With the countdown to the release of Madden NFL 23 truly starting to heat up, EA Sports has just revealed everything there is to know with its latest iteration of the series’ staple Franchise Mode.
For those who want to wear the hats of coach, general manager and owner for their very own teams once again, here are the latest details about Madden NFL 23 Franchise Mode.
Serious upgrades to #Madden23 Franchise 💪
🔎 Scouting
🤝 Free Agency
💻 Franchise Hub
🆕 Draft & Trade Logic
➡️ & MORE https://t.co/rhcNsWC4Ms pic.twitter.com/HSsgIhFPA2— Madden NFL 23 (@EAMaddenNFL) July 15, 2022
Headlining Madden NFL 23’s revamp is the new feature Free Agency feature, as well as what are said to be major improvements to Player Motivations, Player Tags, Contracts, Scouting and immersion tuning.
As outlined by EA Sports senior game design director Connor Dougan in the developer’s “Madden 23 Franchise Deep Dive” trailer, the goals for improving the mode included:
Free Agency
The top addition Franchise players should definitely look out for in Madden NFL 23 is the new Free Agency feature.
The Offseason Free Agency Hub is said to have undergone a full visual overhaul to introduce the new Free Agency Hub screen, where details of a player of interest are displayed, including how your team aligns with their Motivations, their interest from other teams and their expected contract range.
Additionally, Active Negotiations and Evaluations are the two other new cores of the Free Agency feature.
To create that sense of pressure during Free Agency, as well as ensure that a few teams can’t just come in and sign all the top free agents right away, there are three Stages where Franchise players can engage in Active Negotiations to offer contracts:
To make matters a bit more flexible, however, Franchise players will also be able to make three Eval Offers within every week of Free Agency.
Eval Offers allow free agents to accept/decline contracts or not make a final decision without the need for the week to be advanced, giving Franchise players more opportunities to go back and forth with their targets, and/or possibly allow them to change direction, each week.
Player Motivations
In previous Maddens, free agents simply signed with the teams offering the most money. Now, every player has three Motivations describing the type of team they want to play for.
All players will begin with a set of three Motivations, but with every year a player continues with a Franchise, they may update to better align with their current situations.
The Player Motivations include:
Player Tags
Player Tags add a new layer to how players fit with their team on a weekly basis, bringing unique effects that not only apply to the team but also to teammates and the player themselves.
The Player Tags include:
Contracts
This year’s Franchise Mode will feature a revamped Contract Negotiation screen that includes a breakdown of Motivations including a player’s overall Interest in your team, a yearly breakdown of the offer and depth chart information at that position.
Aside from making Custom Contract offers, Franchise players will also be able to give out four different presets of offers: Team Friendly, Neutral, Player Friendly and Very Player Friendly.
The Rollover Cap will also be implemented this year, allowing teams to carry over unused cap money from one year to the next. This gives teams with low total salaries the ability to spend heavily in the upcoming offseason.
Scouting
Over 50 scouts are said to have been added in Madden 23, doubling the number of free agent scouts from 50 to 100 and bringing the total number of scouts to 260. In addition, every position will have at least one scout in each tier with that particular expertise. With a few exceptions, each position grouping is covered by multiple scouts at each tier.
Team scouts have also been updated. Each scout assigned to a team now reflects their team needs, with the higher tier scouts reflecting the bigger needs.
This year, the Focus Scouting groupings for draft classes are:
EA has also significantly increased the weight of reveals in favor of core attributes making it far more likely for an attribute reveal to be a core attribute rather than a secondary attribute.
Additionally, when Franchise players reach 50% scouted on a prospect, any remaining unknown attributes will convert from a question mark to a three-letter range. As you continue to gather more information on a player and reach 70% scouted, any remaining three-letter ranges will then convert into a two-letter range.
Draft classes have been completely overhauled in Madden NFL 23, with over 30 new templates said to be added to the mode
The Draft class templates include:
For more on Madden NFL 23 Franchise Mode in terms of UI updates and immersion tuning, feel free to check out the full Franchise Mode EA Sports dev blog.
Madden NFL 23 is set to release worldwide for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC (via EA app, Origin, Steam and Epic Games Store) on Aug. 19, 2022. EA Play (via Early Access Trial) and EA Play Pro subscribers, as well as those who pre-order the All Madden Edition, will have early access to the game starting on Aug. 16.
For more on Madden NFL 23, feel free to check out our ratings predictions lists:
