Madden Developers Having Trouble Accurately Animating NFL’s Corruption

While the new Madden game appears to be on schedule for its release later this fall, EA Sports developers have expressed concerns that, while the game might have more seamless graphics and smarter AI, it severely misses the mark in portraying the many corrupt backroom dealings that fans have come to associate with the NFL.

“With so many types of inherent shadiness, it made it frankly impossible to pick just a few and run with it,” said Madden lead developer Arun Jauhari, pausing from scrolling through a Reuters article on dubious NFL-funded CTE research. “We tried to give fans at least a bit of what they wanted by having suspensions for domestic violence, but we were unable to come up with an algorithm that correctly predicted which players got punished, and which allegations were swept under the rug. The bias just isn’t predictable.”

Many die-hard Madden gamers, however, are not buying the excuse.

“I played Franchise Mode for five seasons, and not once was my team allowed to blanket-deny its retired players’ workers compensation claims in the hopes of getting them to settle for less in court,” said beta tester Lamar Giddings. “Plus, the owners don’t get to write their own toothless collective bargaining agreements for the NFLPA to sign off on anymore? It’s like EA went out of their way to create an unrealistic game.”

While not promising they can make substantial changes before release, EA has at least tried to stem the tide of criticism by releasing Patch 3.0.2, allowing gamers controlling the Texans to accurately trade the best receiver in the NFL to the Arizona Cardinals for seemingly absolutely nothing in return.