Madden NFL 26 release date leaked ahead of official announcement

EA Sports Madden NFL 26’s release date has been leaked by a reliable insider.

Dealabs writer billbil-kun, who has a lengthy track record of correctly revealing unannounced information on hardware and software, including release dates, has shared new information on Electronic Arts [1,738 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/electronic-arts/”>EA‘s next American football title.

According to the insider, EA Sports [379 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/electronic-arts/ea-sports/”>EA Sports Madden NFL 26 will be released on August 14, the same week as the NFL’s Preseason starts and a couple of weeks before the main season starts on September 4.

Billbil-kun also says the game will have  Deluxe Edition which gives players three days early access (from August 11), and that EA Play members (including Xbox [9,760 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/xbox/”>Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers) will get a 10-hour trial, also starting on August 11.

The insider suggests that the game is likely to be officially announced some time this week, at which point it’s expected to be revealed whether it will be released on just PlayStation 5 [7,653 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/ps5/”>PS5, Xbox Series X | S [6,233 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/xbox/seriesxs/”>Xbox Series X/S and PC [10,960 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/pc/”>PC or other formats too.

Crucially, this means we should find out whether Madden NFL 26 will be coming to Nintendo Switch 2 [240 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/nintendo/nintendo-switch-2/”>Switch 2, or whether Nintendo [5,213 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/nintendo/”>Nintendo‘s new console will have to wait for either next year’s game or a bespoke standalone edition to follow at a later time.

Earlier this month EA Sports confirmed that the Madden NFL series will be coming to Switch 2 eventually – a notable announcement for American football-loving Nintendo players, because there hasn’t been a Madden game on a Nintendo system for 13 years.

The last Madden NFL game to be released on a Nintendo system was Madden NFL 13, which was released on Wii on August 28, 2012 and later came to Wii U [367 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/nintendo/wiiu/”>Wii U on November 18, 2012.

Following the release of this edition, EA opted to stop making Madden NFL games for the Wii U, a decision it stuck with over the course of the Nintendo Switch [5,211 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/nintendo/switch/”>Switch’s life.

The official announcement may also reveal whether Madden NFL 26 will be released on PlayStation 4 [8,169 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/ps4/”>PS4 and Xbox One [6,771 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/xbox/xb1/”>Xbox One, or whether EA is planning to stop supporting last-gen consoles altogether.

The decision has already been made for the upcoming F1 25, also from EA. While last year’s F1 game was released on last-gen formats too, F1 25 will only be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.