Madden NFL 26 Players Slam Feature For Ruining the Game

Madden NFL 26 has been out on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S since August 14, and technically a week before this via early access. As a result, fans of the football simulation series have had ample opportunity to play and ruminate on this year’s installment, figuring out what they like and don’t like. Going into this year’s release, EA put a lot of emphasis on simply making the game more fun. However, early adopters of Madden NFL 26 don’t appear to be having any more fun than normal, or sometimes any fun at all.

Like every year, the complaints of Madden fans are varied, but there may be no more common of a complaint than the complaints against the Wear and Tear system in Madden NFL 26. For those that don’t know, in Madden NFL 26 players are forced to choose between Wear and Tear or Progressive Fatigue; a choice some fans are describing as picking between the “worse of two evils.”

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To this end, one of the most common posts on the Madden Reddit page since the release of Madden NFL 26 has been about Wear and Tear and Progressive Fatigue. For example, one of the top posts since the game’s release on the Madden Reddit page is that Wear and Tear is “ridiculous” and “out of control.” More importantly it is giving players huge injury lists.

“No one asked for this. It’s ruining franchise mode,” reads a different post about the same subject. “Both of these systems [Wear and Tear and Progressive Fatigue] are broken and unrealistic. Literally no one asked for this.”

EA has not provided extensive details and insight into why it forces players between one of these two settings, but it is clearly done in the name of realism. Injuries are a big part of football, as is player and minute management to avoid accumulating injuries. However, sometimes realism has to get into the backseat in favor of fun, something EA acknowledged in the pre-release period for the game. And these features, especially since they are forced upon players, seem to run in contrast to this mandate. That said, as our review of the game outlines, everything in Madden NFL 26 feels half baked and not well thought out, so perhaps it should come as no surprise this specific aspect of the game follows suit.

Madden NFL 26 is available for $70 on Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. That said, judging by the number of players seemingly unhappy with this installment, it may be best to wait for future updates to improve and refine the football sim. In the meantime, some of the best EA games of all time are currently just $2.