August has arrived, and for sports fans, that means the NFL pre-season is here at last. There is just one month left before the NFL regular season begins on September 9, bringing with it a summer and fall full of gridiron action to end 2021 strong. Capitalizing on that NFL excitement, as ever, is Electronic Arts' annual football game Madden NFL. Madden NFL 22 releases August 20, ahead of the NFL's start, but for those unwilling to wait, EA's now confirmed Madden NFL 22's early access release date.
EA offers two different levels of content with its EA Play and EA Play Pro subscriptions, both of which include early access to upcoming games. Madden NFL 22's early access will begin on August 12 and holds to all of the typical rules for EA Play early access. That means that subscribers will have just 10 total hours of early access to try Madden NFL 22 out before launch. Anything beyond that will mean waiting until the full launch on August 20.
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As part of its early access for Madden NFL 22 announcement, EA calls attention to some of the content available to EA Play subscribers. Specifically mentioned are exclusive Madden Ultimate Team challenges that will disappear on August 20 when the full game arrives. Completing these EA Play challenges will reward players with 1000 coins, a Tom Brady or Patrick Maholmes Power Up Pack, an Elite 80+ OVR WR Fantasy Pack, and an exclusive EA Play Power Up piece of art.
Otherwise, Madden NFL 22 players will have access to much of the game's full content as part of the preview. On one end, that includes the Madden football gameplay that players expect, built out with Dynamic Gameday franchise features. And on the other end, that includes the Madden Ultimate Team campaign mode, which lets players play through entire NFL seasons with their own squad, and its returning Team Affinity feature.
EA also issued an update for Madden NFL 22 playtest players worried about certain aspects of the game. EA plans on delivering a patch that will address several problems that players called out. The update should make receivers and defensive backs more aggressive in attacking the ball, improve player movement speed, and fix some bugs and crashes as well.
Madden NFL 22 isn't looking to reinvent the wheel, and it isn't like the development team at EA has the time to make dramatic changes year to year anyway. That said, it's the first Madden game ready for next-gen consoles at launch and arrives at the head of a very exciting year in the NFL. That should be more than enough for fans.
Madden NFL 22 releases August 20 on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.