Madden 25 Ultimate Team is an unmitigated disaster right now
By Brian Allen
It feels like I just wrote this story a month ago - Oh, wait. Like its little brother CFB 25, a pack glitch at launch ruined MUT for those not fortunate enough to be online when it dropped. A one-coin pack in the marketplace was supposed to be purchasable once per day.
The glitch allowed unlimited purchases and while the cards were bound to your account, they could be sold for training. Training can be used to purchase other packs, and then your team gets way stronger than it would be without spending real money.
This glitch reportedly lasted about 40 minutes, but thanks to social media that was more than enough time for lots of players to take advantage.
By the way, most players still have not received the Ultimate Alumni items they were supposed to for also buying College Football 25. Madden NFL Direct's Twitter account said it will be a "slow rollout." They may be obsolete by the time most players receive them.
EA has also made some unpopular changes to the auction house, adding price floors so that the game tells you what price you can sell your cards for. Heaven forbid anybody else profit from EA's digital card market.
EA removed the ability to trade cards in the marketplace in Madden 23, supposedly to "ensure fair play for all players." It doesn't look like it will be coming back. By the way, no one ever believed EA removed the trade block to ensure fair play. They did it to ensure that the best way to get cards is to buy them from EA.
It's the same reason NBA 2K removed its auction house and replaced it with the ridiculous player market. Billions aren't enough for these publishers. They have to make certain we can't consistently get the cards we want without using our credit cards, and it needs to stop.
When EA's thumb isn't on the scale, playing the market is as much fun as playing the game, sometimes more so as glitches create a huge chasm between the haves and have nots. EA has created an economy it isn't competent enough to manage properly. When things break due to EA's failings, it punishes the players.
It remains to be seen how long players will continue paying this publisher to remove features from its game. Sadly, Madden 25 is an improvement in many areas. Ultimate Team is addictive for a reason. At its core, it's a fun mode when we're allowed to play it. I would say this can't continue, but EA Sports' ever-growing mountain of profit flies in the face of that assertion.