''Madden NFL 17'' is an

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

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

based on the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

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 tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

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 by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

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 base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

. As the 28th installment of the ''

Madden NFL series ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...

'', 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. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

tight end

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

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

and

. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are based on ''

Madden NFL 25 ''Madden NFL 25'' is an American football sports video game based on the National Football League and published by EA Sports. It was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in August 2013. Instead of numbering it ''Madden NFL 14'' with the year l ...

''.

Development

On May 12, 2016,

uploaded a trailer to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. 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 have also announced that they would hire new announcers,

Brandon Gaudin Brandon Gaudin (born December 18, 1983) is an American sportscaster who broadcasts play-by-play of NFL and college football, basketball and baseball for Fox Sports and the Big Ten Network. He is also the voice of ''Madden NFL'' for EA Sports (201 ...

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 a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...

'' 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 Champion ...

'' 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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

wide receiver

Odell Beckham Jr. Odell Cornelious Beckham Jr. (born November 5, 1992), commonly known by his initials OBJ, is an American football wide receiver who is a free agent. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Beckham played college football at LSU and was drafted by the ...

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 (or Tity Boi), is an American rapper. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, he initially gained recognition as one-half of the Southern hip hop duo Playaz Circle, al ...

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), best known as Steve Aoki, is an American DJ, record producer, music programmer, and record executive.

Logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

Blake Shelton Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music singer and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single " Austin". The lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" spent five weeks at ...

, Brantley Gilbert,

Bishop Briggs Sarah Grace McLaughlin (born 18 July 1992), known professionally as Bishop Briggs, is a British singer and songwriter. Her single "River" peaked at number three on the US Alternative Chart. It was included on her debut album, '' Church of Sca ...

Flo Rida Tramar Lacel Dillard (born September 16, 1979), better known by his stage name Flo Rida (, ), is an American rapper and singer. His 2007 breakout single " Low" was number one for 10 weeks in the United States and broke the record for digital dow ...

Flux Pavilion Joshua Steele (born 15 January 1989) better known by his stage name Flux Pavilion, is an English EDM producer, DJ, singer-songwriter and label owner who has been performing since 2008. Flux Pavilion has headlined three US tours, two UK tours, ...

Pusha T Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper, songwriter and record executive. He rose to prominence as one-half of the hip hop duo Clipse, which was mainly active from 1994 to 20 ...

and

Lil' Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. His career began in 1995, at the age of 12, when he was signed by rapper Birdman (rapper), ...

. The soundtrack was also made available for streaming on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

. 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, and 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 of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

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

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game 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 distri ...

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." According to the

NPD Group The NPD Group, Inc. (NPD; formerly National Purchase Diary Panel Inc. and NPD Research Inc.) is an American market research company founded on September 28, 1966, and based in Port Washington, New York. In 2017, NPD ranked as the 8th largest mar ...

, ''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 Madden NFL PlayStation 3 games PlayStation 4 games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in the United States Xbox 360 games Xbox One games Video games set in 2016