Madden NFL 21, the latest entry in EA’s NFL-based sports franchise, released on August 28 to mixed critical reviews, but the fans are undivided in their anger towards the game. A slew of bad reviews on GameSpot sister site Metacritic have pushed Madden 21 to a 0.4/10 user score, the worst of any video game on the site.
Fans of NFL have long been critical of EA’s Madden series, which holds the exclusive license to produce NFL simulation games. According to a report by Sporting News, fans got the hashtag #NFLDropEA trending in a plea to get the license picked up by a new developer. Some have accused EA of getting lazy, with the lack of competition meaning there is little motivation to keep improving a generally solid base game.
As with past releases, Madden 21 has launched full of bugs, many of which have been shared on Twitter.
In response to the game’s poor reception, EA have promised a series of updates to both fix bugs and improve on features critics say have remained basically unchanged since the last release.
GameSpot’s review of Madden 21 mentioned that the game felt more like an upgrade than a meaningful addition to the franchise, saying “with far more technical issues than normal and large chunks of recycled content, Madden NFL 21 feels more like an update than a brand-new game.”
GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.