I know, it's just after buying about 15 years worth in a row (starting with '92 for genesis), it got crappy. It sucks that they take the online part off after 2 years, and rosters could be updated in like 2 seconds if they wanted it to. (and take like two employees a couple of days)
It's a cheap reason to get people to buy a game with only a few tweaks (although 10-11 was better in this respect) and pay 60 bucks for.
For most years, while there are changes, the biggest change, are the roster updates.
Plus they took away the pc option, so now they can use the same engine on the consoles for 10 years straight. It's a racket, and the nfl is a co-conspirator. Although it is just a game.
But to me, if the console is still active, the game should still be playable online. If on the pc, the game should have an option for the player to host matches, if EA doesn't want to spend the absurdly low coin to keep hosting it. (remember it is a company that has access to debt markets, with huge revenues....and since they don't update the old games...and they already paid for the old servers, they just need to hire someone to make sure they are running, pay the bandwidth (not much), and the electricity to run them.
I used to be a big madden fan, but I just can't get into it as much given how idiotic EA has run the franchise into the ground, and uses cheap gimmicks and pulls gameplay out from under their fanbase to strongarm them into buying madden 07 part 6. With the pc version, at least you could download updated rosters from 3rd parties.
But I don't begrudge someone for still buying it, and again I'm not against buying it, I'm just not going to buy it for full price on release date like I used to every year. Have fun though