Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Set for kickoff: Electronic Arts will release Madden NFL 17 late this summer

madden 17 release date madden16 superbowl 55  1
Madden NFL 16 Image used with permission by copyright holder
It’s OK, football fans. You can breathe. There will be a new Madden this year. Madden NFL 17, the next entry in the annual football sim franchise, is on the way and will hit stores August 23, publisher Electronic Arts announced.

In fact, almost everything about the announcement screams “business as usual.” Madden 17 will follow the clockwork release rollout the series has fallen into over the last decade. Now that the game is official, EA will give fans their first look at the new game and reveal which player gets the coveted/feared place on the game’s box art during the 6 p.m. SportsCenter broadcast on ESPN on Thursday.

Once that’s out of the way, the game is on track to launch in mid-to-late August, as it has every single year in recent memory. There will be ads, sure, but most fans don’t really need to hear more. If you love Madden, you love Madden: If you’ve been picking up the new game every year, no one needs to convince you to come back again.

There is at least one substantial change to this year’s pre-release fanfare, though. As Polygon pointed out, for the first time since Madden NFL 2010, EA has decide to pick who will grace the game’s box art internally. The publisher has held an annual fan vote to decide who gets the cover each year since 2009.

For now, the question is, as always, will Madden NFL 17 change enough — either by improving visuals or with new gameplay systems — to warrant purchasing yet another game? With last year’s Madden NFL 16, there was a general consensus that the changes to how players controlled their receivers and defenses made the experience more fun. We’ll start to get a sense of how the new game stacks up later this week.

Madden NFL 17 will be available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One at launch. EA Access subscribers on Xbox One, however, will be able to play the game early.

Pre-order on Amazon

Editors' Recommendations

Mike Epstein
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Michael is a New York-based tech and culture reporter, and a graduate of Northwestwern University’s Medill School of…
Madden 21 brings back Colin Kaepernick after four-year absence
madden 21 brings back colin kaepernick nfl

Colin Kaepernick is back in Madden.

EA Sports has added Colin Kaepernick to the Madden NFL 21 lineup after a four-year absence from the game series — and fans can play him starting Tuesday. 

Read more
Madden NFL 21 getting community-requested tweaks to Franchise mode
most anticipated video games 2020 madden 21

Madden NFL 21 will receive major tweaks to its franchise mode following criticism from the game’s community. The football game will get three waves of post-launch updates with the first scheduled for mid-November.

EA Sports plans to bring four major changes to the mode based on community feedback. Top among the fan-requested features, commissioners will get the ability to assign X-Factors to any player and edit their superstar abilities. The team will roll out fixes to assure that Superstars and X-Factor players are more balanced throughout a multi-year franchise.

Read more
Electronic Arts will remove Washington Redskins name, logo in Madden NFL 21
madden nfl 21 washington redskins in

Electronic Arts will remove all references to the Washington Redskins in Madden NFL 21, after the football team's announcement that it will be developing a new name.

Earlier this week, the Washington Redskins said that following a review that started July 3, it decided that the Redskins name and logo will be retired, after years of criticism that they perpetuate racist stereotypes against Native Americans. The team's new name and logo have not yet been revealed.

Read more