''Madden NFL 17'' is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

sports video game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport (such ...

based on the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

and published by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

for the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

. As the 28th installment of the '' Madden NFL series'', the game was released on August 23, 2016 and features

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

tight end

Rob Gronkowski Robert James Gronkowski (born May 14, 1989) is an American former professional American football, football tight end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. Nicknamed "Gronk", Gronkowski played nine seasons for the Ne ...

on the cover. It was the last ''Madden NFL'' game to be released on the

and

, And also the last madden game to use the Ignite engine. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are based on '' Madden NFL 25 (2013)''.

Development

On May 12, 2016,

uploaded a trailer to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. They also revealed the new features that were added to the game, which includes an upgrade of the Ground Game, a redesigned and better Franchise Mode, "Madden 365", a new Ball Carrier UI Prompts help teach moves available to you, while the new Path Assist helps you navigate and anticipate down field and more. They also announced that they would hire new announcers,

Brandon Gaudin Brandon Gaudin (born December 18, 1983) is an American television broadcaster for FanDuel Sports Network South and FanDuel Sports Network Southeast's coverage of the Atlanta Braves baseball. He also does play-by-play for college football and c ...

and Charles Davis.

Cover athlete

EA decided not to allow Madden players to vote for the ''Madden NFL 17'' cover athlete, announcing it on May 12, 2016 via the ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

'' Twitter account. After losing the ''

Madden NFL 16 ''Madden NFL 16'' is an American football sports video game based on the National Football League and published by EA Sports for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. ''Madden 16'' introduced the new game mode "Draft Champions" ...

'' cover vote to

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

wide receiver

Odell Beckham Jr. Odell Cornelious Beckham Jr. (born November 5, 1992), commonly known by his initials OBJ, is an American professional American football, football wide receiver. He played college football for the LSU Tigers football, LSU Tigers and was selected ...

tight end

was announced as the cover athlete of ''Madden NFL 17''.

Features

''Madden NFL 17'' has developed a new ground game mechanic that provide players a more balanced experience. In addition to this, the new defensive AI puts players' teammates into positions to stop the run or pass game. Features such as Ultimate Team and Franchise mode will make a return, however, many of their features have been revamped and upgraded.

Soundtrack

On August 3, 2016, EA Sports announced the soundtrack for the game, which would feature 40 songs, including

2 Chainz Tauheed K. Epps (born September 12, 1977), known professionally as 2 Chainz (formerly Tity Boi), is an American rapper and actor. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, he gained recognition as one-half of the Southern hip-hop duo Playaz Ci ...

Flume A flume is a human-made channel for water, in the form of an open declined gravity chute whose walls are raised above the surrounding terrain, in contrast to a trench or ditch. Flumes are not to be confused with aqueducts, which are built to t ...

Steve Aoki Steven Hiroyuki Aoki ( , ; born November 30, 1977) is an American DJ and record producer. In 2012, Pollstar designated Aoki as the highest-grossing electronic dance music artist in North America from tours. In 2024, Gold House recognized him as ...

Logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

Blake Shelton Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music, country singer, songwriter and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin (Blake Shelton song), Austin" from his Blake Shelton (album), self ...

Brantley Gilbert Brantley Keith Gilbert (born January 20, 1985) is an American country rock singer, songwriter and record producer from Jefferson, Georgia. He was originally signed to Colt Ford's label, Average Joes Entertainment, where he released '' Modern D ...

Bishop Briggs Sarah Grace McLaughlin (born 18 July 1992), known professionally as Bishop Briggs, is an English singer and songwriter. Her single "River (Bishop Briggs song), River" peaked at number 3 on the US Alternative Chart, and has been streamed more t ...

Flo Rida Tramar Lacel Dillard (born September 16, 1979), known professionally as Flo Rida ( ), is an American rapper and singer. His 2007 debut and breakout single "Low (Flo Rida song), Low" was number one for 10 weeks in the United States and broke the ...

Flux Pavilion Joshua Kiekegaard Grant Steele (born 15 January 1989), known professionally as Flux Pavilion, is an English EDM producer, DJ, singer-songwriter and label owner. He started performing in 2008. Flux Pavilion has headlined three US tours, two UK ...

Pusha T Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as one half of the Virginia-based hip hop duo Clipse, which he formed with his older brother No Malice, Malice. M ...

and

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. He is often regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all ...

. The soundtrack was also made available for streaming on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

. The original score of ''

Madden NFL 15 ''Madden NFL 15'' is an American football sports video game based on the National Football League and published by EA Sports. The game was announced for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on April 28, 2014. It was released on ...

'' also returns in game and can be played through EA Trax.

Reception

According to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, ''Madden NFL 17'' received generally favorable reviews.

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

awarded the game an 8.6/10, praising the improved franchise mode and defense, but were disappointed in the game's commentary.

GamesRadar ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', '' Edge'' and ''Computer ...

gave it 4/5, saying: "With major changes to some of the game’s core mechanics, and an impressive revamp of the now marquee Franchise Mode, ''Madden 17'' has done its best to avoid ccusations of phoning it in and failing to make significant progress and succeeded." During the

20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards The ''20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards'' was the 20th edition of the D.I.C.E. Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during 2016. The awards were arranged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AI ...

, the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

nominated ''Madden NFL 17'' for " Sports Game of the Year". According to the

NPD Group Circana, Inc., formerly known as Information Resources, Inc. and the NPD Group (previously National Purchase Diary Panel Inc. and NPD Research Inc.), is an American market research and technology company headquartered in Chicago. In 2017, NPD ra ...

, ''Madden NFL 17'' was the best-selling retail game in the US in its month of release, but its launch month sales failed to surpass that of its predecessor, ''

''.

References

{{Portal bar, American football, Video games, border=no 2016 video games EA Sports games EA Tiburon games Madden NFL Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation 4 games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in 2016 Video games set in the United States Xbox 360 games Xbox One games