CFB26 already?!

Seeing some information starting to come out about CFB26 development (e.g. surveys). 

I can understand that if the lifecycle of a game is intended to be one year then we should expect that development for the next iteration of the game should have started.

If this is the expectation however, shouldn’t we also expect fewer issues with the game than we tend to see (across all sports games) at release?

Seems instead that every year games are in a constant beta state. We never get a fully-baked 2025 version even though it seems we pay a “full price”.

We will be asked to pay another “full price” to continue the development process (add new cover athlete, roster changes and incrementals that seem to amount more to a 25.1 than they do a fully-baked 26).

Is there a CFB30 on the horizon for example that will cost us $1 after we have funded a multi year development process? No, probably not.

I am all for updates throughout the lifecycle of a game. I would hope that updates that are true experience upgrades would outnumber those aimed at “fixing stuff that’s broke”. If however time and time again updates tend to skew in the other direction isn’t it time to reconsider the single year lifecycle? Find a revenue model that would allow for this more broadly?

Who makes UFC games on a multiple year…. Oh wait, nevermind.

EA takes a lot of grief for all of the above. Rightfully so, but this is an issue across all sports gaming companies. 

So what would it take to do something about it? Genuine question to customers and EA - what’s the strategy to set you (EA) apart moving forward? 

Discuss…