One of the most common complaints about EA’s Madden franchise is that the series doesn’t take enough risks. While that’s often the case, it seems the publisher might have something radical in mind for a future series entry, or for a new football game entirely. Users on the Gaming Leaks and Rumors subreddit have discovered a job listing for a technical director position at the company. The listing includes several notable requirements for the position, but the most interesting part can be found under the bonus section, where EA lists “experience developing an MMO.” Unsurprisingly, this has kicked off a lot of speculation about what EA might be planning!

One possibility that Madden fans have mentioned is a mode where each online player would take a different position on the field, such as quarterback, receiver, etc. How that would actually work in practice is tough to imagine, and might lead to some boring stretches of gameplay. Football isn’t nearly as fast-paced as something like soccer or hockey, where there’s constant movement and strategy. A lot of football boils down to being in position, and looking for opportunities that might never pan out. It’s an interesting idea, but whether it would actually be fun to play is the real question.

For the time being, readers should keep in mind this is all just speculation, and there’s no way of knowing exactly what EA is planning. There are certainly other directions this could go in, and it should be noted that the job listing has a number of other requirements that seem to take precedence over MMO experience. These include “experience working on large-scale live services titles” and experience with “multiplayer AAA titles on multiple generations of hardware platforms.” The full job listing from EA can be found at the publisher’s official website right here.

The video game industry tends to be very secretive. Games take several years to come together, and sometimes modes and even full games can end up scrapped before they get announced to the general public. In that regard, job listings like this one give fans a rare glance behind the curtain and an idea of what might be in development. It’s fun to speculate and think about where things are heading for EA and the Madden franchise, but whatever this is, we likely won’t know until summer 2025 at the earliest, and that’s assuming this mode will be for Madden NFL 26, as opposed to a standalone game, or something for a future entry. Since EA is hiring for this position right now, it could be a long time before we actually see how this plays out. As such, Madden fans will have to sit tight and continue spending time with this year’s game!

Posted: Nov 23, 2024 3:11 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/madden-nfl-mmo-ea-job-listing/