those other two updates were cancelled.
On top of that, they'd also followed up with reporting from sources involved in development about frustrations with the process, even saying "it's not a good place right now" of the working environment.
Apparently that was enough to get EA's attention, as they chose to provide a statement to IGN following these reports, saying:
"We do not like to comment on rumors or speculation; however, we are committed to continuing to improve Franchise as a part of our ongoing Madden NFL 22 live service and beyond. This includes two upcoming Franchise updates that we'll deliver in Madden NFL 22. We will have more details on the updates in the new year."
However, they stopped short of giving any extra details about when these Franchise updates could arrive or what might be on the agenda with them.
Madden 22 Franchise updates so far have been late or under delivered
While Madden 22 Franchise has definitely seen upgrades in the last few years, they've largely fallen short of most player's expectations.
When the #FixMaddenFranchise movement popped off, their initial response made the following promises regarding future Madden Franchise updates:
"For Madden NFL 22 it is still very early. We are at the very beginning of the planning and pre-production of next year’s product. That said, we’ve been actively discussing some of the areas we’d like to focus on, stemming from your feedback and player engagement. Here are few of the areas, while not fully committed yet, we are exploring creatively:
- Coaching and staff management
- Scouting improvements
- New scenario engine enhancements
- New team chemistry system
- Commissioner Tools improvements
- MORE CONTENT - Examples: Relocation/Branding Assets for Franchise - New uniforms, names, and logos to relocation options for more variety and depth in deeper careers.
Plus other key additions that we’ll reveal as we get deeper into the year for Madden NFL 22 development season."
We've actually seen a fair amount of these lands, with Commissioner Tools getting an upgrade near the end of Madden 21's life cycle.
Coaching and Staff Management upgrades and the new scenario engine both arrived in Madden 22 at launch, but neither has gotten a purely positive response.
The scenario engine has added some cutscenes and some flavor to Madden 22 Franchise at times, but still felt lackluster compared to what most players had hoped to see.
Scouting is by far the biggest upgrade they've delivered, but it landed significantly later than expected, as it was initially teased in those pre-Madden 21 promises.
Many expected the Scouting upgrade to be part of Madden 22 at launch, but they instead spoke of "Franchise as a live service" and insisted it would be one of the updates delivered after launch.
While this sounded promising at the time, the only "Franchise as a live service" aspect seems to be that these updates get delayed past launch and EA is allowed to keep saying they'll happen eventually.
Scouting was promised in September before Madden 22 was released, but fans didn't get it until October and have complained about the Mock Drafts and lingering bugs since it was implemented.
So far, we've heard absolutely zero word from EA about the new team chemistry system, or the relocation and branding assets that were mentioned before Madden 21 was even launched.
Madden 22 ended up reusing the exact same relocation cities, team names, logos, and uniforms that were in Madden 21 without a single bit of that system altered.
With their latest statement saying we'll hear more "next year," it looks like the earliest players can hope to get more Franchise updates would be late in January of 2022.
If the third follows the same pattern as the last two of landing three months later, that would put the final Franchise update as late as April 2022, just a few months before we expect them to announce Madden 23.