The NFL's new kickoff rules and M25

[Kanobi]

I was curious as to whether or not Tiburon will implement the new kickoff formation and touchback rules for M25 or wait until next year?

The reason I ask is because I'd imagine it being a significant change to how the game functions on the field and I was wondering what the degree of difficulty would be to.make those changes under the hood.

[Richie71]

It would be a complete failure if EA were to not include the new rules.

[Hooe]

Wouldn't be shocked to see the game launch with the 2023 kickoff rules on-disc and then the new rules get patched in by kickoff weekend or something.

The NFL didn't enact the rule change until a little over a week ago. The launch version of each year's Madden enters beta around this time of year, which is long after the time changes could be reasonably made for whatever we get on day 1.

It's possible that EA Sports anticipated the new kickoff rule changes and built the new rules anyway, but I'm not counting on that.

[kennylc321]

My guess is that it will need to be patched in. Because the kickoff rules appear to be drastically different, I am guessing a lot of stuff has to go on behind the scenes before its ready.

And we know how EA is with patching... it might have to wait until November before it is patched... then another 2 months before they patch it again to fix what they broke in the November patch.

[Kanobi]

Quote: Originally Posted by kennylc321

My guess is that it will need to be patched in. Because the kickoff rules appear to be drastically different, I am guessing a lot of stuff has to go on behind the scenes before its ready. And we know how EA is with patching... it might have to wait until November before it is patched... then another 2 months before they patch it again to fix what they broke in the November patch.

I imagine it'd be a tall task to get this patched in by midseason. And it's such a significant change that I wonder how online leagues/franchises will be impacted. Guess we'll have to wait and see but if some version of it is not ready for launch or shortly thereafter, I wouldn't be shocked if they waited until next year.

[WiiMaster]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

Wouldn't be shocked to see the game launch with the 2023 kickoff rules on-disc and then the new rules get patched in by kickoff weekend or something. The NFL didn't enact the rule change until a little over a week ago. The launch version of each year's Madden enters beta around this time of year, which is long after the time changes could be reasonably made for whatever we get on day 1. It's possible that EA Sports anticipated the new kickoff rule changes and built the new rules anyway, but I'm not counting on that.

There were some pretty significant under the hood changes made for M24 from when the beta was public and launch happened. Including the full implementation of the CharacterVisuals system. So the beta is far from the cutoff for key changes.

[loccdogg26]

I really hope I'm wrong but I think that the only thing that will be fixed will be the new rules and nothing else.

[Critical Kills]

I am not at all expecting this to be in the game. I do expect it to be patched though within a reasonable time.