Q: Are you guys looking into adding a practice mode into MUT 18? It would be nice to be able to test out new playbooks with the players we have on our MUT team, rather than using base teams in the normal practice mode.

A: We’ve definitely heard this as a top request. Legally, it’s always tough for us to comment on what may be coming in the future but I agree this would be a great addition to Madden Ultimate Team.

Q: I'd like to hear what the process for choosing bundle toppers is. Are you satisfied with the way chemistry turned out? Also, did you like the way player ratings and upgrades to those ratings were handled this year?

A:That’s a lot to dig through but all great questions. As a whole, yes I’m pleased with how Chemistry turned out. Were there some misses along the way? Absolutely. I think the MUT community has spoken pretty clearly when it comes to Team and Promo Chems. We’re not going to continue to force feed something that just isn’t landing. I will say that the consensus in the office is that we probably have too many different chemistries this year. When looking ahead, we’re brainstorming ideas on how to consolidate these but still be as fun and interesting as they were this year. Those designs are still ongoing but I do want to propose a question – if some version of a Promo Chem did exist, would you be more open to it if it was additive? My own personal take is that a piece of why Promo and Team Chems didn’t land, was that they took up a slot that could have otherwise been used on a gold/premium chemistry. Would it help if the player had all his normal Chems but then still could have a slot for unique, one-off Chemistries?

Now onto your question about ratings and upgrades - We made the creative decision to not escalate ratings over 99 this year. We did that so we could definitively say what the highest rating was in Madden Ultimate Team. Standing firm at 99 clearly tells you what the best rating in MUT is. But as a result, we re-crafted the player’s OVR calculation. Hindsight is always 20/20 but this is the one thing I would’ve liked to redo for Madden NFL 17. Those changes to the player OVR resulted in it taking less rating points to bump the player’s OVR. So this is a major focus for us on how we improve this for next year but the goal is clear: we want players to truly feel like a 2 point overall bump is a significant difference in ratings and say goodbye to +1 bae.

Q: the Feed your beast promo from Most Feared was arguably the best thing of MUT 17. is there plans to bring this back for MUT 18 or maybe modify it to have 1-3 players from each team at the beginning of the year to ultimately build up to the 94-97 range?

A:I like where your head’s at! I was a big fan of the Most Feared promo as well but there’s always a challenge for communicating how a new promo works to the casual MUT player. The more we can do without having to solely rely on Sets, the better off the experience will be for all types of players. We're working on some new ideas to help out in this area and are excited to share those when we're allowed to.

Additionally I want to mention that what you are proposing is a really great idea for putting MUT players on a journey (sorry, I try not to use that word as I know it has significant MUT-ties). We're really challenging ourselves to find ways to go beyond the traditional methods of "whoever plays this the fastest, pulls the most packs, dominates the auction house, etc" wins the promo. Skill, time investment, and potentially decisions should also be huge factors as well.

Q: I know myself and a large majority of the community have loved the recent design of solos like Season Stars, and promo formats like All-Rookie and more recently Easter. Can we look forward to similar formatted promos going forward? i.e. solos accompanying content, which provide a fair chance at profitable collectibles/players, along with the relative ease of at least attaining one promo Elite with a little bit of grinding?

A: Yes, we've seen these being received well by the community and look to continue having future content drops that follow a similar layout. However we do know that too much of anything can become dull so we must continue finding other ideas that resonate as well as Season Stars, Easter, and All-Rookie have.

Q:Why is that this year we are still missing a Ultimate Legend ROLB and RT still?

What is the process when choosing what position/player gets picked for Ultimate Legend Weekend?

A:Sources are telling me that ROLB could be in play this weekend. RT has been a little more difficult because we only have one Legend Right Tackle in Erik Williams and he got an item for Super Bowl. I'll ask if there's an opportunity to squeeze him in sooner than later.

Choosing the players is a very difficult job. It's a mix of looking at the entire landscape of MUT, identifying what positions need strengthening and what players are due for another item. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve or if you've identified any blind spots we might currently have, I'm certainly open to those.

Q:What is the idea behind forcing people to do all 6 milestone solos on Sundays? I almost never do milestone player sets that don't require turnover elite badges, and it seems like the Saturday solos are guaranteed to give golds now (presumably to counter out the balance of giving away a lot of elites that can be turned into golds). Just let me pick.

A:So the real feedback here is that you would like Sunday's solo's to not be gated by the previous solo, right? If so, I'm open to that. Our intent with Milestones was to give you something new to do every day and then pay off that engagement by upgrading items that you may currently have. Opening up Sundays to select which solos you want to play doesn't compromise that goal IMO.

Q:How do you guys feel about farm teams? As in we use other accounts to play solos for more rewards? Is that permitted in MUT and what would you do to make sure it doesn't appear to be violating EA's TOS?

A:We are looking at doing things in the future that remove the incentive to use a second or third (etc.) account. Farming makes the game design of MUT really tough to keep “fair”.

From time to time we release experiences that allow players to earn something faster than normal. They are essentially a reward for our users for engaging in MUT, or are the central balance point for a seasonal program.

Having some folks chose to claim that reward more than once forces us to make a decision…do we lower the reward for the users who do the “normal” case of doing it once to make room for these multiple users? Personally, I don’t like that doing that. All of that plays in. The thing I will say is that we think of multiple accounts as all separate accounts, so if they are doing something that would be a violation in independent accounts, it is a potential violation in all cases.

Q:Would you consider releasing a promo that is voted by the community like Superlatives last year and the Futties in FIFA?

A:I really enjoyed the Superlatives promo last year. Anything that gets the Community involved is a good thing. While we may have run out of our runway for this year, I would really hope we find a way to do something in this manner for next year.

Q:Will there be an onto the next solo option next year like this year's Restart solo?

A:No. We understand this is a huge community request and we have done some technical investigations to gauge how difficult this would be too implement. One thing I can say definitively is that this would take a massive effort and still likely come with some limitations. For instance, would you be OK if the same players, uniforms, stadium, and opponent were used in every Solo? And would you be OK if literally nothing else was improved or added onto MUT in exchange for "advance to next solo"? Those are the kinds of questions we have to ask ourselves and at this point, we're deciding to prioritize other features instead. I’m really excited for the opportunity to talk about those and I hope you feel like we made the right decision!

That said, your point is essentially calling out that our load times getting into game aren't quick. We will continue optimizing where we can and striving to make the content that you play once you load in worth the wait.

Q:We all know EA has Gamechangers but has EA ever thought about having a group panel for Feedback during the season?

A:Well, we already have something, but we are always looking to improve/revitalize it. The way console games work, it is extremely hard to have an ongoing “playtest” program in the traditional sense…it is just harder to share content before it gets to the general public and get a chance for meaningful feedback unlike PC games that can maintain a beta environment much more effectively. But it is an area where we are trying to get better.

Q:What is the possibility of us getting multi card trades with coins as an option on the trade block? I think that would fully eliminate scams.

A:Ok, I’m NOT going to answer that question, but let’s talk about Trades. I am going to tell you what we are talking about for next year to get it out there, because I think it is going to drive some discussion and frankly I’d rather have it with this community first. I can’t promise we will get to all of the questions and feedback this might cause, but I promise I’ll read them and we can talk more on this in the coming months.

First, some history and some facts:

• Other Ultimate Teams got rid of trades a long time ago because the feature is very hard to protect from misuse. There is a team that watches out for exploits and the biggest thing we could do to make their job easier is to eliminate trades to align with the other teams.

• Our internal tracking shows that the vast vast majority of trades (80%-90% in a typical week) are “bad” (executed as part of an exploit).

• As you may have noticed from the outside looking in, Trades was almost removed last year, and would have been had we not discovered some messaging that committed to it being available at launch.

With that in mind, we are going to take one more try to keep this feature, as there are some cases that we’d like to protect. Here is my list…feel free to call out other cases that we should be trying to protect if you think I’m missing any.

• Two users who are trying to do an actual trade because they each have a player or item that the other user wants.

• Loaning a player to another user to try out, with the intent that it is returned.

• Giveaways from approved streamers/content creators. So, how do we keep these cases and cut down on the other problems with trades? How about this:

• Traded items become non-auctionable (but still tradable, collectible, and discardable) – If users want to trade players to make their team better, they can do that.

• Items traded back to their original owner become auctionable again – I wanted to try out a player, so you traded it to me, and then I traded it back.

• Approved accounts can trade without the item becoming non-aucitonable – approved givaways. So, discuss. Here is the thing. We know there are major concerns with the current system. The feedback I’m specifically looking for on the above system is, if we did this, are there any “fair” user cases that we should consider that are prevented?

And back to the original question, once we get the feature stabilized, we can look at next steps (like adding the ability to somehow negotiate).

I’m sure we’ll be talking about this more.

Q:Why not add more rewards towards mut 18 early to keep players going longer. The H2H player reward was also the best thing youve done this year, why not offer a different player for each division (scaling them down) since they are NAT anyway. As someone only interested in H2H it keeps it motivating. Also why not leave the rewards up. Thanks

A:There are legal reasons why we can't offer loyalty items as early as we maybe would like to. As for the H2H feedback - thanks! As for scaling rewards, I think that's certainly something we can visit next year. The challenge would be finding players to fill it out at the regular cadence we would like to. We heard plenty of feedback this year of "quality over quantity" and we would have to evaluate if this would affect that at all.

Q:Is there a set schedule for offseason programs for the rest of the year? Tuesday's are redemption set refresh and TND, Wednesday's are movers, Friday's are new programs? Saturday's ultimate legends and sundays milestones. What about consistent programs for days like mondays and Thursdays?

A:There are a few questions like this. Let me take a step back on these and say this. The same folks that build live content in M17 are the crew that get things set up for the future as well. We are very deep in design iteration and playtesting.

So, we are still committed to 17. There are more people providing content and experiences this late in the year than there have ever been. That said, we will have some regular programs each week, but we’re also spending some of our 17 time trying out new programs. If you see something you haven’t seen before (and you will see a few things like this in the coming weeks/months), drop a lot of feedback on it here, because it is us showing you what the future might look like, and we need all of the feedback we can get to polish it up.

Q:Is there any way to improve communication on content and programs, like Super Bowl reward players for instance. The community didn't realize the old players expired and no new ones replaced them. Are there going to be more Super Bowl reward players added?

A:I’m positive that there are a lot of ways we can improve on content messaging. Some of the UT programs can be really complex (let’s be honest, more complex than is ideal or even fun). Going forward, we’re looking for ways to make them more straightforward, but we should help everyone out as well to understand them.

I like the videos Guru does, and am looking for ways to a lot more of that going forward. We’re also kicking around other “deeper” content overviews. Would you sign up for an email update once a week? What about deeper content hosted on the companion app?

Q:My biggest issues with mut at this point in the season are consistency and communication. We have grown to expect some kind of daily update to content and yet for 2 weeks have had none on mondays with no communication about it. How can you improve in both of those areas?

A:Like I mentioned elsewhere, this time of year is really hard on the content team…they are essentially pulling double duty. Some days are going to be lighter in terms of brand new content. One of the things we are talking about going forward is having systems that generate something to do every day even without new players/packs/etc. The “MUT Week” is a big topic right now.

Q:Have you guys thought about being able to remove cards from sets?

A:We talked about where this falls yesterday. It is a really nice quality of life improvement. I think the refunds on expiring helped a bit, but this makes sense too.

Q:Why are pack results so inconsistent?

A:Pack satisfaction is a major focus for us and we'll continue finding ways to improve it. We have some great design ideas for next year that we feel will significantly address this concern.

Q:Will we ever see different weather conditions/time of day in MUT H2H? I know playoff games now take place at night, but it'd be nice to see it taken a step further in one way or another.

A:Weather is a tricky one for me. It's more than just an aesthetic, it really impacts the gameplay. I have nightmares of hearing horror stories about how something the user had no control over impacted the result of the game. But yes I was extremely happy to get night games for the Playoffs!

Q:Will there be anymore All-Madden Super Bowl rewards coming soon?

A:Yes!

Q:I have said this many times the past 2 years. If ea wants to make madden a true esport powerhouse they need complete transparency. Tell us thresholds or remove them, tell us how you calculate ratings, tell us exactly what every stat/trait does. Put the traits in the damn game so we don't need a third party app. The most successful esport is league of legends and the devs there do things like this on the lol forums all the time, they do something like 25 patches a year and that isn't counting hotfixes that they put out usually within days of a bug, you guys sometimes wait entire dev cycles to address bugs that would be hotfixed in other games. My question is: moving forward are any of these things going to be addressed? It really sucks seeing bugs and glitches get ignored by EA who will just not address the issues publicly or will spin it like every broadcast of a turny with a swerver . It's so obvious the casters don't want to mention things like the swerve or how absurd it is when guys grab balls in 1v4 coverage to win 50k.

A:Zero excuses here. We always need to try to do better.

eSports is the ultimate crucible to pressure test gameplay. It will force us to keep getting better. Nobody wants that more than Rex.

But, I promise you that we are trying. More total patches, more bugs fixed, more content released. But as we go faster, we see places where we still want to continue to improve. And the standard you hold us to is a good one, and it is a bar that I know I like to look at as well.

We did 11 patches this past year, which I would bet is competitive with the most of any console game. But we are trying to figure out how to plan for more, and to move the ability to make changes from patching into something faster.

In terms of ratings/formula transparency, it is definitely a topic of discussion here. Keep pushing us on it.

Q:Per Adam Schefter, Martavis Bryant was just reinstated. How soon can we expect to see him in MUT?

A:Interesting! We'll have to check with our partners and see if we're allowed to.

Q:I was wondering, this being a good place to get player feedback, any possibilty of getting more sessions with you guys?

We both love this mode and want to see it grow and become even better, this would be a great way for both parties to contribute.

A:So far I'm really enjoying the experience. I'm totally down for more of these. But please know that we always have multiple people combing social channels as we know how important it is to get feedback directly from passionate community members.

Q:Are there any plans to improve the rewards for winning Draft Champions (outside of Tuesdays)? Last year the reward was a decent amount of quicksell items and a Legends pack. Two Pro Packs were cool in the beginning of the year but it doesn't seem to be worth the effort anymore.

A:Probably nothing for this year but we know getting the rewards right for all of our various modes is extremely important. We also know that putting unique rewards outside of MUT-proper is a tricky situation. One of the things that really sticks out for me this year was "I don't want to be forced to play without my ULTIMATE team". TND crosses that line and we have to decide if we're cool with that. Out of curiosity, would you play Draft Champions if not for the TND rewards?

Q:How difficult is it to update player models after the game has already been released? One thing that was really disappointing was that Jay Ajayi had a 95 overall card, yet his model was still not updated to include his correct hair style. I know this is not the only example such as Derrick Henry's first couple of cards having the incorrect number, players skin tone in game not matching their real color, etc. Last AMA you said that making each card feel special was one of your main goals, and having the correct models for players would go a long way in achieving that.

A:You aren't wrong...look and feel is really important and we're talking about it.

Q:Have you guys ever considered adding in a MUT-Relevent Twitter feed into the game for updates concerning programs or fixes? One recent example would be the fixes signiture and motivator eggs where many users clung to their phones waiting for updates when they could've been playing the game

A:I'm a small fan of Twitter ;) Totally picking up what your putting down here. I don't know if we can implement a live Twitter feed into the game, but utilizing the live update panels in a more dynamic way to keep you guys updated is always being improved upon.

Q:Can you bring back collected versions of cards like there was in MUT13? I liked that even after I completed a set I could still get some value out of the players just based on the item's attributes and not set value. This could help out some players who are just looking to use a card on their team and not use it for a set.

A:Yes, this is absolutely something I'm fighting to bring back.

Q:Are there any plans for non-seasons friendly h2h games? It'd just be a single game vs. anyone else looking to do the same, not just people on my friends list. I found the lack of this feature a bit weird. Sometimes I just want to play h2h without any stakes and right now I can only do that with people I have on my friends list.

A:Interesting. I wouldn't think there's a large audience for this. I may be wrong.

Q:Why no fix for the disconnection and dashboard glitch?

A:It's the number 1 thing Matt Marcou and the competitive gaming team are chasing. We had something for a little bit last year and that unfortunately generated some false-positives. I'm confident they will find a way to address this the right way.

Q:Do you guys feel like the daily login set was a success or not? I personally think there should be better rewards for the players that actually play the game (Head2Head, solos, Auction house, etc.), rather than just logging in, buying your pack from the store and then exiting the game.

A:Yes (mostly yes), and no, for the reason you said.

We should encourage players to come back, and reward them for it. But in general it is good if they get to play something fun for a nice reward when they come back.

Q:Pretty easy question here, can we expect to see the return of throwback cards this year?

A:I'll talk with the team and see if there's an opportunity to drop a few later this year.

Q:Any chance we see customizable stadiums/uniforms? Part of the allure of team-building modes in video games is the sense of full control, and we had that in madden 12. Why did it go away, and will we ever get it again???

A:There's no denying MUT is lacking the robust customization suite that other games offer. We understand that and have to find a way to close the gap.

Q:Can you please explain why information that apparently affects gameplay--e.g. weight, player traits--is absent from the backs of cards in MUT? And similarly, why are so many stats not viewable in Draft Champions? Thanks.

A:Sure. Most of it is just legacy MUT information that could clearly get better. We added height before. We can talk with Rex and the team about other info to add.

As for DC, that was intentional to keep the drafting process a little more straightforward and (in theory) reward power users who already had the info.

Q:I miss way back in MUT12 when we would get coins back for cards we entered into a set (like the quicksell value) upon adding them in. We'd also get coins for completing every player set + the reward card (Florida Tebow is still the GOAT).

Has there been any discussion on bringing this back? I used to be all about doing player sets back then, but lately with things like promo Master sets, I find myself wanting to do them less and less.

A:Yeah, here is why we changed. Clarity. The value of the "discard" which is what you got when you added something to the set, was added to the reward...while not always in coins, in value payed out. It is just a lot easier to understand the value proposition of the set for the user...no hidden math.

We aren't going to bring that back, but I think we can to do a lot better at making our sets fun.

Q:Any plans on giving out more Easter Bunnies?

A:You're safe to quick sell or use in other sets my dude!

Q:How come some players, like Glover Quin, have 6 cards and other players, like Michael Floyd, only have 2? Who decideds which players are getting new cards? I would rather see more players getting cards than the same players over and over again.

A:We try do chose players that people find interesting. But that is obviously subjective....I'm sure there are some choices that people look at and wish we made other choices. Tell us about it when you don't like it (or when you do).

Q:Has a custom user card ever been discussed before? When we start an ultimate team we get to choose a captain and team, so would it ever be possible that the captain could ever possibly be a kind of custom card where we choose our position and other information kind of like in CFM? Starting out at a low overall and being able to upgrade this card over the course of the year through promos/solos/objectives?

A:We have had internal discussions about created players and if they have a place in MUT. My personal opinion is that they don't. However, it's not solely up to me. I can say fairly confidently that if we were to ever go down this road, that created player would NOT be available in 1v1 head-to-head. I'm really curious to hear what everyone else has to say on the topic!

Q:Is position flexibility coming to 18? I would love to have Von as a 4-3 end, but that would take away his chem boosts. Is there anyway I can do that in MUT 18 without losing the chem boosts? I personally would love it if you guys would make it so that you'd have pass rushers, or EDGE players instead of DE/OLB so that it would open up position flexibility. Same goes for ILBs and OLBs in 4-3. Someone like Zach Brown would be a ILB for a 3-4 team, but would be a WILL, or ROLB in a 4-3.

A:I've heard the idea of a Chem Ability that would allow players to play OOP and still keep their Chem's in tact. We don't have anything like that built now but would be a way we could make players who fit this criteria feel special.

Q:what's the process for making the MUT base set cards? Because there are definitely players that made NFL rosters after preseason that don't even have cards in MUT. is it because they aren't part of the NFLPA? or there's just too many players to keep track of everyone who makes an NFL roster?