Is It Just Me?

Posts: 1097 |

2,180

I’m basically 75/25 at this point to NOT purchase Madden ‘26.

This year has been a huge letdown and quite honestly the biggest cash grab without actually giving anything back to us in history.

The final straw - Correct me if I’m wrong, but in all past Maddens, we’ve been able to get multiple FREE Golden Tickets through solos and also sets. This year, the only GT we can get is through a set that you can only get tokens for by SPENDING MONEY. Come on EA, you’ve lost me. This is even low for the bar that you have set over the past few years. I think I am done at this point. EA and this game literally have NO redeeming qualities. Gameplay is bad, solo games are minimal and also bad and unrewarding. The field pass rewards for grinding are trash. The menus are horrible and no fun. This is no longer a football simulation, it is an EA slot machine. The NFL needs to pull this license since this is not even a simulation game at this point, it is Snoop Dogg with every ability in the book hit sticking Derek Henry and causing a fumble - simulation? I think not!

Posts: 851 |

2,275

I think last year the free GT was a season pass reward in final season, but yeah the game is uncreative and predatory on obsessive personalities, but on the flip side it can be a fun min-max grind building an NMS team for those personalities, I’ve really enjoyed MUT 24 and 25 but you’re right as a video game it is bad, it only works as an obsession quest

Posts: 617 |

6,283

I decided to take a break from MUT the day after the Draft.

I’d put over 1,000 hours into MUT 25, and I didn’t start seriously playing until the end of Season 2. When I realized the grind was starting to take a toll, I knew I had to step away. So, I sold off my cards, cleared my coins, and made sure there was nothing left to tempt me to jump back in.

I didn’t plan on skipping out on MUT 26, but now that I’ve been away for a while, I honestly don’t miss the grind. I don’t miss spending money on packs, and I definitely don’t miss the H2H meta.

There are a lot of different kinds of MUT players out there. Some want the most authentic simulation possible. Others want to keep NMS teams distinct from the big spenders. Some like the wild ability stacks and OOP cards, and then there’s the crew that just wants the cheese out of the game completely.

Is it even possible to please everyone? Maybe not. But I do think EA could fix a lot of the issues if they really focused on it. Then again, MUT is a mode built around microtransactions, so it’s not like they’re prioritizing those changes.

Madden’s always been criticized for bugs and glitches, and when the Create-a-Play tool started causing problems, EA did the logical thing—took it out entirely.

When the gameplay itself can’t be fixed, just slap some abilities on it, right? That way, we can blame KOs for that 3rd-and-6 incompletion or say Avalanche caused the fumble. Don’t blame EA. Just blame the abilities.

I’m honestly happier now that I’m not spending my nights grinding for coins and packs or repeating challenges over and over.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned this year, it’s that EA’s not going to fix it. And you know what? I’m good with that. I’m not going to let it ruin my vibe.