Madden NFL 21 Makes A Huge Change To The Controls

As part of a Madden NFL 21 livestream broadcast, EA Sports announced that the new professional football game will include one of the biggest changes in years to how the game controls.

The ball-carrier controls are changing dramatically. There is now a greater variety of skill moves, which you can access from the right stick exclusively. As you can see in the controller map below, pushing the right stick up now performs a hurdle--in the past, this performed a truck move. Pushing down on the right now creates the new dead leg move. Moving the right stick to either side performs a juke, while a spin move is controlled by rotating the right stick.

The "power" running moves are now on the face buttons. As you can see, truck is now performed with the Y button on Xbox One. You can see the full controller map below.

The developers said they are making these changes--which might not stick--to help players chain moves together more easily and fluidly to play with style and flair. Players who are accepted into the Madden NFL 21 closed beta can test out these new controls. And producer Clint Oldenburg said their feedback will be instrumental--he also said EA may choose to scrap these changes based on feedback.

For lots more on Madden NFL 21, you can read the ridiculously in-depth "Gridiron Notes" here that explain what's new in this year's game.

Madden NFL 21 launches in August for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It's also coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X when those consoles release this holiday season.