EA SPORTS has officially announced Madden NFL 25, launching on August 27. This year’s game will feature the Madden NFL 25 name when it launches in August, plus a new fan Cover Vote will pit the NFL’s greatest legends against today’s hottest stars.

“There’s no better way to celebrate and mark the culmination of 25 years of innovation than by naming this year’s game Madden NFL 25,” said Cam Weber, General Manager of American Football for EA SPORTS. “This year’s game will push the boundaries with gameplay and feature innovations that will lay a very strong foundation for the next 25 years of this storied franchise.”

The past and the future collide in the newest Madden NFL Cover Vote across ESPN platforms and SportsNation, which will see the old school take on the new school for the historically-significant cover. A bracket of 32 all-time NFL greats will go head-to-head against one another, as will 32 modern NFL superstars, with the winners of each bracket facing off in the final round.

Voting will start on Monday, March 11 on ESPN.com/MaddenVote, and fans can tune into a special edition of SportsNation at 4:00pm EST on ESPN2 for the live unveil of the brackets. Last year, fans cast 20 million votes to name Calvin Johnson, Jr. as the cover athlete of Madden NFL 13 during a special reveal show of SportsNation live from Times Square in New York City.

“It’s great to be back with another year of the award-winning Madden NFL Cover Vote for a brand-new game that will be the deepest and most innovative in the history of the franchise when it launches in August,” said Anthony Stevenson, Senior Director of Marketing at EA SPORTS. “This year we’re posing the ultimate question of who’s more deserving; one of the NFL’s all-time greats or one of today’s hottest players?”

“This is the third consecutive year EA SPORTS and ESPN have collaborated on the Madden NFL Cover Vote in its current iteration,” added Raphael Poplock, Vice President of Games and Partnerships for ESPN. “Each year has brought record-setting results as NFL fans come out in droves to support their favorite players and teams, and by going big this year with legends facing off against the league’s current leaders, needless to say it will be an interesting vote with much debate and discussion.”

“SportsNation is built around social engagement and topics our young audience cares about, so the Madden NFL Cover Vote is a great fit for us, “said Jamie Horowitz, Vice President of Original Programming and Production for ESPN. “Our new host, Marcellus Wiley, played with the old school guys and Charissa Thompson is a new school fan, so I expect them to find fun ways to push this vote in social and on TV.”

Embraced by fans and honored by critics for 25 years, Madden NFL is known as the NFL’s “33rd Franchise” due to its authentic gameplay, the development team’s unparalleled access to NFL resources and its prominent place in NFL culture. Since its beginning as “John Madden Football,” the franchise has sold through approximately 99 million units and generated more than $3.7 billion in net revenue.

Madden NFL 25 will be available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system and PlayStation®3 computer entertainmentsystem for $59.99. To learn more about Madden NFL 25, visit easports.com/madden-nfl Fans are also invited to become a Madden Insider for exclusive information on Facebook including the latest news, original content and more for Madden NFL 25.

http://www.easports.com/madden-nfl/n...5-release-date

Huh, I guess EA's not on board with the Wii U yet. It seems like the touchscreen would be good for calling plays when pitted against a human opponent in the same room.

EA also announced that they will celebrate 25 years by updating the rosters.

Madden games blow these days. The last good one was the one with Vince Young on the cover.

Can we just skip the vote and get right to putting RGIII on the cover?

And he has already beaten the rush on the madden curse by shredding his knee.

Peterson.

This.

But yeah, he should be in the cover.

As much as I hate the 49ers, if they win the Super Bowl I think Kaepernick has to be the front-runner.

Don't want him on the cover and I'm a huge 49ers fan.

Of course, you don't. I wouldn't want anyone from my favorite team on the cover either.

Huh, I just now noticed that there was a Wii U version released a few months ago. Did they neglect to mention it in the press release or are they abandoning it already? Or, perhaps this year's Wii U version still won't be up to speed on features, so they won't be calling it "Madden 25."

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As bad as the game can be at times, it sure has come a long way since it's early days.

Cover vote begins: http://www.easports.com/madden-nfl/e...-25-cover-vote

Some not so competitive match-ups there : Jake Locker vs Andrew Luck and Carson Palmer vs Adrian Peterson should be pretty easy to predict.
edit: I didn't realize they did a tournament seeding with these selections. That makes more sense. Poor Ryan Tannehill is at the end of a 1-16 match-up with RGIII. That's a little harsh in the seedings.

I wonder what's more humiliating for poor Reggie Wayne : that's he's listed amongst the Old-School match-ups immediately after a Pro Bowl season, or that they've listed him as a Dallas Cowboy?

Bump

Tonight on SportsNation, the winner of the cover will be announced.

It's between Barry Sanders and Adrian Peterson.

Looking forward to people shitting on this game in August saying it's the worst Madden game ever like every season. Madden 13 got crapped on alot last year.

Barry

Good for BS.

It's hard to believe the cover athlete of the past two games will be back to back Detroit Lions.

I know. They can't even put together back to back WINS.

I am curious what this Sunday Ticket 17 week Trial code you get with the Anniversary Edition. Will I be able to watch Sunday Ticket for free without a Directv subscription? I know it's $300 normally but was thinking of purchasing the Anniversary Edition if the Sunday Ticket is included. Anyone know what the code does?

Yes, you can watch in your computer. Not sure if it will work in your PS3.

I'm back considering this deal (if DirecTV won't give me a good deal on ST) now with that Chromecast dongle.

Just bought that off Amazon yesterday for this specific purpose. Factoring the three months of Netflix streaming credit they give (that I pay every month anyway), the dongle only costs me a net price of $35-$24= $11. Hope it will work off my iPad. If not, I'll have to grab my daughter's laptop to stream.

I just realized I pre-ordered this on the PS4 instead of the PS3. Huh... if I want to play this in August, I'd better call the store and ask if they can change it.