Madden NFL 23

Development and release

The cover of Madden NFL 23 honors John Madden, who died on December 28, 2021, and was last on a cover in 2000. Announced on Madden Day (June 1, 2022), the next-gen version shows him celebrating his Super Bowl XI win as Oakland Raiders head coach. The All-Madden Edition cover, created by Chuck Styles, is based on the original John Madden Football.

Reception

Madden NFL 23 landed with a mixed critical reception, earning scores that hovered around average on Metacritic. IGN gave it a 7 out of 10, pointing to smart upgrades in animations, AI, and passing that made the on-field action subtly better, and noted a newfound hope that the series was finally moving in a positive direction. GameSpot also handed out a 7 out of 10, saying the game felt genuinely great to play for the first time in years, but still suffered from self-inflicted problems and brought back unpopular features; Franchise mode got helpful but not revolutionary tweaks, while other modes were mostly forgettable.

GamesRadar+ rated it 3 out of 5 stars, remarking that while some fun improvements made it playable, too much content carried over from the previous decade. Shacknews gave it the same 3 out of 5 stars, calling it a poor simulation of pro football. A major technical problem hit on December 26, 2022, when players lost access to Connected Franchise Mode, a staple since Madden NFL 99 that was rebranded in Madden NFL 25. EA fixed the connection issue on December 28, but from that day through December 29, anyone logging in risked corrupted save files.

The company managed to recover 40 percent of those files, but many players still found their carefully built franchises wiped out.