The NFL offseason is officially underway and this one in particular seems like it might just have a few tricks up its sleeve for NFL fans.

Especially when it comes to Madden.

We’ll get the normal NFL draft, mini camps and training camps, with the usual roster shuffling and rookie additions for us all to drool over.

There happens to be some other NFL-related issues that could have a direct impact on Madden’s product and what consumers see come August, though — assuming that is when the new version releases.

Here’s what Madden fans should be looking out for as the NFL offseason takes place.

 

 

Potential Rule Changes

 

One of the biggest potential rule changes currently being talked about is doing away with the extra point. Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, proposed the idea of every touchdown automatically being worth seven points. The teams then had an option of going for two that would give them eight points if scored successfully, but only give them six points if failed.

There are a lot of opinions on the right way to handle extra points—I particularly like Sports Illustrated’s Peter King’s idea—but regardless of what’s actually done, an actual rule change would have a drastic effect on Madden.

I truly believe that the effect would be a positive one.

Other rule changes to be aware of are the always changing tackling rules in order to prevent head injuries. These kind of rule changes are much harder to distinguish when it comes to a video game like Madden, but the NFL is good at making sure products with their name on it are presented in ways that make the game look positive. Head trauma is a hot topic right now, so it wouldn’t be the craziest thing to see some kind of educational tool put into Madden in order to promote safe play at some point in the future.

 

 

Does the NFL Still Have an Exclusive Deal with EA and Madden?

 

In my opinion, this story flew by under the radar a bit too much.

For those who don’t know, the exclusive deal between EA and the NFL was set to expire at the end of 2013. The deal basically stated that EA Sports was the only company who was able to use all of the NFL’s names and player likenesses in their games.

This was the deal that pushed 2K Sports out of the football market.

There wasn’t any word of what took place with the exclusivity deal as 2014 got underway, but EA CEO Andrew Wilson eventually addressed the issue of Madden and its future with the NFL. Here’s what he had to say via Polygon:

"Contrary to some reports, we still have a number of years left on our agreements there, and the relationship that we have with both the NFL and the NFL Players Association continues to be extremely strong. We are currently in planning on the next Madden property right now, and we expect to make a number of Madden games in the future."

The key to his quote is that the word “exclusive” didn’t appear once. Is it possible that EA no longer has an exclusive deal with the NFL? It's not unreasonable to think that it is a possibility, but it also is just as likely that Wilson simply didn't feel the need to qualify what type of deal was in place.

We can’t get too ahead of ourselves, though. If EA didn’t have an exclusive deal in place, then any company looking to make an NFL game will have a number of challenges ahead of them. The most difficult one being money. The financial undertaking to both sign a deal with the NFL and create an engine to run the game with would be huge, meaning we probably wouldn’t see one for a number of years. On top of those, promoting the game to match the name recognition of Madden would be incredibly difficult.

With that said, there is one company who might draw enough excitement to legitimately compete with Madden and I think we all know who that company is if the opening is there...

 

 

Can Madden Finally Responds to Customer Pressure?

There’s no need to tip-toe around the subject—there hasn’t been an absolutely fantastic Madden title in quite some time.

Sure, EA Sports has put out good Madden games, but nothing that screams great or all-time classic.

The time is now.

While Madden 25 on next-gen consoles was well received by most, there was still a sense of “that’s it?” The Playstaion 3 and Xbox 360 had extremely dated technology that was around eight years old, and the next-gen version of Madden 25 didn’t really do anything to blow games of the past out of the water. Instead, we got a game with some solid improvements that will hopefully build a foundation for what’s to come. Madden certainly needed some upgrades in basic areas of a football game—such as offensive/defensive line interaction—but there was an overwhelming feeling that more could have been done.

The next-gen version of Madden 25 wasn’t truly a next-gen game. It was simply a more polished and well balanced game of football. The question now becomes can the Madden team respond to customer pressure and truly take their game into the next generation?

It is time for real-time physics that don’t feel like an extension of Madden’s old animation engine. If the game is really using real-time physics, then why do we see the same animations over and over again? Backbreaker was far from a great game, but it did thrive from a physics standpoint. You could truly feel the power of a big hit, or the anguish from clipping somebody but not getting enough of them. I could just be speaking for myself here, but I’ve never consistently experienced these feelings in a Madden game up to this point.

Real-time presentation and true next-gen graphics also continue to get mentions amongst fans. Madden 25’s next-gen version was a better looking game, but it appeared as though there were only lighting and texture changes to improve its look. The new crowds definitely helped, but it was far from what people visually expected the game to be. Also, can we PLEASE do away with cut scenes that we get sick of after playing the game for just a few hours? Real-time presentation would be crucial toward giving a new feeling of immersion that’s been desperately missing from this franchise.

These are a handful of issues that Madden must fix over the offseason, but it’s in the hands of Madden’s development team now. They know how consumers feel about their game and what needs to be fixed or improved on.

It’s time they finally do something about it.

 

Do you expect any huge changes from the NFL or the Madden franchise this offseason?