Madden NFL 17 Official Release Date Revealed

Madden NFL 17 is the 2016 installment in EA Sports' Madden NFL franchise and it will be released August 23rd.

EA also announced today that a debut gameplay trailer for Madden 17 and the game's cover athlete will be revealed during Thursday's 6 PM ET (May 12) ESPN's SportsCenter edition. They held a fan vote for the Madden box art annually that lasted for six years and this will be the first time since 2009's Madden NFL 10 that the publisher will get to choose the cover of the athlete and not the fans. In previous years, EA conducted a cover vote, but was abandoned later this year.

Releasing the game in August is not a big surprise as that has always been the schedule for Madden games. Odell Beckham Jr, the last year's game cover star hopes that he will do the honor again this year. The football star posted a tweet, asking if there's a possibility with EA stating that the fans will the ones who will find out the next cover star on Thursday, so maybe Beckham Jr still has his chance.

Fans with last year's copy shouldn't sell it right away. EA has also added that bunch of new rookies will be available for players to use and train. It's a good gesture, one that fans will surely appreciate, as they won't have to throw their old game while they anticipate this year's title.

Right now, no new features have been announced for the game, but there are still couple of months left before Madden 17 is released, so there's plenty of time before the announcement.

Madden NFL 17 will arrive for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Members with EA Access will be able to play the game for a limited time ahead of the release, as a part of the Play First Trial that's exclusive to Xbox One owners. The game is being developed by EA Tiburon, a company who has been working on the past annual series for over 25 years.