EA Sports had a post that was a promo and it was about the Houston Texans in the game Madden 26. They wanted to know from the gamers who were the players to get a rating increase before the game. There was an immediate and huge response from the gamers on Twitter who were mostly from the Madden community. They did not pay any attention to the question and instead just asked for urgent fixes that the Franchise Mode of the game was needing. The volume of the responses was so high that it could be said that EA was completely out of line with their promotional campaign and the gamers’ complaints.
EA’s account for Madden made a chancery post for everyone to interact with on social media. The accounts of other games would have put up a nice Texans graphic, asked the players who they thought deserved a rating increase the most, and just gone for the discussion about the ratings. But the Madden community had already decided their different ways. They just… let it go. The ratings were no longer the subject matter; they just continued their protest in the replies.
Franchise Mode is always the topic among the players and it is almost impossible to think of something else that might be bothering them. One of the users, DSC, rather dramatically said, “franchise current week deserves a boost if we’re being real. about to be 5 weeks behind.” And that’s a very mild way of putting it. Others were much more frank. One user, btln54, remarked, “Yall ain’t fixing shit asap fix franchise it’s been 4 weeks #FixMadden.” The hashtags #FixFranchiseMode and #FixMadden were literally everywhere on social media. People like Brandon Crotti and OZ were using the hashtag as their response, which, if one is to be honest, does convey a lot more than an entire paragraph ever could, really.
It becomes quite hectic at that place. A few players are even accusing EA of blocking all comments regarding Franchise Mode. User droman_sea was quite clear on this when he said, “They are hiding them,” and BenSinnottFC comforted him with, “Insanity lmao.” That is yet another layer of drama – the feeling that instead of the issue being addressed, the conversation is being suppressed. Not a good look indeed, EA. Not at all.
The question about the Texans. To that, there were a few replies! Some users suggested safety Jalen Pitre and cornerback Calen Bullock as those who should be given a rating increase, to which Mr. Wise Guy replied with a complete list: “Boost Pitre and Bullock… Kamari and Sting should both be 90+ Pitre should be at least 88+ and Bullock should at least be 85+.” So the information is available, just buried under a mountain of complaints. A strange side-debate about Packers QB Jordan Love not getting a boost from another user, matthew34h is going on but that is just background noise.
The players’ core frustration lies in the claims. It is more than a broken Franchise Mode. There is a feeling that EA did the opposite of their intention to change the mode for worse reasons. User, dgfre02, took an AI account’s explanation about the mode being “revamped” and said, “Ah yes definitely has nothing to do with the Superstar mode riddled with microtransactions.” Ouch! That must have hurt! The implication is EA has weakened a once-popular offline mode to push gamers to the newer, and more monetizable, one. The case is that perception, which is the ruling factor in gaming, so whatever the reality may be, that is the perception and EA has to deal with it.
Other complaints are still as legitimate but more specific. User endziguri asked for a very small visual fix: “Hey can you please change the roster images back to plain white jerseys… Current jerseys ruin the immersive quality for franchise players.” That is a very tiny thing, but it could be fixed easily and seems to have been neglected. And canadayd08’s answer was pure, sarcastic, gold: “Would LOVE to try and replicate this in the playoffs in franchise mode! ……..oh wait. 😬” It is the mix of annoyance and tiredness that only veterans of such situations can understand.
This entire Twitter thread is a very good reflection of the modern Madden experience. On one side there is the official account that is preoccupied with marketing and ainda trying to connect with the team-specific excitement. The other side is a group of players that feel completely ignored and use every bit of that engagement to shout about the hottest game issues. The gap has been widening for many years between them. The gamers are not asking in the replies for new cool features; they are sighing for the basic, core mode that they have paid for to work properly. They want to play on their PlayStation or Xbox consoles.
