Significant steps have been taken for Madden franchise-mode fans.
It’s been four years since I started the #FixMaddenFranchise hashtag on what used to be Twitter. I tagged every creator I thought had a strong voice in the community.
While the improvements have seemed incremental up to this point, Madden 25 appears to be the first year we’ll see the changes I and many hardcore franchise modes have been hoping to enjoy.
On Wednesday, EA released the trailer and deep dive blog for Madden 25’s franchise mode and presentation updates, and the changes are exciting.
You can read the full blog here, but I will focus on two critical areas of improvement: immersion and customization. You can see hints of both the trailer below and the complete breakdown from EA.
Immersion
EA is finally recognizing the importance of adding immersive concepts to franchise mode. The ideal franchise mode in sports games should have roguelike elements that incorporate role-playing, risk-reward, if-then, and permadeath concepts within the sports realm.
It feels like we’re moving in that direction as we see the evolution of the player-coach and coach-media conversations in Madden 25. I like everything I’ve seen along these lines, including the larger, modern use of text in the conversation screens.
This take on a conversation engine is an excellent use of screen real estate, and it’s also an intelligent way to communicate with a new generation of football gamers who are used to consuming text in similar formats.
Here is one excerpt from the blog that deals directly with Breakout Storylines in franchise mode:
“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.”
In Madden 25, the system is designed for players and others to remember what you’ve committed to, and you’ll be held accountable for the promises you don’t keep.
Therein lies the potential for a permadeath implementation. Did your decision lead to a player leaving in free agency, demanding a trade, or simply underperforming because of a damage in morale.
From what I’ve read and heard from EA’s developers, it sounds like all those things are possible based on the in-game conversations you can have with players. What I’m wondering about and hoping for is the sort of decision-making elements that can lead to a player being injured for a more extended period based on your decision not to rest a player who is banged up or when you don’t pull a player at a time when a game is already decided.
The framework for that is in place. We’ve all seen the screen when a player is injured, and you can allow them to play at less than 100%. My issue with that part of the game is that it has never felt impacting.
I hope that we see those choice nodes carry more consequences and upside.
Another element that will improve immersion is the inclusion of rookie and team records. When playing through a franchise mode experience, stat and award tracking is an integral piece that augments the immersion.
These awards and distinctions haven’t been tracked for years, but they will be in Madden 25. Now, let’s hope the issue with properly tracking sacks accumulated by user-controlled teams and the overemphasis on slot receivers in the league leaders is fixed.
For as long as I can remember, Madden’s presentation of the NFL Draft and Super Bowl has been pretty poor. However, that looks to be changing in Madden 25.
Having Roger Goodell in as a character model is a decent touch. Still, it’s not as impactful to users as the improved menus, visual overlays, and some increased audio presentation–which I’m not sure will be included in this year’s game.
The NFL Draft is arguably the second most significant event on the American football calendar, and EA needed to push toward making it a bigger deal in Madden. Do I think it’ll be ideal in Madden 25?
No, but I expect to see a major difference that makes the NFL Draft more enjoyable. The Super Bowl celebration has been a point of aggravation for some users in the Madden community.
It was never at the top of my list of issues, but having the same celebration animations for years was a little weird. It’s good to see more work done to improve this part of the game, including Randy Moss delivering the Super Bowl MVP trophy.
Customization
My favorite and most improved element of Madden 25’s franchise mode is its customization. Why is it so improved? Two words…or is it one?
TeamBuilder.
EA is bringing the same website-based customization tool from EA College Football 25 to Madden 25. More impressive is that users can bring 32 TeamBuilder teams into franchises.
This means you can rebrand the entire NFL with your own teams, which is excellent for large online franchise modes or hardcore customization users like me who enjoy creating players and teams as much as playing the game.
Hopefully, we won’t have increased sanctions on the level of editing we can do to existing players, and things will remain as they have been in recent Madden games. In any case, adding TeamBuilder immediately raises Madden’s customization options several levels.
I’d love to see EA expand the TeamBuilder tech to recruiting and draft classes. The next rung on the ladder should be allowing users to create their draft and recruiting classes using a website or mobile app.
Madden 25 releases on all platforms will be released on August 16, and early access will start on August 12.
