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Connected Franchise Deep Dive

Mike Young is the Creative Director for Madden NFL 25. He has been involved in the franchise since 2008, starting as Art Director on Madden NFL 09 He previously worked on all four NBA Street titles, and also served as Art Director on NBA Street Homecourt.

Hello there! I'm here to talk about the improved – and renamed – Connected Franchise.

For those long-standing fans of the series, I'm pleased to announce the return NCAA Import Draft Class. You’ll be able to take your draft classes from NCAA Football 14 and import those players directly into Madden NFL 25. This was one of our most-requested features, and I know fans of both games are going to be thrilled.

Next up is a personal favorite, offline 32-team Control. Fathers and sons, coworkers, roommates, and more can play multi-player leagues all on the same couch. If you couldn’t decide between controlling a player or coach last year, why not do both in the same Franchise? It’s the perfect option for those who like to manage all aspects of their team.

Do you want to change the sock heights of every player in the league? Change schemes for your opponents? Play every game? Well now you can. Simply add more characters to control during the initial creation flow or anytime thereafter and you’re all set. Our goal was to give players the opportunity to have as much control over their Franchise as possible.

If that wasn’t enough for offline Connected Franchise players, Madden 25 also includes the ability to start a league with a Fantasy Draft Before you start your Franchise, you can choose to throw every NFL player back into a pool and essentially restart the league. This feature is available both online and offline, so anyone and everyone can engage in the fun of reshuffling the entire NFL landscape.

On top of these huge features, you'll also notice a slew of improvements, starting with a refined user interface. Connected Franchise is slick, snappy, and supremely organized. Furthermore, we’ve reworked the trade interface and added a transaction log.

We’ve even added the ability to change your players’ positions. Move cornerbacks to wide receiver (or vice versa), transition your defensive end to linebacker and more. With Connected Franchise you’re able to truly build your roster, your way.

We’ve also included even more legends, bringing the total to more than 50 playable characters. Play with Iron Mike Ditka as either a coach or a tight end, or see how Randall Cunningham stacks up to today’s mobile QBs. There are so many more great players, coaches and even owners for you to discover once you hop into the mode

On the presentation side, we’ve got a lot of exciting additions for your Franchise experience. Darren Rovell, Paul Lukas, and Mike Clay are just a few of the new names in sports media that will bring added depth to the News Center. Commentators will also fill you in on standings, season stats, last week’s game and more. In addition, experience all-new branching Draft story lines brought to life by Trey Wingo AND Adam Schefter.

We wanted year two of our career mode overhaul to be massive. That is why we have added the Owner aspect to Connected Franchise. With the ability to control a single player, coach, or owner on every NFL team, there is truly something for everyone. As the owner, you hire staff, respond to the media, set ticket and concession prices and manage your stadium.

You can even build a new stadium or relocate your franchise. All of this is on top of everything you could already do as a coach, so you can still upgrade players and have full control on the field on game day. What this also means is that we have real owners in the game, which allow you to compete as or against owners like Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft.

So, why the name change? Last year in Madden NFL 13, we introduced a brand new experience that re-imagined what a career mode should be. We named it Connected Careers to clearly communicate that what we had built was completely new. It spoke to the innovation, social connections, and RPG elements that were new to the mode. Now, with us adding several Franchise-specific features and the all-new Owner mode, the name Connected Franchise speaks perfectly to the experience. You’re not just controlling a career anymore; you’re controlling an entire franchise or, if you want, 32 franchises!

Did you miss the earlier talks about Madden NFL 25 Connected Franchise? Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the Playbook here.