[SicK NasTy]

Here is what Ian had to say about the offline franchise discussion..

To be clear...we're not being secretive on 'offline' franchise. We've just been working hard and haven't had time to talk about it. We will report more in the coming months...but to make sure expectations are clear, our franchise goals were:

1. Fix all the things that have been totally broken (progression, cap room, etc)
2. Make CPU teams actually manage their roster correctly (draft, FA, etc)
3. Make every game feel different through different presentation (and CPU AI)
4. Streamline the interface overall
5. Bring important news forward to the user (instead of burying it 10 layers deep in screens) via the Franchise Hub and via the Extra Point
6. Make scouting worth using
7. Make depth matter via ratings stretching and injuries
8. Make the draft interesting again
9. Do a bunch of other small fixes and additions.
10. Get Franchise mode online!

Donny and Josh are the guys to ask here as they own these modes and are way more qualified than I am to answer. But we really wanted to make this mode fun to play again, and make it a totally different experience while traveling around the league and playing week to week. We do that through a number of different avenues whether it is commentary, stat banners, cut scenes, or whatever. Josh made the statement at the beginning of the year about not building a house on a crumbling foundation - that analogy is 100% true...we definitely spent more time on fixing old broken stuff than adding new features...but there's no way we, in good conscience, could put out another Franchise mode with a few more bells and whistles on top while players didn't progress after a good year (for example).

I don't want to make it seem like we didn't do anything with offline franchise...we did...but I also want to make sure people aren't expecting Head Coach 09 in the game.

Any more questions, direct them to Donny.

Thoughts?