Madden 25 is gearing up for a August 16 release date, and this means hyping up the various features that have been improved for this year’s game. Madden 25 franchise mode and presentation updates were on display today, and so we wanted to do our own breakdown of what’s been revealed.
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But before I jump into some of my thoughts, I do want to mention that I talked a little about what would make Madden 25 presentation special earlier in the week, and I want to reiterate that there is not a “one size fits all” component to franchise mode or presentation. My focus was to point out that I think the best way to go about things like presentation is accentuate what the real sport is about, but the overall point was that it would be silly to say you can just copy another game and then have great presentation.
To me, a college football game’s presentation should be good for different reasons than an NFL game’s presentation. They both have TV-quality broadcasts when we watch on TV, but beyond the TV broadcast, the pageantry of a college game is different from the nonstop media blitz both on and off the field that highlight the NFL — not to mention the superstars who dominate the game.
For a franchise mode, a college game should really push recruiting and the transfer portal first and foremost. For an NFL game, it’s about the salary cap, the NFL Draft, and managing personalities. It’s not that you can’t create something good if you don’t do those things, but it’s undeniable that certain things make for a good GM in real life, and I would focus on those the most for a franchise mode.
Point being, I just want to be clear about what my biases might be as we get into presentation and franchise mode below.
Madden 25 Presentation And Franchise Mode Deep Dive
Storylines Get Expanded
EA kicked it off by mentioning there will be more than 70 new dynamic storylines within franchise mode, and they can be storylines that span the entire season. We’ve seen storylines in Madden before, and it’s been to middling success in terms of really feeling like they “matter” — and this looks past how mostly uninteresting they are from a presentation standpoint. That somewhat negative tone aside, the examples that were listed in the deep dive are intriguing overall.
In another storyline, reporters put you on the spot at the start of the offseason and want to know if you have a plan for the offseason. Be careful what you commit to because your players and the media will hold you to it. If you say the team will go out and make a splash in the NFL Draft, you’re going to have to answer for it if you don’t.
Ultimately what these storylines will come down to is who will you answer to for this? On a basic level, this mode boils down to certain numbers going up or down (whether that be ratings, or confidence, and so on), so my general hope here would be that the consequences are harsher for failing some of these storylines.
Even with some doubts about how some of these will play out in terms of how much they will ultimately “matter” for you and your team, I do really like this QB storyline that was mentioned:
We’re re-creating as many situations from real life as we can, so you’ll even be given the choice to sit your rookie quarterback for the entire year to develop him like Patrick Mahomes did. If you can commit to that and be patient, the reward he’ll receive at the end of his first year will set him up for success moving forward.
And it’s not that we can’t point to someone like JaMarcus Russell who sat at least most of his first season and still failed, the point is more that this makes sense from a team-building perspective. Yes, an it’s arbitrary storyline where you’re just living up to your promise, but you’re not really going to get to live in a gray zone here with this sort of stuff — you’re still ultimately going to have to pass or fail with these storylines (and you’re still playing an RPG at the end of the day).
Lastly, we did get a line about how these storylines could impact the thing that should matter the most, whether players want to be on the team or not.
These storylines will be at the forefront during intense contract extension negotiations and trade demands.
And that one line is the crucial aspect of it all to me. I am hopeful “failing” some of these storylines means players will mean you simply can’t re-sign them no matter what, or you are forced to trade them. On top of that, I would add to that comment and say the storylines that need to be there in the future involve holdouts, or the sticking point for most “real” storylines in the NFL: the salary cap.
- “When should we pay this guy?”
- “Should we pay this guy?”
- “Should we get on the QB rookie contract train now?”
- “This guy is holding out/pissed because he’s not paid commensurate with his standing in the league.”
There’s talk in the deep dive about Breakout storylines, and that’s great because progression should be more unpredictable and have more variance, but ultimately the NFL is about the salary cap. And one thing that did not come up in this deep dive was the salary cap. I’ll point to what one of my favorite posters, CM Hooe, wrote on the forums about this deep dive as it echoes some of my feelings.
My main sticking point with Madden franchise mode right now is that it doesn’t authentically replicate the economics and roster management challenges of actual NFL team building. I’m not particularly interested in playing another year of Madden franchise mode where CPU teams routinely exceed the salary cap without consequence without having to consider whether to let a player test free agency and possibly receive a compensatory draft pick in return, and without player salary negotiation logic which actually understands the market at each respective position along with the ever-rising salary cap to inform top-dollar contract demands presenting ever-growing challenges to my ability to put together a super team.
OS user CM Hooe
The roster building and salary cap questions the Niners face right now on a yearly basis are different than the ones the Dallas Cowboys face (see: what a difference Dak vs. Purdy is for how you can build a team based on their contracts). The way the Saints traditionally handle the salary cap (kicking the can down the road whenever possible) is far different than how the Bengals handle the salary cap (mostly trying to limit guarantees to a couple years). I don’t think EA has to deliver on all the intricacies and complications of the NFL CBA and salary cap and turn this into an OOTP-type game, but making hard decisions about your roster and who should be on it are what add longevity to these modes — that is something that’s true whether it’s the college or pro game — and the salary cap is the basis for most of those hard decisions.
Draft Night Gets A Glow Up
One thing that stands out more in the video EA released is the added presentation for the NFL Draft. I’ve hit on this before, but you’re not going to fix a mode that’s outdated in one year. But if you can at least update and make parts of it better year to year, you can eventually close the gap. Again, the issue for EA has been the areas they focus on maybe don’t always end up great still. I would point to how scouting was updated and really pushed as major update, and it didn’t really satisfy a lot of the audience. With the NFL Draft, this seems like a more straight forward win.
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.
These presentation updates for the NFL Draft, along with the addition of Team Builder, seem like the two most obvious ways Madden’s franchise mode will be noticeable if you haven’t played in a couple years. If the promises about how progression will work for players (plus the age curves work right for progressing and then getting worse as you age), that is going to be the most obvious win for more “hardcore” players who play the game year to year.
World-Building Matters
The last bits from the franchise mode section I want to hit on go back to another weakness Madden has struggled with for years, and that is how to make you feel invested in the league itself. You are battling with 31 other GMs and owners, but playing Madden in an offline franchise is a very isolating experience. Online franchises have built-in grudges with your buddies, but making a league feel “alive” has to be about more than just sticking it to your friends.
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.
There have been various versions of a news hub in Madden, so we’ll have to see how this goes, but this doesn’t strike me as something that’s going to make the whole NFL feel alive and have you interested in everything happening around the league. It will be useful for surfacing info for you, which is great, but it’s not likely to be a panacea that solves the general issue.
Finally, EA did have some passing remarks about the AI logic:
With these improvements comes a re-tuned simulation experience, impacting AI logic in Free Agency, the NFL Draft, Franchise Tags, Re-Signings and more.
Cool. We have to see how it works in practice, and I’d always love to hear more, but it goes back to my earlier point that the salary cap has to matter. If this sort of tuning helps the importance of the salary cap come through, then it’s a big win. If we also get AI teams actually running a better balance of run vs. pass plays, then that would be another huge fix as well.
Presentation Quick Hitters
Before getting into a little more of the meaty stuff, I do just want to quote some cool tidbits from EA:
- In Madden NFL 25, more of the NFL’s rookies and rising stars will have accurate in-game likeness at launch than ever before.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
New Commentary Teams And New Super Bowl Presentation
Sort of like the NFL Draft and Team Builder will likely be the obvious wins, adding two new commentary teams and a new Super Bowl presentation seem like they will be easy wins to point to here.
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.
As we noticed in EA Sports College Football 25, while it’s clear one team is better than the other (Rece Davis and co. are better than Fowler/Herbstreit), more voices still keeps things fresh by default. We’ll need to see how each commentary team jells in the booth, but it’s hard to see this being anything but a positive.
The same goes for the Super Bowl presentation that will now have added depth and even branching elements if you’re in Superstar mode. This along with team celebrations on defense (something we got to witness in College Football 25 as well) are all good stuff.
Give Me All The Stat Graphics
What could end up as the biggest win for presentation on a game-to-game basis in franchise mode could be a renewed focus on in-game storylines and in-game banners and packages.
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.
I actually think EA has done a very good job with their in-game graphics in franchise mode for multiple years now. They’ve looked very slick for multiple seasons, it’s just that they don’t end up surfacing enough from game to game. Some of these items about league leaders and such are not new, but if we actually get more storytelling around them in-game and week to week, that’s a big deal. It goes back to my point about being in an “alive” universe. One of the many ways you can create that feeling is by pointing out what’s actually happening around the NFL.
It’s unclear how much deeper this storytelling will go beyond stat banners, but even if it’s just a discussion about the MVP race and other things like that, it would still be a big net-positive. It just would eventually need to get to the point where we’re talking about playoff scenarios, getting in-game updates from around the league, and being more aware of the twists and turns of the game you’re playing right now.
