Holy crap, 2K is actually updating Play Now Online (PNO) in NBA 2K25. We’re not even sure if it’s a good update, but they’re actually changing the mode. This confirms 2K does know the mode still exists.
KG, hit ’em with it!
To be clear, I’m not even quite sure how this new system will work, but let me take you through what 2K put together on the PlayStation Blog. We’re going back to a ranking system with what I assume to be matchmaking within those tiers. So you’ll battle through Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and then hit the GOAT tier. Assuming enough people are playing, I would think 2K will always try to match a Bronze player with another Bronze player and so on.
You will be accruing Victory Points with wins that eventually add up to get you to the next tier, but it’s not clear if you will lose points with a loss. In other words, I don’t know if just grinding out wins will get you through these tiers regardless of how many losses you rack up, but my guess is total wins will be all that matters.
As you get to new tiers, you also get more teams to select (you start with just the 30 NBA teams):
Bronze to Silver: Unlocks ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s eras teams
Silver to Gold: Unlocks 2000s era teams
Gold to Platinum: Unlocks 2010s era teams
Platinum to GOAT: Unlocks a GOATED Team (new GOATED team each Season)
The biggest change is that you can only use the same team once every five games. Is that a good thing? I’m not sure, but the thinking is probably that you see so few teams in PNO that maybe this gets people out of their comfort zone and “proves” who is actually good with more than just the meta teams. I play and talk about PNO with some other sickos on OS, and we have some who are so steadfast about never leveling up out of the initial tier in order to avoid some of the classic cheese squads.
The same concept from old PNO versions where you are rewarded for using lesser squads does apply here as you’ll get more Victory Points by winning with crappier squads.
Tier 1 – Win with one of the top 10 overall-rated teams in the NBA to receive the smallest amount of Victory Points
Tier 2 – Win with teams ranked 11-20 overall to receive the medium amount of Victory Points
Tier 3 – Win with teams ranked 21-30 overall to receive the largest amount of Victory Points
However, I’m not sure what makes up those 30 teams once you’re out of the initial Bronze tier because I would think you can still use the standard NBA teams in all the tiers. Again, I’m just guessing, but maybe the top 20 teams are figured out depending on your tier and every team after 20 is in that Tier 3 group even as the selectable squads balloon well past 30.
It’s also not clear if teams get “blacked out” after you use them, or you can still use them but you just won’t accrue the Victory Points if you win with them during that five-game cooldown period. Finally, I don’t know what you do with the “all-time teams” you unlock when you get to GOAT tier. Yes, it’s bragging rights, but do I then get to use those teams once every five games?
Whatever the case may be, if these changes get some more people in the PNO pool, I’ll be all for it. Of course, the biggest thing I wish they’d add is a way for us to play with WNBA teams in a PNO environment (give us our own league for it, who cares if it’s just the current WNBA teams!), but it seems like 2K just does not want us to play with WNBA teams online for some reason.
EA has released a new Madden 25 gameplay video today featuring clips from two games that clock in at over 19 minutes of footage.
It’s not entirely raw gameplay, and it works like a lot of EA’s other gameplay reveals this year where it’s mixing in explaining all the changes to the game this year while two folks are playing things out. For this one, Micah Parsons and the undisputed pro of the Madden comp scene, Henry Leverette, are on the sticks.
We’ve already talked extensively about the Madden 25 gameplay, so I don’t want to really waste your time going back into things we’ve already broken down. I think the footage mostly can speak for itself, but I will say the game does feel different in your hands than it might look. I think the “feel” is better than how the game looks as a spectator, but that could just be me (and it’s based on a version of the game that wasn’t final anyway).
The one negative I will speak to from the video that bothered me the most was the lack of a pocket being made by the offensive line. It’s been a negative forever, and it just sticks out more here because other parts of the game have been improving at faster rates. Things like 15-yard dropbacks not being punished by a Nick Bosa burning around the edge, or quickly being able to spin out to the left to break the pocket with Mahomes because the edges don’t get set, and just not seeing dominant pass rushers eat up the offensive line when they don’t get cut or double teamed is a pet peeve of mine for sure.
All that said, I think it’s worth watching the video even if you’ve been playing lots of EA Sports College Football 25 as the Madden gameplay certainly comes off looking a little slower, and you can see things like Madden’s take on the new kick meter.
If there’s one area in most every sports game that is problematic on a yearly basis, it’s player progression. Whether that’s a lack of progress, too much progress, simulation vs. real game progress irregularities, or a progression system that simply can’t handle going year to year without slowly breaking, sports games have not been able to solve how to create a realistic and fun progression system.
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It’s also almost impossible to point to one thing that causes the issue. I’ll mainly use the two football games as examples here since it’s still football season, but let me be clear that they’re not the only culprits.
For EA Sports College Football 25, there’s various issues, but the overarching progression issue is that most teams get way better over time. The balance and variety to the rosters in the launch game is diminished over multiple seasons as more and more good players end up at all positions. The ironic thing here is this isn’t even a simulation vs. playing the games problem because the sim engine — a weakness in both football games likely because they use the same sim engine — leads to unrealistically low stats for multiple position groups. So even though players are not accruing tons of stats, we’re still getting more superteams.
In Madden 24, the sim engine struggles with various position groups, but while the sim engine overrates various QBs and other position groups in terms of accrued stats, things like playbooks seem to be a big issue for player progression. A team like the Chiefs will consistently have great tight ends no matter what, so losing Travis Kelce to retirement doesn’t end up really mattering much because the Chiefs playbook allows them to have great TE stats in simulated games.
Now, I will give credit to the community by saying there are some awesome folks out there who were able to tune XP sliders to get some good results for player progression (not to mention PC mods), but roster building is integral to player progression as well, and Madden 24 still was a failure there if you didn’t control every team. There’s more than one reason why that happens, but I would say it ultimately comes back to the salary cap.
I spoke a ton about the salary cap in my deep dive of Madden 25’s franchise mode, so I’m not going to belabor that aspect too much beyond saying that the salary cap needs to matter. How you build a roster does not matter if you never have to worry about the salary cap.
EA doesn’t explicitly talk about the salary cap in their deep dive, but they do mention at multiple points how AI teams will prioritize building their roster, and they do mention player progression multiple times as well.
In Madden 24, the sim engine struggles with various position groups, but while the sim engine overrates various QBs and other position groups in terms of accrued stats, things like playbooks seem to be a big issue for player progression. A team like the Chiefs will consistently have great tight ends no matter what, so losing Travis Kelce to retirement doesn’t end up really mattering much because the Chiefs playbook allows them to have great TE stats in simulated games.
Now, I will give credit to the community by saying there are some awesome folks out there who were able to tune XP sliders to get some good results for player progression, but roster building is integral to player progression as well, and Madden 24 still was a failure there if you didn’t control every team. There’s more than one reason why that happens, but I would say it ultimately comes back to the salary cap.
I spoke a ton about the salary cap in my deep dive of Madden 25’s franchise mode, so I’m not going to belabor that aspect too much beyond saying that the salary cap needs to matter. How you build a roster does not matter if you never have to worry about the salary cap.
EA doesn’t explicitly talk about the salary cap in their deep dive, but they do mention at multiple points how AI teams will prioritize building their roster, and they do mention player progression multiple times as well.
Whether or not EA is able to nail those two areas is TBD (to the highest degree), but significantly improving those two areas would undeniably be awesome for the longevity of our franchises. They mention wanting to get more Puka Nakua/Isiah Pacheco progression stories in place, which they’re focused on doing via Breakout Storylines, but on a basic level those scenarios were something you could mimic to a degree by modifying the aforementioned XP sliders last year.
On top of that, EA wants to make sure older players like Derrick Henry are not getting more speed in their age-31 seasons. I do have some confidence in them being able to pull these two examples off because we could mostly get there last year if we put in the work tuning our own settings. So if the “default” XP sliders are just close to what some on OS were already doing last year, that’s a good starting point for Madden 25’s XP system.
I’m less bullish on EA’s ability to pull off the roster building portion to this. Even if we avoid the situations where good players are rotting in free agency after a certain amount of years, here’s a couple things EA is saying will happen:
We’ll start with Contract Re-Signing logic, where teams will now prioritize extending their core young talent with a better understanding of positional value, depth and potential.
Once the future of the franchise is secure, veteran players and roster depth will be prioritized.
This mindset will extend to Franchise Tag decisions, which have been rebalanced by position and become a last resort for teams when they need to hang on to players that they want to build around.
As a result, the strategies behind Offseason Free Agency AI have shifted. A few prized talents will be highly coveted while the bulk of the signings will be made up of veterans as teams look to solidify their rosters.
Then it’s on to the Draft, where teams will primarily focus on selecting long-term cornerstone players early on and then shift their focus to adding depth in the later rounds.
Refined player progression ensures that older players regress physically as you would expect, while younger stars receive more opportunities to make an impact in the league early in their careers.
It all sounds great! And, to be clear, if it’s pulled off then these are the biggest additions to the quality of franchise mode in many years. However, I have almost no faith in the overall sim engine in EA’s football games. And, again, there’s no mention of the salary cap there.
The hope would be that because these teams are all prioritizing the same things, that talent will be paid the proper amount. If every team cares about the same key positions, they’ll be paid a proper AAV (average annual value) and make roster building elsewhere tougher. That still needs to line up with how the salary cap goes up year after year, but at least the AI teams would know what players matter.
Either way, I want to believe, but there’s no chance I’ll take EA’s word for this. I will have to see it to believe it.
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