NFL Feature: Madden 13- You Won’t Be Taking My Money

“Yup, getting Madden 13 today.”

This was the text I sent my friend as I was getting ready to head out the door. I had finally decided to pull the trigger and get Madden 13, given that everyone raved about the new physics system, which intrigued me. Combine that with rookies to play with like RG3, Andrew Luck, Trent Richardson, and Justin Blackmon, and I was sold. Then, my friend responded.

“Fyi, no fantast draft. At all. They took it out this year for no good reason.”

To say my heart sank sounds a bit too serious, considering we are simply talking a video game. But yeah, that’s what happened. For those of you who don’t know, fantasy draft gives you the option to throw every NFL player into a draft pool, and they let you draft a team from scratch. Offense. Defense. Special teams. You draft it all. It’s an incredibly deep feature that allows for constant entertainment in Madden.  Most importantly, he keeps the game fresh, as there are an endless number of combinations you can build. I don’t want to play as the real teams. I watch the real teams every weekend.

Why they did this, I don’t know, and it’s the second huge controversary from the EA games this year. The NCAA Football 13 installment drew criticism for eliminating the “Export Draft Class” feature, which allows the seniors and juniors who declare for the draft to be downloaded into the Madden counterpart.  By taking this feature out, it eliminates the excitement of getting Matt Barkley and Robert Woods into the game, along with countless others.

So EA sports, I just have one question: What are you doing? In an age where the economy is still down, why are you giving us reason to hate your game and product? Thanks to my friend, I missed out on going to Best Buy and buying a $65 dollar paper weight.  I personally won’t be buying this installment of Madden, even if they add fantasy draft in a future download, which it doesn’t sound like they will. And as long as they keep this feature out, my money will stay in my wallet. Way to go EA Sports.

What do you think of eliminating this feature? Will you still be buying Madden 13? Let us know in the comments!