Madden s Newest Battle Pass Is A Confusing Unforced Error

Madden NFL is touted as having new and exciting presentation elements with every new installment in the series. These elements, such as commentary, field-level camera work, and halftime shows, are inconsistent at best and tend to leave a lot to be desired, especially when you compare them to the same aspects of games like NBA 2K and MLB The Show. But the latest presentation gaffe in Madden 25 feels like a strangely unforced error.

In the most recent patch, the EA Orlando team introduced the Team Pass, a new battle pass-like cosmetic rewards tree that offers both free and paid unlockables that amount to player banner customization options. You can unlock things like profile pictures, backgrounds, and borders, just like you can in Call of Duty or many other games. These cosmetics are all centered around one particular team of a player's choosing and are meant to be proudly displayed in-game.

In practice, this means the scorebug in any game replaces the logo of the team you're playing as with imagery based on the team you chose in the Team Pass. This is a reasonably innocuous feature for game modes like the arcadey Superstar Showdown and the fantasy-sports-inspired Ultimate Team (MUT). However, forcing this cosmetic change in Franchise mode quickly becomes an eyesore given players are tied to the hip with one particular team--and not necessarily the same team as that in their Team Pass--and are much more likely to be interested in simulating the product they see on TV.