Madden NFL 25 Features and Details Revealed, Reveal Trailer June 18

EA unveiled the first look at Madden 25 today via its feature set and gave a high-level look with its first Gridiron Notes of the year while also mentioning that the full reveal trailer has now been pushed to June 18.

In comparison to something like EA Sports College Football 25 and the very well received gameplay Gridiron Notes, Madden went broad with its first Gridiron Notes of the year. This comes with the positives of getting a better idea of what’s being pushed the most, but it comes with the downside of being a little too full of what comes off as marketing speak. There’s other outlets that have written about what they got to play of Madden 25 (the same event where folks played EA Sports College Football 25) that we’ll dig through for interesting notes in future articles, but let’s poke at what was announced by EA.

First off, the launch trailer that was supposed to hit this week has been pushed to June 18. In addition, beta codes have been rolling out as of today, so it does still appear that is on track to begin this week into the weekend. I specifically mention the beta because my biggest “complaint” from this first Gridiron Notes is that a lot of the gameplay changes sound good but are also things we’ve heard far too many times at this point. In other words, hopefully the beta provides a better understanding of how these gameplay changes are working out so far.

Madden 25 Gameplay Improvements

That said, I want to be specific in my “complaints” about gameplay by stating they have their heart in the right place, but it’s just one of those “prove it” moments on the gameplay front. This begins with their most touted gameplay feature this year marketed as BOOM Tech.

In Madden NFL 23, the team introduced the FieldSENSE animation-branching system to deliver on control, rather than outcomes that feel more scripted or pre-determined. This year in Madden NFL 25, that vision is being accelerated with the introduction of BOOM Tech, our next gameplay innovation that has been over two years in the making.

EA breaks this down into physics-based tackling, a reloaded Hit Stick, and improved ball carrier control. However, these three sub-groups are so full of marketing speak/buzzwords it’s a little hard to really parse what the main goal is to some extent. In addition, I don’t need to tell a lot of you how many times we’ve heard about physics-based tackling in Madden and how EA wants the experience to feel more “organic” or whatever, but almost all of you likely know that one of the biggest points a lot of fans make is how much tackles and interactions feel very much the same and animation-driven each year.

With the Hit Stick, the idea seems to be about timing and accuracy of how you flick the stick being more important for the animations that play out. This seems like a logical upgrade, but it has been some years since the Hit Stick felt like it mattered in terms of forcing fumbles and truly creating “game changing” plays. You can obviously get into arcade-like situations quickly if you let this spiral out of control, and we already have more big hits to break up catches over the middle and such in Madden than exists in the real NFL now, but this is intriguing to some extent.

And with the ball-carrier control, this almost seems more like how you will be able to react to Hit Stick moments to stay on your feet. It’s not clear what “control” means to counter the Hit Stick as of now, but basically it seems like a sort of “counter to the counter” mechanic where you will be able to react to sloppy Hit Stick attempts and punish the defense.

There’s no real pessimism intended on my end as I think their heart is in the right place talking about these things at a high level, so I think we’re all just hoping this actually translates to the field. What did come off as more of a general positive to me was the “foundational football” section.

Core gameplay is back with the newest iteration of FieldSENSE™; get increased control across key areas including innovated passing, catching, blocking, and coverages, along with advanced ball carrier mechanics for more dynamic and realistic playmaking. New playbooks capture the game’s most inventive and explosive plays to align with today’s NFL play styles for a wider variety of viable game plans and more strategy in all three phases. Authentic pre-snap and post-play animations deliver a whole new level of authenticity and immersion, while all-new intelligent ball carrier mechanics provide explosive movement and more control between downs.

We don’t know about the AI aspect of this and whether the Real Time Coaching concept is making it from EA Sports College Football 25 to Madden 25, but more playbooks and more signature style are desperately needed in Madden. EA has dabbled in signature style with specific running styles and throwing animations, but players looking and feeling different is what helped push NBA 2K to a new level years ago, and it’s something that’s never quite been figured out for an EA football game.

On top of that, we desperately need more plays and playbooks. There is no specific mention of defensive playbooks here, which is concerning because we basically got zero defensive playbook changes last year, but I’m going to hope that playbook updates are impacting both sides of the ball.

In the end, the beta is going to illuminate things on the gameplay front far more than anything else, so I think we’ll have more clarity as soon as next week once folks have had a weekend to dig into things.

Madden 25 Franchise Mode Updates

I won’t post all the bullet points here (and some of the highlights are things we’ve heard many times before), but the most exciting things are the introduction of Team Builder, a deeper NFL Draft presentation, and crossplay coming to online franchise mode at launch. There’s some of the usual mentions about better team management by the AI and the like, but we’ll just have to see for ourselves on that sort of stuff. EA has sort of lost the right to promise that stuff and have us believe it without testing it out ourselves.

Either way, the NFL Draft presentation sounds great:

NFL Draft Night in Franchise is more authentic than ever with a rebuilt environment, fresh player fits, iconic moments, a draft prospect board that’s easier to navigate, and real-time draft grades. See inside team war rooms and green rooms as the night progresses, then meet Roger Goodell on a new NFL Draft stage in a fresh fit that suits you.

This is the sort of stuff we’ve all been begging for, and it’s truly important if you want more people caring about franchise mode year to year. There are also mentions about updates to news stories for important games each week and managing personalities through more of the dynamic storylines, but this would be an area where I’m not expecting the world as of yet. If EA can first start making the big moments like the NFL Draft, the start of free agency, and blockbuster trades/signings feel really important, then there will be more hope for making the rest of the mode feel “alive” through every week of a franchise mode.

Madden’s biggest presentation flaw in franchise mode is it feels like you’re in a silo not in a 32-team league with 31 other franchises competing against you. While things like the news stories and storylines are largely uninteresting right now, it does not mean they have to be that way forever. There’s always hope EA can figure out ways to make this stuff sing and truly make you feel like you’re both managing a diverse room of personalities on your team and also always on the hunt for how to clown all the other teams around you by feeling like you pulled one over on them in the draft, with a smart game plan on Sunday, or by plucking one of their top players in free agency.

Best Of The Rest

We’re now going to have three commentary teams, with Mike Tirico and Greg Olsen making up one new team, and then Brock Huard and Kate Scott making up the other new team. They will join Charles Davis and Brandon Gaudin as options in the booth.

We are allegedly going to get regularly updated team playbooks this year with live updates. I am hoping for the best here, but I believe this has been promised before and then it sort of ends of fizzling out soon after launch. This time around, maybe there is a better pipeline in place to actually get these updates out more often, but it does seem like these updates will only be in Ultimate Team (and maybe online head to head) by how it’s phrased in the Gridiron Notes.

It also seems like the old is new again for ranked and Ultimate Team where we’re getting more divisions once again, and the matchmaking system is being tweaked to also include the “playstyle” you like going against. However, I am not sure what “playstyle” means in this context.

Experience improved online games through enhancements to the Madden NFL 25 matchmaking system. Based on extensive data and research into what kinds of matchups players enjoy the most, several new factors will be considered when matching with opponents, including your current division and playstyle.

All in all, it’s been a bit of a stop-and-start rollout for Madden 25 with things feeling simultaneously a bit rushed and unclear while at the same time needing to delay reveals until later dates. I don’t think that’s any reason to be concerned about the game as of now, it might just be EA getting used to launching two football games again, but we’re hoping we get deep dives sooner than later on things like franchise mode, presentation, and gameplay.