Madden 22 reveal: Release date, next-gen features and more

EA has officially revealed Madden 22 and the leaks were true; Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will both grace the cover of this year’s game (across all editions of the game and on Madden NFL Mobile as well). This is the first time a Madden game will feature two athletes on its cover since 2010’s game which featured both Pittsburgh Steelers DB Troy Polamalu and Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald on the cover.

In addition to showcasing the cover, EA also shared a reveal trailer and touched on some of the improvements being made to this year’s game.

The franchise looks to make incredible strides with Madden 22 and it seems like EA is finally listening to the fans. The highlight of this year’s game is all about delivering a “Dynamic Gameday” which will have impact across all game modes in Madden 22 but only on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

There are three core features that make up Dynamic Gameday: Gameday Atmosphere, Gameday Momentum, and Next Gen Stats: Star Driven AI.

Gameday Atmosphere looks to deliver “immersive and authentic” stadium environments. This sort of plays into the Home Field Advantage, another new feature — a triggered modifier that provides unique advantages or disadvantages depending on the situation. For example, playing as a road team in Kansas City could result in delayed audibles due to the crowd noise. In previous Madden games, loud crowd noise would simply result in looking at scrambled routes during the pre-snap.

Gameday Momentum is a performance-based momentum meter that rewards you with M-Factors (in-game perks). This sort of reminds me of X-Factors that were assigned to certain star players in previous games, only this time it sounds like it could be applied to any player, or perhaps your entire team, in certain situations.

Finally, Madden 22 offers Star-Driven AI. Powered by Next Gen Stats, the AI looks at at real world player data over the course of the season and evolves according, changing AI behavior and team tendencies. Players and the teams themselves should more authentically represent their real life counterpart.

If you’re playing on PS5 or Xbox Series X|S, Madden 22 definitely seems like a step in the right direction. But that’s not all! EA also touched on its Franchise Mode, a popular but oft-forgotten mode that finally started getting some attention last year after fan upgrar. This year, Franchise Mode sees some major improvements, including more detailed staff management and skill tree progression systems, comprehensive weekly game strategy that integrates your gameplan, and weekly scenarios that ask you to weigh risks versus rewards for your team.

EA plans to continue to improve upon Franchise Mode throughout the season, with the first live service update slated for September. This will address one of the top-requested features, Player Scouting.