Madden NFL 21 has been met with an overwhelmingly negative reaction from fans and critics alike. The game holds the worst Metacritic score of the franchise's long history and fans have regularly trended negative hashtags on Twitter. One of the bigger problems people have with the game is a complete lack of meaningful changes to franchise mode. Today, the team announced the first of three updates to the mode. While it doesn't solve everything, it does add a few highly-requested features.

These changes to franchise mode for Madden 21 definitely qualify as small. It's unlikely that they will completely change your mind on the mode. That said, they are important as the team hopefully adds more substantial changes over the course of the game cycle. First up, the team is giving players the ability to customize X-Factor and Superstar abilities. Importantly, you'll be able to edit players in both offline and online franchises. Of course, the player has to unlock the ability first, but it's a solid step.

The team is also finally re-implementing important sections of the player career stats card. For example, currently, you cannot see what teams a player played for throughout their career. That, along with a host of other stats, is making a comeback.

EA Sports is also tuning development trait regression to help keep players balanced over the course of a franchise. Plus, they're providing a visual playoff bracket to make it easier to see the playoff picture during a season.

Again, these aren't massive changes, but they are necessary. Hopefully, this November update signals a commitment to giving players what they need for a deeper franchise mode. Of course, it doesn't fix the gameplay, but that's another story.

Madden NFL 21 is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.