At This Time Last Year...

I was trying to figure out what EA's tack was with their recent pattern of power creep, and by comparing MUT 25 and MUT 26 I have come to the following conclusion: Once-per-week increases are not the norm, and the recent jumps from 85 to 87 in just two weeks is an aberration:

MUT 25

Early-release date: Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Increase of OVR from 85 to 86: Saturday, August 24, 2024*
End of Season Pass 1: Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Increase of OVR from 86 to 87: Tuesday, September 3, 2024

* The overall increase at this time resulted in an increase of the set-building costs for Season of Boom items from five 82 OVR items to eight.

MUT 26

Early-release date: Thursday, August 7, 2025
Increase of OVR from 85 to 86: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Increase of OVR from 86 to 87: Wednesday, September 3, 2025
End of Season Pass 1: Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Likely Increase of OVR from 87 to 88: Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Going back to MUT 25's three-week Season of Boom program - which ran the duration of Season Pass 1 - it had already been determined that the Game Time program would feature 87 OVR items, and the content team was forced to shoehorn in an OVR increase mid-program. They opted for an implementation date halfway between the early-release date and the end of the first Season Pass. At the time, it seemed very disorganized and non-standard (because it was).

EA delivered almost three weeks of MUT 26 Champion content at the 85 OVR tier, but Standard Edition players experienced only two weeks of that same tier, and did so in a five-week Season Pass. There was going to have to be a one-week period of play at a certain OVR-tier, or otherwise we were going to get another disruptive mid-program OVR increase as we had with Season of Boom.

I strongly believe the leaked document outlining the week-by-week power creep with Team of the Week items was an early-stages planning document. It's not in EA's best interests to have 99 OVR items at the end of November. We can probably expect OVR-tier power creep to resume a two-to-three week cycle as of this week.

so next wednesday when the 88 champions come out do we get a refund from this essay?

nitmatrix said:

so next wednesday when the 88 champions come out do we get a refund from this essay?

Lets just hope hes right

PatsTrey7373 said:

Lets just hope hes right

hes not unfortunately, the mcs card next week is going to be an 89 and the ranked rewards are already proof of the intent to steamroll overalls.  

we get 2 weeks of 88 ovr champions and then the steady diet of +1 increases continues until at least week 7 of totw YAY!!!

nitmatrix said:

hes not unfortunately, the mcs card next week is going to be an 89 and the ranked rewards are already proof of the intent to steamroll overalls.  

we get 2 weeks of 88 ovr champions and then the steady diet of +1 increases continues until at least week 7 of totw YAY!!!

That just wouldn't make any sense, last year the highest ovr most feared card was a 91 at this rate they'd be pushing 95 or above. EA doesn't want the game to get stale before Christmas you'd have to imagine they're gonna slow it down. 

Not sure but why would they drastically change everything compared to last year

PatsTrey7373 said:

That just wouldn't make any sense, last year the highest ovr most feared card was a 91 at this rate they'd be pushing 95 or above. EA doesn't want the game to get stale before Christmas you'd have to imagine they're gonna slow it down. 

Not sure but why would they drastically change everything compared to last year

i think we will know for sure wednesday

PatsTrey7373 said:

That just wouldn't make any sense, last year the highest ovr most feared card was a 91 at this rate they'd be pushing 95 or above. EA doesn't want the game to get stale before Christmas you'd have to imagine they're gonna slow it down. 

Not sure but why would they drastically change everything compared to last year

I think we're going to see 100ovr cards this year, maybe even up to 110ovr

STRIKESHOT1 said:

I think we're going to see 100ovr cards this year, maybe even up to 110ovr

That's another way to do things, right? I had considered that possibility, and in a way, I would like not having attributes capped at 99: It would make a late-year theme team competitive with a contemporary goon squad.

If that is how things will turn out, it will upend the MUT economy, as there are many players that will be unwilling to spend the cash needed to stay competitive. At that point, there will be a major stratification of users, with a lot of users fielding much less than the best. This, in turn, would probably collapse MUT. I would expect EA has considered this likelihood as they planned out MUT 26 content.

STRIKESHOT1 said:

I think we're going to see 100ovr cards this year, maybe even up to 110ovr

Please tell me you're joking. That would probably be the end of madden...

PatsTrey7373 said:

Please tell me you're joking. That would probably be the end of madden...

madden mobile moved from 99ovr up to 120ovr before whatever insane numbers they have now, 2k seems to be having success with 100ovr players, there are certainly other ways they can maintain their current arms race speed without increasing ovr (chems, motivators, abilities, baked on xfactors sooner, etc) but it would be naive to not acknowledge it as a very real possibility

I think the intention will be getting to 99's faster.

Let's say we have 92 champs for MF, 95's for Zero Chill and 97's for the super bowl

mattreynolds47 said:

I think the intention will be getting to 99's faster.

Let's say we have 92 champs for MF, 95's for Zero Chill and 97's for the super bowl

Unless EA is gambling (the irony!) on meeting almost all of their annual Points sales projections before the Super Bowl, this is absolutely a losing play.