Gridiron Notes: Ultimate Team Features

What’s up Madden fans?!

We’re back again with another edition of Gridiron Notes.

Consider this an Ultimate Version of the notes as we just completed a developer livestream showing you the new Ultimate Team features in Madden 20. This post serves as a recap of that stream.

First up, read this Ultimate Team Deep Dive blog straight from Associate Producer Jake Stein. 

If you missed the live broadcast, the stream archive and highlights are embedded throughout this post. Special thanks to the development team for diving in deep and breaking it all down.

1. When you pick three players to have Superstar Abilities will they be the ones that pop up, or is it top three OVR?

We’re able to get you halfway there. Your top three will first look for Superstar X-Factors that you’ve elected. Since you’re putting three offensive and three defensive players it will pull from this pool and take the top three highest OVR rated players. For example, if you have three offensive players who are 88 OVR and your three defensive players are 90 OVR, your top three defensive players will be selected.

2. If I’ve always been an offline solo grinder, do I have to play with a friend for new Ultimate Challenges?

At launch, the ability to play with a friend will be optional.

3. Does "Replay Challenge" erase the XP you just got, or does it send the XP to your Combined XP and you get new and more XP on the replay? Or do you have to click Next Solo or back out for the XP?

The user will get XP for every game completed, if it’s the first time or replayed (resetting from the pause menu mid-game gives you no rewards and no XP). Users will not get the UI that tells them about XP until they leave game and return to the MUT Menu. Although users can earn XP more than once, users will not earn the rewards more than once. In other words, once you have earned the three-star reward you will not get it again but you can still earn the four, or five-star reward.

4. Will every player be able to have abilities still, or is it only going to be the three offensive and three defensive players?

Technically you will get to the point where you can equip Zone abilities and Superstar abilities on every player in your lineup. However, you will only have the ability to have three offensive players and three defensive players “active” at one given time.

5. Can we still play Ultimate Challenges solo? I prefer to play solo.

Yes.

6. Will there be a trade block in Madden 20?

Yes.

Next Thursday (5/23), we will be talking through Part 2 of our Madden 20 Gameplay series with another developer stream on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/eamaddennfl). This will look at Playbooks and the Run Pass Option (RPO). This will build upon the Gameplay Deep Dive Part 1 featuring Superstar X-Factor info from last week.

Set your calendar for EA Play, and more specifically Saturday, June 8. The event will feature a first look at Madden 20 gameplay along with a special guest to talk about the game. For players who live in the Los Angeles area interested in attending, you can register and get more info at the links below.

• EA Play registration: https://twitter.com/EA/status/1129069080583950336
• EA Play FAQ: https://www.ea.com/eaplay2019/faq

Madden NFL 20 is out worldwide on August 2. Pre-order the Superstar Edition and play 3 days early. Stay in the conversation by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and EA Forums. Sign up for the Newsletter today to receive updates on Madden, and other EA news, products, and events, all season long.