Since the announcement of Smart Delivery for the Xbox Series X, many players have been curious as to whether or not their favorite third party games will take advantage of the feature. While games like Assassin's Creed: Vallhalla will always allow their players to take advantage of the feature, EA had previously announced that it would only allow Madden NFL 21 players to use the upgrade during a small window of time. However, it now seems like EA is changing its thinking and extending that window of time.
Smart Delivery is a feature being made available on Xbox Series X. With this, players who purchase certain games on the Xbox One will automatically have them upgraded to the Series X version for no additional cost. Microsoft has stated that any first party game made by Xbox will utilize this feature, and any third party game, like Cyberpunk 2077, is welcome to use it as well.
Initially EA had announced that Madden NFL 21 would only let players use this feature if they purchased the game before Dec 31, 2020, and redeemed the upgrade by March 31, 2020. With such a short time frame, especially with the launch of a new console, many players were quite upset at this announcement. Rethinking its strategy after this backlash, EA has now announced that anyone who purchases the game and upgrades before the release of Madden NFL 22 will be able to take advantage of Smart Delivery.
This announcement came via a post on EA's Next Level site where it stated:
"Having listened to our players response we’re extending the offer all the way through our Madden 21 season up to the release of Madden NFL 22 , so players can upgrade to Madden NFL 21 on Xbox Series X whenever they first purchase their new console within that period."
This extended time frame will surely allow for more players to be able to make use of the Xbox Series X's Smart Delivery feature, essentially extending the deadline by around 6-7 months. The post also stated that players can expect more news on their games coming to next generation consoles during its EA PLAY Live event on June 11.
While Xbox Series X players can certainly rejoice from this announcement, it's still currently unknown as to whether or not the PlayStation 5 will have a feature similar to Smart Delivery. The EA Next Level post does include a line near the end that says, "We'll update with details for other platforms soon," however that could mean any number of things. It seems that players will just have to wait until EA PLAY Live to find out more.
Madden NFL 21 releases later this year on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and various other platforms.
Source: EA Next Level