Madden NFL 23 Closed Beta Extended to June 27 - Here Are Some Community Impressions

EA officially extended the Madden NFL 23 closed beta until 12 PM ET on June 27. The team is still sending out codes to random players that previously registered. For those that didn’t sign up the Madden Twitter account has been sending them out on occasion.

Available now in the Madden NFL 23 Closed Beta:

🏈 Superstar KO
🏈 The Yard
🏈 Practice Mode

SSKO and The Yard will be available until June 20th.

Practice Mode will be available until the end of the Closed Beta!

— MaddenNFLDirect (@MaddenNFLDirect) June 17, 2022

We posted our Madden NFL 23 closed beta impressions here and the community has been busy doing the same in our Forums. We’ve highlighted some of their thoughts below.

• This game after 1 1/2 games, physics wise, gives me cleaned up Madden 13 vibes without all the silliness. Players do fall over each other but it’s in a much cleaner fashion. I have seen multiple player tackles, one example is where Ezekiel Elliott was running, got stood up by one defender, that defender was holding his legs and another defender came and pushed him down to the ground once his momentum had stopped. –jpdavis82
• DB coverage seems much better so far. The A.I. has swatted a lot of my passes down. Offensive and Defensive line play feels better as well. I don’t feel like I’m glued to the O lineman when I’m rushing the QB. The A.I. QB seems to be making some good decisions with the ball. –JMD
• AM defaults lost 21-17 (me Bills) vs Jets. I really love the pressure a good DL can put on your now. I can roll out on M22 with Josh Allen to buy time, but in the M23 beta more than not I’m hounded. The WR/DB interactions are so much better and it does appear to me that DB’s are much smarter and cover the field much better. –MizzouRah
• Player models are the best they have been in this series. Still room for improvement but a nice step up. –49UNCFan

• The A.I. defense is kicking my butt. I can’t play them like I always could in the past. they are smart ,they are quick to the ball, they seem to learn my favorite plays and shut me down. For the first time for me playing madden I have had to use plays I’ve never gone to before to keep drives alive , and at 2-4 I haven’t been very successful and I love it!!!!! –JMD
• Ok guys …… shout out to equipment guru this year. …. This is not …… I’ll repeat …. This is not that madden you’ve seen in the past in regards to player models . The players are all overhauled. I’ll go even as far to say these are the best player models of any sports game I’ve played . It’s nice to see the 6 different areas where you can place the hand towel now. The games graphics are polished and are better than last year due to better lighting. –Brooke2011
• DB, WR, ball interact points are completely separated and not garbled into some pre determined 3 way animation. If you user control a DB and misplay the ball the WR will catch it and leave you in the dust. I had a close replay of a contested catch, as the ball got to the TE’s hands it didn’t do that strange warp from years past where the ball turns at the last second to fit the receivers hands, instead it tipped off his pinky, then rotated again as Ramsey got a finger on it and it fluttered to the ground. Hard to explain, but again it’s never been in Madden before. –reverend_heat
• Overall, this is the best running the game has ever had and I played a ton of M21 and M22. I think this might be some of the most fluid and responsive running in any sports title. It’s that good. CPU running back is also running for purpose now, they have a goal and run for it, feels awesome. –TheBleedingRed21
• Pass Defense – pass defense is good for the most part, still some DB movement wonkyness at times in man to man when the receiver reaches the top of their route. For example, one time Travon Diggs was in his back peddle, the receiver does a out route, instead of jumping the out route (Diggs still in back peddle looking at the QB) he does a 360 turn for some reason allowing the receiver to be open for the catch. –Americas Team
• Also, the head tracking by all players is vastly improved, I took a kickoff back for a TD up the middle of the field and when I cleared the last defender the ball carrier quickly looked over both shoulders, it looked like he was checking to make sure nobody was close to him like happens sometimes when a ball carrier breaks into the wide open in real life. Also had a deep throw to Diggs down the sideline, the safety switched between tracking the ball and looking at Diggs as he got closer, he jumped at the last second and knocked the pass away just before it reached Diggs and the CB. –reverend_heat

• I always user edge rushers and I’m finding their penetration to be on a realistic level based on ratings. Myles Garrett is a monster. He doesn’t beat the RT every time, but he makes him work. I seem to get in the backfield either a bit late most of the time, which to me is realistic, or I get a sack here and there. I’m not really getting multiple sacks a game. Which again, is realistic. Most I’ve had with an edge is two in a game. I feel like that’s acceptable. I’m sure that will vary in both ways though depending on tackle ratings. –PVarck31
• The WR/DB interactions remind me of an evolution of the ps2 gameplay. Nothing seems attached or tethered. Saw some pretty cool stuff play out. Had a WR go up for a catch, the safety broke up the play then the trailing DB added an additional hit. Looked pretty cool and totally seem less. –SageInfinite
• coverage is better. Taking match out of default defensive play calling was a good move. I wish they could get man to match coverage logic right but so far they haven’t. So this helps there to be less blown coverages. Also way more than you would think don’t actually know how match coverage works and blow a lot of coverages because they actually mess it up. The option to use match is still there so that’s good. –charter04
• Played Chiefs at Washington and saw my first real problem with the game. 4th quarter ended with a 17-17 tie ,into O.T. we go. I got the ball first and had to punt. Commanders (hate that name) drove down and their QB threw a beautiful pass to the corner of the end zone. The WR caught it but his left foot was out of bounds. The booth reviewed it and I thought cool I haven’t lost this one yet. The problem the call on the field stands!!! They called it a TD. This is one thing they just can’t get right , if there is going to be a challenge/review system , that system needs to work. The replay clearly shows the foot landing out of bounds but the wrong call was made. –JMD

• – I think there’s a bit more balance around breaking the pocket with quarterbacks. Pocket quarterbacks aren’t statues in the pocket and have a bit more burst, but running quarterbacks also can’t break the pocket at will. I think this is a combination of the tackles generally setting deeper landmarks in pass protection and also more pronounced acceleration animations for QBs leaving the pocket. Additionally I noticed running QBs breaking far more tackles while escaping the pocket, which naturally slows them down but also makes the game feel more alive (and additionally might make the Anchored Extender ability actually useful?). –CM Hooe
• Defense is more fun. Not a revamp or overhaul, but getting off the blocks are smoother. Also, had my cb covering a drag stop mid route, to jump and pick off a throw to a curl route he was in the path off. Beautiful is all I can say. –GoJags904
• Definitely seeing too many tipped catches (mainly interceptions). Seeing some good results overall with some slider tweaks on all madden, hopefully sliders will affect the full game like they seem to be doing on the beta. –TheBleedingRed21
• Man this Beta is aging like fine wine. Spectating, I see different things that I wouldn’t while playing. The lack of canned animations just makes the overall play so much better. For example, on screens, because runners don’t get sucked into animations, you see defenders that are trailing whiff realistically on tackles….they be ALMOST there but just can’t catch up and end up getting a face full of grass. The QB’s definitely put the ball in different spots. There is also variety in QB play. –TarHeelPhenom
• I really hope defense doesn’t get nerfed. For the first time it feels like you can have a swarming defense in madden that gets 11 hats to the football. Seeing defenders stand up ball carrier then other defenders coming in with the peanut punch is a thing of beauty. I know the defense will get nerfed, at least a little bit, to appease a certain crowd but this beta defense has been very refreshing. –SolidSquid