Madden NFL 25: Connected Franchise Preview

Midway through college, I discovered the pure joy that was Madden 2005. I loved that game, right down to the hot dog pricing mini game, but especially owner/franchise mode. Growing up the only NFL owner I was really aware of was the late Art Modell, who I, as charitably as possible, hated with the intensity of a thousand dying suns. Honestly, I had better odds of being a cast member on Cops than owning a sports franchise. That never stopped me from living vicariously through video games. I cannot begin to estimate how much Madden 2005 impacted my grades in college. If Madden NFL 06 would have improved on the previous versions, I may not have graduated. On some level I am thankful that Madden NFL 06 was the worst iteration of the game I can remember. I’m fairly certain I cried actual tears when I fired up franchise mode and found the vast majority of what made Madden 2005 special gutted and replaced with the much hated Superstar mode and Vision Cone (which I didn’t hate as much as I’m pretending here).

I was lucky enough to spend the better part of a week at the EA studio in Austin, TX a few weeks ago and see the changes to what has been re-branded ‘Connected Franchise Mode’ (CFM) (formerly Connected Careers Mode). As senior designer Josh Looman walked us through the changes my heart began to do somersaults I last experienced in Madden 2005. In sessions that lasted the lions share of a day, Josh walked us through the mode screen by screen, detailing change points and new features. This wasn’t my first rodeo, I’ve been through a number of these sessions and frankly I was pretty overwhelmed with the scope of the work put into Connected Franchise Mode. That said, there were spots where I had some disappointment and I will outline those later.

Read the rest: http://traditionsportsonline.com/madden-nfl-25-connected-franchise-preview

Also, I will answer questions in this thread.

Good question. I was wondering the same.

Great Article Shaun, thanks

How much does shipping off a popular veteran impact your fan support? How detrimental is this dip in general? Enough to deter a user from trading old veterans for talented youth?

If you import draft classes do you lose the whole storyline players thing or do they just import the class and add a few storyline players in addition?

I'll save Shaun one I know the answer to - Yes. No storylines for imports.

I'm only answering M25 questions. Regression happens to all players, it is accelerated as you age. Usually when a player is young progression more than makes up for regression assuming they hit goals. As you age in M25, it is harder to gain points to progress, combined with accelerated regression and you get an overall regression.

"How much" is something I can't answer, they are still tuning those things.

When you import, you only get the players you import, with no story lines.

You mentioned position changes are back with your example of Dwight Freeney...

Are there restrictions on this feature on which positions are able to be swapped?

You have to wait for one year before you can hire/fire staff. That said, big market teams are going to have more money to throw around potentially.

Any place you can change them in the edit screen outside of Franchise you can move them inside Franchise.

I can't answer that right now.

Looman outlined a plan to combat that...I'll have to listen to my notes to see exactly what was.

Is there going to be a way for you to set the Hotdog prices on auto?

Also what about coaching staffs? How indepth are those is it just HC OC DC? or does it go to position coach as well

Are the hot dogs served at the stadium paleo?

There was no mention of "player morale" or "player happiness". Assuming that's not in, what drives a player's willingness to resign? Do things like playing time and market size have any impact?

Is there even such thing as a Paleo approved hot dog?

It will manage itself poorly if you don't intervene. If you don't want to do those things, you should play in a Coach league.

There are only Head Coaches in M25.

You obviously didn't read the post.