Madden NFL 21 October 8 Update Released, Patch Notes Revealed

A new Madden NFL 21 title update has been released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC alongside official patch notes revealing and detailing every change, addition, and improvement made to the game via said update. And because the update is a title update, it won't require a download on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, or at least it shouldn't.

According to the "key highlights" section of the patch notes, the update has a plethora of bug fixes for General Franchise, has updated how wins/losses are handled when players lose connection, and tuned the bench press ability to make balance improvements in all game modes.

Beyond this, the update doesn't do much of note. And at the moment of publishing, there's been no word of when the next update -- let alone the next meaty update -- will arrive, but EA does note there's plenty more to come.

Below, you can check out the update's full patch notes:

Key Highlights:

• General Franchise bug fixes
• Updated handling of wins/losses resulting from players losing their game connection
• Tuned the Bench Press Ability for better balance in all game modes

Gameplay Updates:

• Fixed an issue causing user-controlled QBs to sometimes automatically throw to a receiver directly following the snap.
  • DEV NOTE: While we fixed a version of this in a previous update, community feedback made us aware of an additional version. In this case, if a user had spammed a catch-mechanic on the previous play, in some cases that button-input data could carry over to the following play when holding the snap button for a longer period of time. We're confident this specific bug was the culprit for those still impacted.
• Resolved the issue with the 'Ball-Stuck-In-Hand' celebration triggering too frequently
• Tuning to the Bench Press Ability so that it will no longer apply fatigue penalties on running plays; also reduced the overall amount of fatigue impact when a receiver gets pressed in man coverage
  • DEV NOTE: One thing we want to make our players aware of relative to this ability (as well as many other abilities), is that as ratings increase, the overall impact will naturally decrease. Specific to Bench Press, as players' stamina ratings increase, so does their fatigue recovery rate. This will lead to the ability becoming less effective over time within modes like Franchise and Ultimate Team.
• Addressed an issue causing a thrown pass to rarely warp back to a defender in a Strip Attempt
• Fixed a rare issue causing the ball carrier to freeze during a fake-out vs. a defender
• Fixed the receiver icons not appearing and the pitch sometimes falling short resulting in a fumble on the HB Toss Pass play
• Removed the 'Pass Rush On-Field Trainer' overhead display in multiplayer practice to allow for easier multi-controller labbing
• Fixed a blocking interaction issue resulting in a graphical error

General Stability fixes'Madden Ultimate Team Updates:

• Fixed a rare crash when viewing "Search Trade Results"
• When selecting the highest difficulty on a Solo Challenge, you will be defaulted to that difficulty when selecting "Play Next Challenge"
• Several UI enhancements to help with text readability

Franchise Updates:

• Face of the Franchise Updates:
  • General stability improvements
• Franchise Updates:
  • General stability improvements
  • Significantly reduced the amount of ties that could result from Simulated games
  • The 'Draft Bar' interface will remain visible during the Draft when navigating between menus
  • Fixed an issue with the 'Team' tab disappearing for users when exiting a game
• Presentation Updates:
  • Multiple Teams Oakley visor tab colors updated to the colors they are using this season

Madden NFL 21 is available via the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.