Digital Holiday Version of Madden NFL 15 Offers Ultimate Team Extras

EA Sports today released a special “Holiday Edition” of Madden NFL 15 in the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store. Available for Xbox One, PS4, and PS3 until January 12 the game is being offered for $60 and includes $20 in Ultimate Team packs and a “Ghost of Madden’s Past Pack” which will include Dan Marino, Ray Lewis, and Emmitt Smith.

That would certainly be a strong way to start a new team in the mode. However as @ThatSportsGamer pointed out on the most recent Hangout, EA has added so much to Ultimate Team in Madden since release that anyone starting now will feel overwhelmed and be so far behind everyone else that they’ll never be able to catch up and compete on an even playing field. Well that is without spending a lot of money anyway.

The bigger problem though is that there just isn’t enough value here. Madden was available for $30 to anyone who wanted it for most of the last week. Offering it here for $60, and as digital meaning it can’t be resold later, makes it a really tough sell. It’s not just $30 more – when taking that into account it’s more like $45 more and it can’t even be given as a gift.