What to expect from Franchise mode in Madden NFL 17

EA Sports promised a “renewed focus on Franchise mode” for Madden NFL 17 and today the company revealed just what improvements and additions have been made. It’s not a reboot of the mode, like with Connected Careers four years ago, but rather a series in refinements to the systems that are in place and the introduction of some long-requested features.

Franchise will include a real-time score ticker, full player editing, practice squads, and more injuries plus allowing for decisions to be made on when to bring players back from them. Improvements have been made across the board to areas like the gameplan process, XP system, progression/regression, confidence, drive goals, and SuperSim.

One big (optional) new addition to the mode is “Play the Moment” which cuts down on the time it takes to complete a full game by only handling certain critical situations such as third downs, when teams reach the red zone, two minute drives, and overtime. There’s also “Big Decisions” which are made in the menus but then tie-in to the presentation within games through commentary mentions and on-screen graphics.

In today’s special episode of the Press Row Podcast, Madden designer John White discusses many of the changes to Franchise mode for this year (34:28) and how they’ll impact the experience of playing the games and through multiple seasons.