To further confirm that today’s Madden NFL 23 title update is specifically addressing player feedback, developer EA Tiburon said exactly that in an introduction to the update’s patch notes. The feedback addresses issues with Madden NFL 23 that were provided “prior to the world wide launch” and during the football game’s “Early Access” through EA Play. That’s also a heads-up to Madden NFL 23 players that feedback provided post-launch will be addressed in the game’s next patch.
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As for the patch itself, EA highlights four general changes. First, a change to Madden NFL 23’s gameplay regarding the current blocking system for both runs and passing. Second, a fix for user-to-user trades in Online Franchise mode. Third, updates to rookie likenesses and alternate helmets. And the fourth highlight is for the dozens of bug fixes and stability improvements made across all Madden NFL 23 game modes.
The blocking changes will be an obvious priority for most Madden NFL 23 players since it’s the largest gameplay-impacting change in the title update. These changes include “tuning” for systems including pass-block logic so players can handoff rushers to other pass blockers, run-blocker pursuits to improve the blocking path against player-controlled defenders, pass-block movement so pass blockers close to the line of scrimmage target rushers faster, and pass-block prediction for anticipating the direction of rushers moving abnormally. Suffice it to say, the changes to blocking are robust.
It’s now been just over three weeks since Madden NFL 23 released, or a bit more if taking Early Access into consideration. As far as update turnaround time goes, this is very fast. The issue, of course, isn’t that post-launch support isn’t substantial for Madden NFL 23, but rather that the football games continue to need these title updates routinely year after year. The annual development cycle for Madden NFL 23, which restricts what each game’s developers are able to add and polish, continues to be the main point of frustration for players.
With that said, Madden NFL 23 continues to be incredibly popular and with the NFL season beginning tonight, there is likely to be a wave of players returning to the game. With that in mind, today’s title update couldn’t have been better timed. Here’s hoping the title update delivers enough improvements to keep players content, at least until the next title update arrives addressing Madden players’ post-launch feedback.
Madden NFL 23 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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