Let me give all due credit to the team that built that,” Graddy said. “All of the modes are getting a little bit of love at some level,” this year, he added, “We tried to address at least a couple [of criticisms] regardless. Our focus is to  Madden Mobile Coins still do things differently; we want to build a game for a younger, new demographic.”

Graddy is leaving a Madden NFL development team that did not have the same kind of wilderness period as NBA Live but did go through some soul-searching of its own that established five years of development goals, beginning in 2012. Carlos Guerrero is the game’s new senior producer, in a reorganization that has consolidated creative director duties into a single role (Mike Young). Young’s baby was Longshot, Madden NFL 18’s foray into a story-based mode. EA announced Madden NFL 19’s launch date (Aug. 10) just yesterday but still has a lot more to talk about with the game, including what many people expect will be another chapter of Longshot.

Otherwise, among the features confirmed so far are a custom draft class creator for the game’s mainstay franchise mode, and the introduction of Real Player Motion Technology, a new animation system that Guerrero says will be more responsive and deliver truer gameplay.