Madden NFL 25 Franchise and Presentation Deep Dive Notes Released
EA has a new iteration of its best-selling Madden series set to be released in August, but before that happens, the publisher wants players to know there’s new stuff incoming for the football sim. This time around, EA has released the Madden NFL 25 franchise and presentation deep dive video and even the notes associated with it.
Players can expect to see the new features and updates coming to the game’s Franchise Mode which includes Team Builder, Franchise Central, the NFL Draft Night experience and more.
Madden NFL 25 focuses on three main pillars: Immersion, Customization, and Depth and Core improvements, and you can read on to know more about each.
Immersion
Manage Personalities Through Dynamic Storylines
In Madden NFL 25 you’ll craft your franchise story through more than 70 brand new dynamic storylines, making you really FEEL as if you’re running an NFL team. Players will remember what you say and the promises you make, and these storylines won’t just take place over a single game – they can span entire seasons.
Breakout Storylines
In Madden NFL 25, we’ve completely revamped our breakout storylines and rebuilt each one from the ground up. In doing so, we wanted to ensure that there was more variety, freedom, and more risk and reward when playing through these storylines. Now when you encounter a breakout storyline in franchise, there will be a number of different paths and outcomes to experience that can be positive or negative, last one week or several, and some that can even earn a player significantly more than just a development upgrade. One of the paths you can go down includes talking with your offensive or defensive coordinator before the game on how to utilize the breakout player with the ability to choose his goal for the week. Following the game, there will also be a slim chance for a double or nothing opportunity where the storyline will extend a week further. That gives the player the opportunity to either double down and earn yet another development upgrade or redeem themselves with a second chance to earn the upgrade.
Experience The New NFL Draft Night
Your authentic Draft Night experience starts when Roger Goodell takes the stage. The draft environment is dynamic, with the Draft Board updating in real-time. After selections are made, you’ll witness the iconic moment of your draft pick walking across the stage, holding up their new jersey or receiving the life-changing call from home. And yes, they’re dressed in sharp suits, not uniforms, adding to the realism. There’s a brand-new prospect board that makes drafting players easier and more intuitive than ever before, while draft grades give you immediate feedback on your picks.
Prospect Hub
To reduce friction in the scouting and drafting process, we’ve completely redesigned the prospect hub in Madden NFL 25. Previously, in order to see a prospect’s athletic grades or physical measurables, you would have to go all the way into the player card. This year, we’ve brought all prospect information forward into a more familiar spreadsheet format and you’ll now be able to view and sort all prospects by their region, attributes, physical grades, as well as both Combine and Pro Day data. Whether you’re searching for a Wide Receiver that ran the fastest 40-Yard Dash or a cornerback that has the best Man Coverage grade, you can do that quickly and efficiently, making the scouting and drafting process a more seamless experience.
Franchise Central: Your New Home Base in Franchise
Franchise Mode has found a new home base. Welcome to Franchise Central, where you’ll have all of the key information you need at your fingertips, while starting your league and selecting your team has never been easier.
The league creation flow has been updated to make the selection of your league type and roster clearer, and the team select screen now provides expanded information about rankings, top players, and rosters.
One of our favorite additions is the new personal message system. It delivers smart suggestions from characters within your organization, offering suggestions on players you should target that are on the trade block, free agent signing suggestions, injury updates and more. We’ve added a new Top Stories section as well, delivering breaking news, including stories that are more visual and instant reactions to choices you make during the new dynamic storylines. We also focus Top Stories on season matchups, game recaps and player performance narratives that showcase the worldbuilding in your league every week. Franchise Central also provides easy access to standings and matchups, all from your new home base, while in multi-user Connected Franchises, other people in your league will be able to more readily see your decisions and activity.
Customize and Build a Powerhouse with Team Builder
In Madden NFL 25 you’re able to design your own team from the ground up using the suite of customization tools available on the Team Builder website.
- Create + upload your own logos
- Personalize:
- Uniforms (Home, Away, Alternate)
- Helmets
- Stadium
- On-field logos
- Build your rosters
- Option to create every player if you’d like to!
You can import up to 32 Team Builder teams into a Franchise.
Team Builder content can be used in Franchise mode on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC versions. Internet connection & EA account required. Applicable platform account may be required. Age restrictions may apply.
Take Advantage of Core Depth Improvements
Team and Rookie Records
Whether it’s the history you’re making or the history you’re rewriting, it’s a massive part of the franchise story. Madden NFL 25 features over 1400 new records to be broken within franchise mode. Previously, there were only records across the entire NFL for Career, Season and Game. Now every NFL team will have their own specific game, season and career records specific to them and in addition will also have rookie game and rookie season awards as well.
Roster AI and Progression
Refined player progression ensures that older players regress physically as you would expect, while younger stars receive more opportunities to make an impact in the league early in their careers. You’ll no longer see Derrick Henry get faster at 31 or 32 years old. And if your young QB plays like CJ Stroud did last year, he’ll certainly be rewarded for it so that he has the ratings to reflect that he’s one of the most exciting young QBs of the future.
With these improvements comes a re-tuned simulation experience, impacting AI logic in Free Agency, the NFL Draft, Franchise Tags, Re-Signings and more.
Create a Coach has been expanded to include female avatars, allowing you to create coaches using female coach models in Madden for the first time.
Winning the Super Bowl is the ultimate achievement in any Franchise. The new in-game celebration experience has been refreshed with an all new impactful feel on the field.
Presentation
3D Grass and Turf
We started this year from the ground up – literally. The connection between the player and the world is the playing surface. The playing surface can take up nearly 50% of the screen, so it needs to look good. You’ll notice the 3D grass and 3D turf as soon as you jump on the sticks.
The Lab
The Lab is your new home for Practice Mode and Mini Games. Practice Mode is the most frequented environment in our game, so we owed it to you to make it as visually immersive as possible.
Gillette Stadium
Among other environment updates in Madden NFL 25, Gillette Stadium’s $250 million renovation is reflected, including their video board: the largest outdoor curved-radius screen at a sports venue in the country.
Shadows and Lighting
In Madden NFL 25, in-game stadium lighting is more accurate than ever before. You’ll notice realistic shadows on the field, making the games pop visually in a way we haven’t seen yet.
Depth of Field and Motion Blur
As an art director, images and videos are the most powerful storytelling tools. In Madden NFL 25, those tools have been refined to give you a more powerful experience on the sticks. Whether it’s intentional visual focus on a runner or all new motion blur, visual tools unleashed in Madden NFL 25 will be apparent from the first snap.
If you’re watching a car drive by and you can count the spokes on the wheels, the car isn’t moving very fast. Adding motion blur to fast-moving players in Madden NFL 25 enhances our sense of speed in-game for a more immersive experience.
Player and Coach Likeness
In Madden NFL 25, more of the NFL’s rookies and rising stars will have accurate in-game likeness at launch than ever before.
Uniforms
Last season Nike updated the uniform chassis design, and we followed suit. This season, they’re getting more polish. We tuned all 420 uniform loadouts in Madden NFL 25 through lighting conditions to make sure they look better than ever. Texans fans, your new uniforms will be in the game at launch, as well as 20+ other new uniforms unveiled this offseason.
Customize Your Superstar
Superstar creators, we heard you. In Madden NFL 25 you’ll be able to customize your Superstar with a new level of depth. You want tattoos? More custom faces? More facial hair options? We’ve got you covered.
Secondary Animations
We introduced SAPIEN technology in Madden NFL 24 to add character innovation into our technology stack. In Madden NFL 25, we’re building on it. Secondary animations encompass elements such as pads. Think about shoulder pads. For the first time, in Madden NFL 25, pads will have their own animations. Pads are no longer a part of the same network as the player avatar. Arms will move independently of the shoulder pads. Ground and gravity forces can take over. It’s all in the details. You’ll notice subtle pad shakes when players do things such as make back shoulder catches, cut on a dime or connect on a perfect hit stick.
New Look, New Feel, New Sound
Our primary goal for Madden NFL 25 was to create as many things as we could that look, feel, and sound different.
And that began with our boot flow, where an updated video leads to the Press Start screen with our cover athlete, Christian McCaffrey. The music accompanying this screen is our iconic new Madden theme song.
When you proceed to the main menu, you’ll hear a soundtrack composed of 33 songs from various genres that were curated to create a house party vibe.
We also included 34 classic tracks as stadium music, some of which we brought back from previous Madden games. Prepare for nostalgia when The Hives and their song “Tick Tick Boom” transport you back to Madden NFL 08!
It’s worth noting you can go to our Music setting and choose from our classic tracks to add them to our soundtrack.
New Commentary Teams
We’re thrilled to be introducing two new commentary teams: Mike Tirico and Greg Olsen, and Kate Scott and Brock Huard. Each team recorded 195+ hours of content and we’re going to continue adding content after launch.
Furthermore, we continue to benefit from the depth and breadth that Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis have recorded over 8 years.
For a Play Now game, the commentary team selection is random by default, but you have the option to choose.
Sounds of the NFL
On the field, we’re using 500+ new audio samples for things like exertions, grunts, tackles, and collisions at the line of scrimmage.
In the stands, our crowd audio now includes ESPN crowd recordings captured at Monday Night Football games. Additionally, we supplemented those assets with crowd audio from NFL Films.
Stories of the NFL
Our storytelling begins pregame, where we now get the perspectives of three different commentary teams. Among the visual updates are new on-field shots of NFL stars warming up accompanied by various stat banners.
We’ve expanded our storytelling when the offense takes the field by using highlight packages to set the scene as our commentators speak about a positive or negative performance by a player or team.
When you get halfway through a season in Franchise or Superstar, the storytelling expands further as you begin seeing banners about stat rankings and award projections.
Sometimes, a highlight package can tell a story all on its own! Much like an NFL broadcast, the end of the 1st and 3rd quarters are now paired with slow motion highlights and reactions from head coaches.
So you just threw for 600 yards in a single game, huh? That’s a big deal! Breaking an NFL record is a huge story, and we now show an on-field celebration with a custom banner followed by a replay of the record-breaking moment.
Defensive Team Celebrations
After a fumble or interception that ends on the field of play, you’ll see defenders begin racing toward the nearest end zone to celebrate as a team. Our mo-cap talent brought great energy to these moments!
If you return a turnover for a touchdown, you’ll still have the option to choose a celebration from the celebration wheel.
Super Bowl Outcomes
The pinnacle of any NFL season is winning the Super Bowl and we’ve changed the postgame experience to include branching outcomes.
For example, in Superstar, if you dominate the game and win the Super Bowl MVP award, your created player will be front and center raising the Lombardi trophy. But if your created player doesn’t earn the Super Bowl MVP award after a win, you’ll still be on the podium, but more in the background.
And like Josh mentioned above in the Franchise section, Roger Goodell is now the one handing over the trophy to the winning team. But if you lose the game, our branching flow means you won’t even see this part of the presentation!
Finally, the foundation of this entire sequence is our new Super Bowl theme song, with a variation that plays based on whether you won or lost the game.
Madden NFL 25 releases this August 16 on PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Check out the gameplay reveal here where we see the new tech in action.
[Source: EA]
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