They kill servers following 18 months I believe. Which locks you from a large portion of the material since they induce you to be online for Mut 21 coins anything other than play now to do the job. And of course unskipable 2 -3 moment ads in a $60 game. Wow, thats disgusting. Consumers get what they paid for. The sports name fans did it . Just like 2k does with their sports games? You get 18 months of servers, then you need to purchase the new one to keep playing online. (now as enthusiast project Skylords Reborn) Yes, instead of charging nothing for the rosters, they effectively spend a negligible amount of money and charge you 60$ for it.

Because Madden's business model is built around Ultimate Team, a match mode where you slowly accumulate stronger players within the course of the year (hopefully by buying arbitrary packs, naturally ). EA spends the entire year in a trickle feed, where they keep bumping the quality of players you get. You begin the year with 70-80 OVR players, by January you're getting 85 OVR, by April you get some 90 OVR, and then right before the next game they're handing out 95 OVR players to help keep people engaged and interested. If they did not launch a brand new Madden, there could be nothing to work toward (everyone would already have elite rosters) and folks would walk away. It is scummy, but the entire Madden franchise relies on individuals spending hundreds on MUT and then leaping to the next game a year after. On the flip-side, if you do not care about being constantly up-to buy Madden 21 coins-date with rosters, many sports games now have deep"end-of-life" sales just before the next one comes out.