The football game Madden 23 was called the “most polished Madden in a long time” by a developer. However, after the release on August 19, 2022, players on Steam and Metacritic turned out to be absolutely dissatisfied with the latest installment in the football game series.
On August 19, 2022, the latest game from EA’s football series was released. Senior Producer Clint Oldenburg said at the time in an interview with the US online magazine IGN:
“We are very confident that our game for Madden 23 will be the most polished version of Madden that we have had in a long time. I will not say that it will be perfect, but I will say that the team is still striving for perfection, no matter how hard that may be to achieve. That is exactly our goal. Polishing is our top priority, and we know that we cannot achieve our goals if our players believe that our game is a flawed experience.”
However, criticism from players has poured in. On Metacritic, the game receives mostly negative player ratings, and even positive reviews on Steam serve as criticism of the game. Bugs and glitches in gameplay are primarily cited as reasons (via Metacritic & Steam).
In Europe, EA is more known for the football variant of Madden – FIFA 23:
Even positive reviews criticize Madden 23
What are the points of criticism from players? Madden 23 apparently still has numerous glitches and bugs that ruin the fun of the game for many players. Additionally, many believe the franchise has been delivering the same games for years, which is becoming boring over time. Players often complain that there are no next-generation features in the PC version of the game.
A reddit user shared, for example, a bizarre glitch in Madden 23, where a whole other room stood in the middle of the field:
What is the situation like on Steam? Also on Steam, there is criticism of Madden 23. Of 350 reviews, only 30% of the reviews are positive (via steam.com).
And even in the “positive” reviews, many criticized the game: “This game is terrible. I thought that among all the negative reviews, this positive one would catch your attention. If you are looking for a reason to buy this game, don’t” (User Kevin_M2).
Another user writes in a “positive review”: “If you are looking for a disappointment, you won’t be disappointed if you are disappointed” (User Big Iron).
How is the game rated on Metacritic? Looking at the ratings of the Metacritic page, the game on PC gets a terrible score of 0.8 from user reviews. Of 19 votes cast, 18 are negative. Only 1 is positive (as of August 29, 2022).
It should be noted that Metacritic does not yet provide a meaningful voting for the PC version of the game due to the low number of votes. However, the criticism on Steam speaks for itself.
What do you think about Madden 23? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
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