Electronic Arts Launches Madden NFL Superstars on Facebook

Once upon a time, Electronic Arts stated that it would be bringing the Madden franchise to Facebook. Now, almost nine months later, that promise has come to fruition with the release of Madden NFL Superstars from EA/Playfish. With the launch of Madden NFL 2011 and the pending start of the NFL regular season, the release is timed, with EA's typical marketing savvy, to springboard off of both the popularity of the season start and the console game, which reliably sells millions of copies each year. EA has some prior experience in placing big sports titles on Facebook, too, having first launched FIFA Superstars, which now has about four million monthly active users. The reuse of the “Superstars” name for Madden suggests that the company is attempting to create a Facebook brand of sports-oriented applications. Madden, though, is by far the larger of the two EA franchises. Considering the the success of the yearly console releases of Madden, it wouldn't be surprising to see Madden NFL Superstars head into the double-digit millions during the football season. Obviously, the central objective to Madden is to build up a championship team and take them to the Super Bowl. However, that’s actually much simpler than one might think. Rather than dealing with drafts, auctions, and trades as one would in the traditional game, Playfish and EA take a trading card spin, asking players to purchase packs of digital football cards, using either the earnable in-game currency or the paid premium virtual currency, Playfish Cash. Depending on the type of pack purchased, higher- or lower-quality players will be found within them. A Bronze Pack is the cheapest with five low ranking NFL players, while an Ultimate Pack is the costliest (and requires level 20, unless one uses Playfish Cash) but contains the highest ranking players. Furthermore, since EA has licensing rights with the National Football League, these are, of course, all real players. Based on each NFL players’ statistics (speed, strength, positions, etc.) they will add a set rating to the overall team, represented by one to five stars. However, since the player must build their entire offense and defense of 23 positions, it’s hard to tell just how much a single player can affect a team. The star rating of the entire team can be improved with practices. This is somewhat similar to practicing in FIFA Superstars, with the teams running some form of drill to improve their capabilities. However, the benefit is only comes into effect so long as the player returns to refresh practice sessions after they are complete, in an analogue to withering crops in farming games. As far as the football games themselves go, this is where the Facebook title takes the largest departure from its console progenitor. Every game is fully automated and presented to the player as still shots with a Ken Burns pan-and-scan effect and commentary streaming along the bottom. Normally, the higher rated team will win, but players also activate special abilities called “game changers” that have a percentage chance of succeeding (meaning they score some form of points). Purchasable with both Playfish Cash and in-game currency, these consist of plays such as onside recoveries, kickoff returns, field goal kicks, and so on. As players play and win games, they progress through increasingly difficult seasons. It's a bit of a slow progression though, as the gating mechanism for number of plays per day are “Game Tickets” that take over an hour to regenerate after use. Typically, one game equals one ticket, but some require more. The game also has a moderate virtual space element to it, allowing users to purchase amenities for their home stadium -- although a nicer stadium doesn't equal more fans. Those are instead gained through leveling up, purchasing them in the store, or receiving them as gifts from friends. Fans appear to be used for later-game features like going to the Super Bowl or unlocking new teams in a higher level mode called the “Pro League”. Socially, the game has typical achievements, leaderboards, and gifting among friends, but it also comes with a nice scrimmage feature that allows users to compete against one another without using up a Game Ticket, with a result that's recorded for posterity. Other than that, there is also the likely addition of playing other users’ teams as part of the main game, which isn't immediately available, but is probably on its way. Madden NFL Superstars is, in the end analysis, a very well built game, but compared to other sports management games on Facebook, Madden is nowhere near as in-depth as others we have seen in the past. This is likely because such games almost never do well on Facebook, and as FIFA Superstars has proved, catering to a wider, more casual/social audience can be more lucrative than a small niche.

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Electronic Arts Launches Madden NFL Superstars on Facebook

Christopher Mack

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Christopher Mack