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Electronic Arts’ annual American football game hit the shelves this year on 18th August. The game had huge ambitions as EA aimed to significantly improve the game’s graphical elements and gameplay mechanics from the previous Madden NFL 23, which received mediocre reviews at best. Apart from EA’s promises, this year’s iteration also featured the Buffalo Bills superstar Josh Allen on its cover, further hyping up football fans. Unfortunately, Madden 24 proved to be a huge letdown and it has been heavily criticized by several reviewers and fans alike. Let’s take a look at what went wrong.
Madden NFL 24 Received Mostly Negative Reviews Across Several Platforms
Madden NFL 24 was released on an array of platforms such as the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and on PC via Steam, EA Play, and Epic Games Store. Regrettably, the game was not much of a success on any of these platforms. The main criticism is the fact that the game has been riddled with bugs and glitches and it seems to feel sluggish even on the main menu, which can become frustrating very quickly.
The game received a 5/10 rating on Steam, also receiving mostly negative reviews from 1,243 users so far.
Sadly, this continued to be the trend across several well-established reviewers like GamesRadar, MetaCritic, IGN, etc.
On GamesRadar, the game received a harsh but justified two-star rating out of five with the review title calling it a clumsy, rickety game of pro football.
The article’s writer Matt Paprocki made a very valid point criticizing the game’s lack of improvements. He had this to say:
Ask me – or any longtime, die-hard Madden NFL fan – to name the differences between Madden 93 and Madden 99. Do that again for say Madden 01 to Madden 08. There are stories of shoestring catches, passing windows, polygons, vision cone passing, and more. Now, ask that same audience to name a notable difference between Madden 2016 to Madden 2024; you'll likely hear cricket noises beyond graphical advances.
There was also a comprehensive YouTube video made by SOFTDRINKTV which has received around 398,000 views at the time of writing. The video goes over every aspect of Madden games while also doing a deep dive into Madden 24. The creator also shared his opinion on the game’s buggy nature by saying:
Playing the game feels like playing Jenga when the blocks are about to fall at any moment, as this game was built on layers and layers of outdated legacy code stemming back as far as Madden 13 or even farther.
Many disappointed fans seemed to share the same sentiment on Reddit with users of r/Madden saying: Last year was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I’m just gonna save my $ for starfield
Another user stated: I haven't bought a Madden since Madden 12, and that'll stay the same honestly. I'm just hoping EA loses the licenses.
Electronic Arts signed an exclusive rights agreement with the NFL all the way back in 2005 which makes them the only studio that is legally allowed to develop a simulation-style NFL game. Even though the game does feature graphical advancements and new improvements in technologies like Fieldsense and Sapien Tech, EA has released Madden 24 with game-breaking bugs and annoying glitches that overshadow its improvements. One can only speculate that the lack of competition has plagued the developer’s approach to the game.
