Madden NFL 23 - Madden Ultimate Team

Today, we’ll be talking about what’s new in Madden Ultimate Team™ starting with the Field Pass.
Field Pass

All new to Ultimate Team for Madden NFL 23 is the Field Pass. With the Field Pass providing a clear path to progression, you'll always know what you need to do next. You'll be able to see all the levels, rewards, and plenty of objectives to complete to make progress on every Field Pass. In Season 1, there will be multiple Field Passes available. Players can earn all of these rewards just by playing the game with no additional cost to access the Field Pass.
There are three primary types of Field Passes: Season, Competitive, and Ultimate Team program-specific passes. Starting with Seasonal, this Field Pass has 60 Levels of rewards ranging from coins, packs, uniforms, and even a high OVR player item. You'll begin progressing levels by completing specific objectives that are outlined within the pass. While there won’t be infinitely repeatable objectives, we will be adding more objectives periodically so you can continue to make progress. We want to make sure that progression and ability to hit the rewards you want feels achievable. You can expect Season 1 to run for ~60 days and of course, packed with content.
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Next up is the Competitive Pass which will also be available at launch. This pass includes objectives specific for our more competitive modes. Playing Solo Battles, H2H Seasons, Squads Seasons, or MUT Champions will earn you progress on the Competitive Pass. The rewards have the coins and packs that you would expect but in addition to that we will have a high OVR player item that you'll be excited to strive for. While Solo Battles and MUT Champions will continue to reset weekly, the Competitive Pass will be refreshed on a bi-weekly cadence giving you more time to work your way through the rewards track.
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And lastly, we'll have program-specific Field Passes available throughout the year. One of our launch programs called Headliners will introduce the first program-specific Field Pass. These program-specific Field Passes will have their own rewards and objectives related to the program. One more thing to note is that both the Competitive Pass and program-specific Passes will help you make progress on the seasonal Field Pass.
MUT Champions

We focused on major quality of life improvements with Weekend League, so much so, that we had to change the name. Introducing MUT Champions, the most competitive mode in Ultimate Team where you can earn the best rewards and compete at your convenience.
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We heard feedback on the time constraints that surrounded Weekend League and wanted to remove that aspect completely. Now MUT Champions will be available to play any day of the week. With a weekly reset each Monday, you’ll still be able to play up to 25 games per week.

We also added a new way to earn entry into MUT Champions by implementing Champs Entry Tokens. By making progress on the Competitive Pass, you’ll be able to earn Champs Entry Tokens and exchange one to access MUT Champions for that week. Since Champ Entry Tokens are items in your binder and never expire, you can save them to use in the current Field Pass season of MUT Champions.
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Lastly, we wanted players to have their rewards instantly based on their performance in MUT Champions. Rather than wait until the following Tuesday, you will receive your MUT Champions rewards immediately after your game is complete.
Sets 2.0

Sets have always contained some of the best content within Ultimate Team but required a lot of navigation to complete. This year, we revisited how Sets function to not only reduce unnecessary friction, but also reduced the amount of button presses needed to complete a set in Madden NFL 23 from upwards of 80, all the way down to 3.
Sets will now be accessible from inside your Item Binder. From your Item Binder, you can toggle over and immediately access Sets and clearly see the Set rewards. With Sets being a part of the Item Binder, you will get the benefits of the Item Binder like being able to filter Sets by position or program.
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Beyond simply moving where Sets are located, we also revamped how you complete a Set. For all Sets, we will automatically check your inventory for the lowest cost, unused, and non-favorited items needed to complete that Set. All you have to do is highlight the Reward you want and press the “Redeem” button. You will also see what items will be pulled into that Set and whether or not those items can be used in other Sets. If you want full control over what items you want to exchange, that option is still available.

Another change coming with Sets is Account-Bound Item Returns. In previous years, the only way you could get items back from completing a Set was through a Fantasy Pack. Now some Sets, starting with the Champion Sets in one of our launch programs, will automatically return the items that you use to complete them as Account-Bound items. Account-Bound items will be denoted with a “BND” tag on the item and come with a reduced quicksell value. Be sure to check the description of the Set that you’re completing to see if your items will return to you.
Competitive Play

For Solo Battles, we wanted to offer more opportunities to earn rewards and to do so, we are now refreshing your opponents daily. Now, you’ll have four fresh Solo Battle games to play each day, or up to 28 games per week, to earn rewards. The other key change to Solo Battles this year is how you’ll earn your rewards. While you’ll still be able to see your Battlescore and tier you achieved, making progress through the Competitive Pass will be the main way to earn rewards for Solo Battles. We’ll have specific Objectives on the Competitive Pass where you can earn rewards based upon your number of wins and the difficulty level you play on.
As for H2H Seasons, we have adjusted the number of games for each division and the number of divisions down a bit. We want players to compete in Super Bowls more frequently for the chance to earn better rewards. With eight games total in a season and six total divisions, you’ll be able to get into the intense action of the playoffs much more frequently.
For MUT Draft, we have removed Ranked in effort to create healthier matchmaking pools. We are committing to more regular updates to the draft pool throughout the year to keep content fresh. Additionally, Salary Cap has been removed from Ultimate Team. We have opted to take the efforts needed to maintain these modes and redirect them towards features that benefit Ultimate Team as a whole.
Player Items

One of the first things you will notice when you enter Ultimate Team is your player’s starting OVRs. We raised the OVRs of our starter teams to make those players more viable at the start of the year and to create a better gameplay experience from the moment you start playing. We’ve also added some basic versions of standout players from each NFL team to the starting lineups. You’ll receive these players based on the team you select as your favorite team when you start playing Madden NFL 23.
We also took a look at our Power Up system to reassess the overall design intention of Power Ups. Power Ups evolved to the point of needing several items of a player and required additional resources to build up to the best version of that player. All of that led to the best lineups featuring a Power Up player in nearly every position. In Madden NFL 23, we are dialing the use of Power Ups back so that when you obtain the latest and best version of a player, that’s it. You have the best version of that player.
There were some benefits to Power Ups that we are preserving, starting with ability buckets. Lower OVR Elite players will receive ability buckets filled with Abilities that pertain to that player’s archetype. Higher OVR Elite players will receive custom ability buckets that are custom-built for that specific player. You can expect custom ability buckets to contain unique features like discounted AP on certain abilities or even cross-archetype abilities.
In addition to the ability bucket changes, most elite players will have a Team Chemistry bucket for you to choose one chemistry from the teams that the player has played for. You will also have the ability to swap out player art when applicable.
All this being said, you will not be seeing the traditional purple Power Up items in Ultimate Team. However, some programs may feature a similar design to collect all versions of a particular player. For example, in our Legends program, you can collect the low OVR version of a given Legend, then collect their Moment, Season, and Boss editions to make the ultimate version of that player.
These changes are a part of our overall goal of streamlining your experience by taking out some of the unnecessary maintenance that gets in the way of building your Ultimate Team.

Strategy Items

We have also heard feedback on Strategy Items and looked to address some pain points for players. First and foremost, you’ll notice it’s much easier to view which attributes are being boosted and by how much.
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We also revamped and simplified the Strategy Item system by reducing the total number of Strategy Item slots to three: offense, defense, and the new Team Affinity Strategy Item slot where you can receive additional team chemistry boosts. We have also removed the Speed boost from any Core Strategy Item.

We have also added a few additional ways to obtain Strategy Items, including earning them on the Field Pass, Strategy Item pack offers in the store, and in Madden NFL 23 they will be auctionable so you can easily obtain the one you need.