Pack watch: Angry players are trying to get Madden 23 fixes by hitting EA where it hurts

It’s no secret that Madden 23 failed to live up to player expectations—unless players were expecting the game to be a disappointment, in which case, it met expectations perfectly.

The game has been plagued by bugs since its release, rendering it difficult to play for many players. The Madden community has labeled the game’s new Franchise mode “unplayable” and accused EA of pouring resources into the game’s Ultimate Team mode to maximize the game’s profitability at the expense of all other modes. Ultimate Team itself has issues as well, with players claiming that the odds for pulling top players’ cards are overwhelmingly poor. And, to that end, some prominent players and pros came up with a means of making sure that EA hears their complaints: not buying any more MUT packs.

The “Pack Strike” gained traction on social media following posts from Madden content creator Zirksee and Full Squad Gaming’s Jake Lucky. It has already racked up several thousand likes and retweets from many players saying they will not buy any more packs in Ultimate Team until some of their concerns are addressed.

There have been several video game strikes that players have attempted to start over the course of the last several years, although few of them have actually gained enough steam to seemingly address the issues that players want addressed. Usually, either those problems remain and enough of the player base stays to continue supporting the game, or the player count plummets and the game dies.

A Madden strike could be different, however. Madden has near-complete control of the market for football simulators, with decades of history and games building up a loyal fan base. It has also released a string of underwhelming games as of late. With no real alternatives for football video game fans and the loyalty of the fan base, it seems possible that Madden fans might have both the loyalty and the anger at their favorite series to pull off a successful strike. 

At any rate, it seems that there’s probably going to be a dip in pack sales over the next couple of weeks. How big that dip is will determine whether the strike enacts some change in the game.