A few days after the release date for this year's Madden leaked, EA Sports has officially confirmed through product listings that Madden NFL 25 will come out on August 16 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, or August 12 if you preorder the Deluxe Edition.
EA quietly confirmed the release date after the company pushed preorders for Madden NFL 25 on a few storefronts, such as the Steam and Epic Game Store pages, confirming the sports game will be released in mid-August.
EA has yet to unveil who the cover athlete(s) will be this year. However, the company typically shares cover athlete details in June, as it did last year when it confirmed roughly two months before Madden 24's release that Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen would grace the cover for that version.
A closer examination of the Steam page for Madden NFL 25 reveals a brief description that teases what's new in this year's release. "In EA SPORTS Madden NFL 25, discover the next level of FieldSENSE," the description reads. "This includes a re-engineered physics system, updated features across franchise and other modes as well as brand-new commentary and presentation."
The release date confirmation comes the same day EA Sports announced a July 19 release date and the cover athletes for College Football 25. Additional information, including a possible gameplay trailer, is expected for the highly anticipated collegiate sports game sometime tomorrow, May 16.
Madden's August release date is no surprise, as starting with Madden NFL 2000, EA has released the annual professional football sports simulation game in August. With Madden keeping its August release month, players will have roughly a month to play College Football 25. This cadence was previously in place when EA published annual releases for both sports games until 2013.
Despite no further details, based on previous history there is a good chance those who create a character in College Football 25 will likely be able to carry their player over into Madden NFL 25. This theory is further supported by the fact EA announced an MVP bundle that includes one copy each of the Deluxe Edition of College Football 25 and Madden NFL 25.
In our review of Madden NFL 24, IGN wrote: "New animations and improved AI make Madden NFL 24's on-field action the best it's ever been, but everything that happens off the field is a slog of dated modes and laggy menus that brings everything around it down."
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
