Thanks for the info @EA_Blueberry . The ability to “grow” into X Factors would have definitely made the mode much better, it wouldn’t surprise me if the team already knows this and that’s why they are the only thing that we can actually edit inside franchise mode. I still find it strange that no players from the 2019 or 2020 draft classes have any abilities whatsoever yet a few players from the 2021 draft do...
@kyl_35, with all due respect to EA I do have to somewhat agree with your point. There has never been anybody from EA actually answering any questions about franchise mode and a lot of the features remain a mystery all year long. I think what you are saying is partially true, but in my opinion a lot of it comes down to the game being a yearly release. The idea for features that they have are good, great even, but the execution is always underwhelming and almost seems like an unfinished product. Some features (scouting, coaching) they have made overly complicated so that there just aren't enough variations and a lot of useless information, while other features (trade deadline) are kind of all show and don't actually add much to the game. Then we have some features that have remained untouched for years that could desperately use an update.
There definitely doesn’t seem to be any passion from EA for franchise mode as compared to the online modes (due to popularity, but still) and at the end of the day it comes down to what is being requested the most (or loudest) by those with influence and up to the franchise team to decide how they will work and unfortunately there have been a few misses in recent years.
