@Utnayan: According to an article Kotaku published in July 2021, Ubisoft Shanghai gets "generous subsidies" from Singapore. That deal not only requires the studio to hire a certain number of employees, it requires the studio to release orginal new IP. Legally, Ubisoft can't kill Skull & Bones. By pushing it into FY2024 it appears Ubisoft's hoping AC: Mirage and other games will keep investors from noticing if/when this game bombs.

@Smokin105: With this delay, I've finally decided to give up. It's very rare for a game delayed this long to be worth it when/if it is finally released.

@Dilandau88: When was the last time a game that's been delayed this long been good? The previous delay to March 2023 was officially because they needed "further time to polish and balance the experience using players' feedback from our technical tests and Insider Program."

Now they're delaying the game perhaps until 2024! This is yet another strong signal this game will be awful, if it's ever released at all.

@Barighm: Console exclusive? I agree with you, and so do the sports leagues and players associations. However, you'll never see the NFL/NFLPA and MLB/MLBPA license two simulation console video games again. Exclusivity makes them the most money.

@illegal_peanut: EA wasn't the driving force behind the exclusivity deal in 2004. That was the NFL and NFLPA.

Gamers won't ever like it, but there's almost noway that two simulation NFL video games will ever exist simultaneously again regardless of whether EA's involved or not. For that to happen, the NFL/NFLPA would have to make a decision that is definitely not in their financial best interests. The league and the players association have never shown they're that stupid.

If the NFL/NFLPA were to license two simulation games, why would any developer/publisher pay anywhere near $1.5 billion (combined) for the right to use team logos, player likenesses, etc? The existance of two NFL games splits the market and reduces the revenue earned by both games.

In your proposed scenario, Microsoft would simply replace EA as the developer/publisher for Madden. Given the name/brand recognition and the fact they don't have a first party studio with experience developing a simulation sports title, Microsoft would more than likely simply buy the IP and Tiburon, the studio that's been behind Madden since 1995 from EA.

@illegal_peanut: Star Wars and Madden are apples and oranges. Star Wars is popular worldwide and Madden is not. The overwhelming majority of Madden buyers are in the US.

This past summer EA paid approximately $1.5 billion to extend their exclusive license with the NFL/NFLPA through 2026. Even if EA's sales dried up, it's far from certain that another publisher could outbid EA and meet the NFL/NFLPA's demands, or would even want to do so. Nobody's actually tried to do so since the original deal began in 2004.

Given that Madden is a yearly title I'd be interested to know whether these widespread problems have forced Tiburon to pull people off the development of next year's game because they're needed to fix this year's title.

EA and the NFL extended the Madden license again last summer. The new deal runs through the 2026 season. In March 2020, the NFL announced a deal with 2K games for the development of a "non-simulation" NFL video game. So it wouldn't have been a revival of NFL2K, but perhaps something more like the NFL Blitz game, and it was supposed to be released in 2021. In May 2021, 2K announced the game would be delayed beyond March 31, 2022. Since then? Crickets. Forget 2K ever being able to financially compete with EA for the NFL simulation video game license. Because the NFL doesn't have worldwide appeal like FIFA does, there's little chance Ubisoft or another large developer/publisher would even be interested in the license.

@MigGui: I agree with most of your point, but I think that there are "levels" of broken. IMO it's still possible for a game to be a "lethal" level of broken at launch. I think the best (and most obvious) example of a game that was a "lethal" level of broken at launch is Cyberpunk. That game is unlikely to be near the financial success it was supposed to be because of the refunds, etc., not to mention what it did to the publisher's stock price.

IMO, whether Madden 23 is this level of broken will depend on a couple things. One, whether the reviews make note of the problems and the scores are lower for the game because of them. If most of the reviews completely and utterly shred the game, it may impact sales. (Although having written that, because Madden's an exclusive, sales may not take much of a hit at all.) Two, how fast EA fixes this mess.

Since EA made all sorts of promises about "going back to basics" with this version of Madden (and obviously failed), I'd like to think next year's sales will tank, but I've seen this far too often.

I just hope NCAA Football and Madden are seperate dev teams. If they aren't, I'm already worried about the debut of the new college football game next summer.

So far, I haven't found a reason to buy either the PS5 or the XBox Series X/S. The first reason I might have to buy one will be the release of Skull & Bones in November. I was surprised that game isn't coming to the PS4 and XB1. Since development on that game took forever, I guess they dropped the previous gen versions just to be able to get it out the door.

Despite the PS5 and Series X being hard to find without paying scalpers, I suspect we're going to see more games that aren't compatible with the PS4 and XB1 in 2023, or 2024 at the latest. Since development on GTA VI is allegedly moving much more deliberately and Rockstar's trying to avoid too much employee overtime, I wouldn't be surprised if they've decided to only focus on PS5, Series X/S and PC.

I'm still kind of bummed that Disney/Lucasfilm didn't cast Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka but excited to see what Rosario Dawson will bring to the role. Hopefully it's a good show.