Madden NFL 24 Playbook Changes Help Demonstrate AI Improvements

One of the biggest innovations Madden NFL 24 is bringing to the table is the increased focus on what the team at Electronic Arts calls “foundational football.” Essentially, this means that Madden 24 is trying to up the realism across the game, making key improvements to things like player skeletons, AI, and several other areas. Of course, these tweaks can be tough for the developers to surface, especially for more casual players. That said, one way that the dev team can do this is through the changes to the playbook and how plays are called. Today, EA shared a few highlights of how it’s using the Madden NFL 24 playbook to give players a look behind the curtain at all of the new AI improvements.

In a short sitdown interview with EA game designer Anthony White, players got to see some of the many changes coming to the playbook in Madden NFL 24. Potentially the biggest thing we saw is the way the AI uses its own playbook to best suit the players it’s using. As seen in the footage, if the computer is using the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s going to be more likely to use Patrick Mahomes’ cannon of an arm to throw the deep ball early and often. Not only that, but they’ll also call more plays for mobile quarterbacks like Mahomes to get them out of the pocket and improvising. 

White also highlighted how the AI is now better reacting to your playcalling. Madden has tried to do this in the past to various levels of success, but the idea is that, if you call the same play over and over again, the AI will adjust its playcalling and sniff your play out. Again, we’ve seen the team try this in the past, so we’ll have to wait until the game is in players’ hands to know how well it’s working this time, but it’s definitely a welcome feature if it works because it means you’ll have to use more of your playbook.

Fortunately, we don’t have to wait too much longer to test all of these new playcalls out ourselves. Madden NFL 24 launches on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms on August 18, though you can get in later today if you order the Deluxe Edition with the three days of early access bonus.