Madden Ultimate Team Fails Where FC 24 Thrives

Ultimate Team has been EA's money-printing machine for more than a decade, and the mode still dominates the two biggest sports titles in EA's portfolio, Madden & EA Sports FC.

However, the two playerbases have very different experiences when they dive into Ultimate Team. One gets a regular slate of content with new features and programs, while the other is full of delays, retread players, and a crumbling ecosystem.

FUTs quality

FC Ultimate Team has continued and improved from the days of FIFA and is EA's biggest profit-making idea ever. It delivers regular weekend promos that start on Fridays and there is something new nearly every day of the week.

Everything isn’t always plane sailing. There are mistakes from EA like wrong player items and misassigned packs, but errors are corrected quickly with make-rights for players rapidly distributed.

The festive period was also successful for both EA and FC 24 players, as the content standard remained high throughout the holidays and there was something to aim for or earn every day.

This year has even seen the addition of Evolutions, a mechanic for improving cards to allow gamers to keep their favourite players in the lineup for longer.

MUTs issues

While FC's Ultimate Team has seen big changes in recent years, Madden's Ultimate Team is incredibly stale and unreliable. Over the last few years Madden players have had to put up with endless delays, cards outright missing from packs, and terrible communication from EA.

While Evolutions has come into FC, the similar Power Up cards have left MUT. The mode has become even more predatory than before, with players unable to earn big cards through sets or exchanges. The switch to Field Passes has forced players to grind for rewards that used to be enjoyable to earn.

All of this is just about bearable if content is out on time, but recently EA has pushed and delayed more than ever. The traditional Thanksgiving program, Harvest, had most of its content a week before and a week after Thanksgiving, with nothing new during the holiday itself. It was a similar story for the Christmas Zero Chill program too.

Worse of all, with just 18 TOTW programs to do all year, EA has delayed THREE by a week or more this year. The last TOTW to hit Madden was on 20 December, the next will be on 10 January.

Players are understandably tired of the constant indifference that seems to be emanating from EA. Content gets delayed with no explanation, or gated without reason. Recent House Rules modes were announced and then not pushed live. It's a real mess.

Why is it so different?

So one fan base is given regular, unique content through the season with year-on-year advancements while the other is ignored and neglected. But why?

FC 24 and Madden have different teams working on them, but they are the two flagship EA Sports titles, so the level of quality shouldn't be that far apart.

FC 24 is a global brand though, meaning there are players around the world all pouring their time and money into the game. While the US is big for FC 24, Europe, Asia, and Australia are huge too. This is very different for Madden where the US dominates the playerbase while the rest of the world doesn't get too involved.

That means there are fewer players, so Madden has to position itself to make the most money possible from the whales that will happily spend $1,000+ each year on cards as there won't be a large base of small purchase players.

This seems to have manifested itself in a less populated calendar for Madden. Giving players a few weeks to use the cards they spent money getting before replacing them. Whereas in FC 24 there is something every week, so a player might save big spending for a moment like Team of the Year.

It also means that the Madden team is almost certainly working with a lower staff count than FC 24. This could well be why nothing happens over the holidays while delays and bugs with content snowball into bigger problems.

All of this is secondary to the biggest issue though. Madden doesn't have a competitor in the gaming space. FC 24 has both eFootball and Football Manager that pull fans away if FC 24 doesn't deliver. There is simply no other American Football game for players to move to if Madden is poor, which it is.

This monopoly on the space has left players frustrated and angry, but stuck with either buying Madden every year or just not having a game of their favourite sport.

EA has Madden fans over a barrel and both parties know it. Until NFL fans have an alternative, EA can get away with terrible Ultimate Team support and inexplicable delays to content. FC 24's competition, as mild and unimpressive as it may be to some players, at least keeps it on the straight-and-narrow and forces good content and communication from EA.