Madden 24 on Next Gen, despite its problems, added a few new features that made the franchise mode more immersive. EA Sports, as problematic as the company is, has put in some effort trying to improve the game.
Would I say the new changes have been better? Ultimately, it’s been a mixed bag with some good but some noticeably bad results. Even with the body type changes trying to make players look more realistic somehow made them less realistic. I will say the movement from old- to next-gen was needed—to an extent. That doesn’t make it justifiable to make this huge jump with the player’s change of direction.
For next season’s version of the game coming out in August, Madden will undergo many new changes. Depending on how EA Sports handles it, some things might not be for the better. With EA Sports College Football 25 also slated to come out in July, it will be a comparative crossroads for some fans.
Madden Next-Gen
Madden 24 built off of its first year on next-gen with Madden 23, but it also added things. We got additions like a minicamp training that included focus players, something that was coveted in older versions of the game.
Although it wasn’t the create-a-team feature, streamlining team relocation with no limits on team or city, adding alternate jerseys for new cities, and adding the current logos were great additions. More trade slots, restructuring contracts, new talent trees, and new commissioner tools were all good steps in the right direction.
Innovation with the draft generators is always included every year, along with trade logic tuning and adding new abilities to the game. The big thing players had to get adjusted to was skill-based passing.
Madden 24 will be the last game on the older-gen system, with next-gen as the new baseline platform. While Madden is just a video game, it should always be about how to make the game more realistic, like how they added refs back into the game on the field this past year.
NFL New Rules Might Be Hard to Implement in Madden
Next Gen Madden 24 added Hit Everything 2.0, a new tackle engine that involved different tackle interactions seen as more fluid and natural. Now with the swivel hip-drop tackle ban, how will they implement that in the new game?
The timeline of EA dev teams working on the next game usually starts around the beginning of the new year. So how would they have time to code that in the new game and adapt to the new rule changes in the NFL?
In this case, perhaps the next Madden won’t have to, specifically with the hip-drop tackle. It already isn’t a part of the game and, like the concussion, it could be something EA doesn’t promote and avoids in general. The penalty part won’t be aligned with the NFL, but the ruling is on a year-to-year trial basis, so we will see how that goes.
Other than the Week 8 Trade Deadline that was pushed back one week, the big change next season is the kickoff.
The hybrid kickoff rule change proposal has been approved by @NFL clubs for the 2024 season. 👇 pic.twitter.com/DggRekG3mo
— NFL Football Operations (@NFLFootballOps) March 26, 2024
The kickoff will be an entirely new play in 2024, so it will be interesting to see if the next Madden can accurately portray that in a video game. Like the hip-drop ban, it may be temporary, but it makes the kickoff exciting while also avoiding injuries. The kickoff won’t be a dead play in a video game or real life.
But with the upcoming game only four or five months away, it has another problem: the name.
Madden 25 Already Came Out in 2013
In 2013, instead of calling it Madden 13, EA announced that it would be titled Madden 25, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Madden as a video game franchise. As great as that was. ultimately, it poses an interesting question for this coming game.
They could rebrand to something like “Madden 2025“, like what FIFA has done in the past. Whether or not EA will stick to the four digits for following games is a curious decision, regardless of what happens.
Information won’t come out on the new Madden till May. A few months ago, it was leaked that the new game will have new announcers and announcing teams. This is a great addition to the presentation in the game, and having the ability to choose them is a nice touch.
I mostly play Madden and Pokemon in my spare time. I wrote about Pokemon Emerald and the Nuzlocke Challenge as well, talking about how a game that is almost two decades old is getting revived in the current times.
For More Great Content
Follow Andrew on Twitter at @kookykim1357, and follow us at @TotalApexSports for the updated news in ALL sports. Check out all the great content Total Apex Sports has to offer. Check us out on X @TotalApexEandG and our other sites: Total Apex Sports Bets and Total Apex Fantasy Sports.