Madden 21 Next-Gen:Detailed Explanation of Some Issues Beyond the Game Upgrade

 EA once again released relevant details about Madden 21's next-generation games. According to the information released by EA in the last two times, we can know that Madden 21's next-generation games do have very significant changes, but there are still some improvements that are not obvious. So U4GM raised several questions to the Madden 21 development team on behalf of the majority of gamers. U4GM focuses on the release of Madden 21 game information and professional sales of Madden 21 Coins. Below are the relevant questions and the answers from Madden NFL Creative Director Connor Dougan.

Question:Why has the team elected not to improve the presentation associated with injuries, specifically in franchise mode? It appears this is an area of opportunity where some enhanced immersion could be transferred to the user, but it’s not being utilized. 

Answer:Making meaningful updates to simulation-focused features such as injuries are most definitely on our radar and we want to go after as many of these features as we can in the coming years. To that end, to really make them meaningful and impactful for our players, they also take longer to design and implement across our variety of modes and differing ways to play. Injuries just didn’t meet that timeline this year, but it’s something we really want to get to soon.

Question: My takeaways from the Next-Gen stats conversation were that the data wasn’t going to be used for player ratings at this time, but more to generate realistic movement. NGS feels like an outstanding technological development and opportunity to produce and boast of having the most realistic player ratings in any sports game. Unless I misunderstood, why aren’t NGS being used for player ratings?

Answer:Next Gen Stats will provide another data source to help Ratings Adjustors in making their weekly ratings adjustments, as we still look at our ratings process and formula as proprietary and non-automated. That being said, Next Gen Stats will have some impact on ratings, most significantly in making sure there’s a strong correlation between the data and ratings, as both are strong contributors to the movement system. We are looking forward to going deeper and exploring more here as there are huge opportunities for a stronger relationship between our ratings and Next Gen Stat. In order to fully realize this, we will need to solve for some factors such as rating players that have no Next Gen Stats data or missing data and matching up certain Next Gen Stats as compared to what our ratings actually control in the Madden game, as they are not always the exact same.

Question: The weather was another thing I wanted to ask about. It looks as though [next-gen] will create some beautiful scenes, and I’m here for it all. However, I did wonder why, as Sean Graddy mentioned, it wouldn’t impact gameplay at all. Even in previous versions of Madden, you’d notice players slip in snow games, etc. Why was this left out of the next-gen version of the game?

Answer:To clarify, none of the previous weather effects on Gameplay/Players from Gen 4 have been removed. All of that is still there on our simulation game style: players slipping on routes, QB’s falling down during drop backs, dropped passes and kicking impacts to name a few. However, weather will not impact gameplay further on next generation consoles. Just like with injuries, creating moments in gameplay that could be interpreted as a negative impact or randomness impacting game outcomes are systems that must be created with a high level of thought and care to protect players’ experiences across all of our modes. While players won’t see more of that in Madden NFL 21, it’s firmly on our radar for the future.

For the above answer, I believe it will solve the doubts of many gamers. What do gamers think that Madden 21 next-generation games need to be improved? Let us hear your thoughts.