Yesterday, EA Sports revealed the many changes that are coming to Madden 26. Though it doesn’t have anything to do with the gameplay or new features, one of the things that caught my eye was the emphasis put on presentation.
New to Madden 26 will be three new broadcast packages, all of which are intended to focus on different primetime games: Sunday Night, Monday Night, and Thursday Night. Some eagle-eyed fans clued onto this early when the gameplay deep dive revealed three new scorebugs. Now, we haven’t seen these new broadcast packages in action. But, without seeing them, I can already kinda guess as to what we’ll see — EA’s take on primetime games, but a bit more generic.
Though Madden fans are always clamoring for realism, especially when it comes to presentation, there are obstacles in the way of this becoming an actual thing. The most important reason is that Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and Thursday Night Football are all trademarked broadcasts. NBC owns Sunday Night, ESPN owns Monday Night, and Amazon is currently in control of Thursday Night, though it’s through a sub-licensing agreement and now actually a brand for Amazon itself. This means that in order to accurately capture these games as you see them on TV, EA would have to fork out money for the licenses for those broadcasts.
Does EA have the money to afford these licenses? Perhaps, but it’s not always as clear-cut as simply buying them — some licensees will want a bit more than that, such as a share of the profits (which I can almost guarantee EA would have an issue with, but that’s just conjecture on my part). Either way, primetime broadcasts will always come with a caveat in EA-branded games.
But one content creator has shown us what a primetime game would (and should) look like when done right.
A Madden Player Recreates Sunday Night Football In Madden 25
In a video published to YouTube last week, content creator TJ with MNG Gaming showed off a Sunday Night Football concept they had created on the PC version of Madden 25. And it’s awesome!
While the in-game commentary between Mike Tirico and Greg Olsen is still a bit wooden, the opening graphics package featuring Carrie Underwood’s signature “Waiting All Day For Sunday Night” hits hard. Using in-game assets, TJ created a highlight reel, showcasing the best players from both teams (in this case, it was the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens). NBC’s signature SNF scoreboard is glorious, and is complete with its clock, timeout counter, team logos, down, and possession semi-circle. The touchdown graphic looks exactly as it does on TV as well.
Now, we all know that NBC isn’t licensing its broadcast package to Madden any time soon. But it’s a nice reminder of what should be expected of primetime broadcasts in the game. They have to feel big — like the world is watching!
Will we get this in Madden 26? We can only hope.
