Madden NFL 22 Changes Coming After Community Playtest Feedback - Gridiron Notes

The Madden NFL 22 team has revealed some of the changes that are coming to the game following the Madden NFL 22 Community Playtest. The top 3 most discussed feedback categories included catching, player movement and game stability.

There was a lot of work done on catching that did not make either of the Playtest builds, so we were anticipating some issues with catching, and players definitely noticed them. There may not be a more important system in Gameplay than catching, and in that vein, players will experience a lot of improvements to jump height logic that gives players more appropriate catch radiuses, and there’s also more logic that increases catch aggressiveness for both offense and defense at the catch point. 

One really important additional change we want players to be aware of is that holding Y/Triangle to play-ball on defense in Madden NFL 22 will carry more risk. Because there are less multi-player catches being used, defenders playing the ball have more chances to miss the ball, whereas the range for swats has been increased, making the swat mechanic the more conservative, but safer play on defense compared to always going for the pick.

The following bugs that were reported during the playtest have been fixed:

• Receivers are dropping the ball really late after the catch
• Dive Tackles are too powerful
• Dive Tackles sometimes would warp a player off the ground to make the tackle (note: there is ongoing work in the same space for diving catches in upcoming updates)
• Lower-rated QBs play too well on All-Madden
• Momentum Meter fills up too fast
• Competitive Modes Momentum Formula not ready for launch

Madden NFL 22 franchise mode feedback showed the true passion the community has in the mode. The Gridiron Notes mention fatigue tuning has been improved, along with adjustments and improvements to free agency. The team is also looking into logic changes for draft classes and have already tuned simulation stats, specifically for scrambling quarterback rush yard stats.

We’ve taken multiple approaches to address the quality of offseason free agency and teambuilding, starting with the amount of money teams have. To create more opportunity for players, we’ve increased the amount of available cap space in the first two seasons as well as the base amount of cap room to start. These changes, along with logic updates to team spending logic and player valuation, will cause teams to engage with top players throughout the three offseason bidding weeks. A secondary goal of this tuning was to also increase the number of players that sign contracts in the offseason, while still maintaining authenticity in that some veteran players may not sign until the preseason.

The team also addressed the following items of interest:

• A deep refresh of news includes more insightful and compelling content. Look for more detail around specific player and coach actors, with hundreds of new lines of content added to bring you closer to the happenings of your league.
• The cost of talents was increased for tuning purposes, particularly in the Head Coach and Player Personnel trees.
• Fixed an issue where a user could repeatedly hire and fire a staff member to collect signing bonus staff points has been addressed.
• The option to promote a coordinator to head coach has been added.
• Aspects of the user interface on the goals system have been revised for clarity.
• Stability fixes have been made throughout the entirety of the mode.
• Many more bug fixes and quality updates have been addressed.

For more details, make sure to read the latest Gridiron Notes and listen to the Madden NFL 22 podcast.