By Reice Shipley on

On Wednesday, EA Sports shared some insight into the latest installment of the Madden video game series, Madden NFL 26, ahead of its release in August. And one interesting feature that will be included is the improvements to some of the real-life media elements involved in the game.

Obviously, no NFL broadcast is complete without a halftime show from whatever network the game is airing on..

This will be an element of the NFL viewing experience that will be included in Madden NFL 26, according to a press release filled with features included in the upcoming game released by EA Sports.

It is still unclear at this time which studio broadcast teams will be represented in the game in these halftime shows. But it was revealed that there will be “all-new custom broadcast packages” for Sunday, Monday, and Thursday primetime games. So perhaps the studio teams associated with Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, and Monday Night Football will all be featured in these new broadcast packages.

One media personality that has been confirmed to be in Madden NFL 26 is Scott Hanson, who will offer “weekly recaps” in the Madden NFL 26 Franchise Mode in addition to his responsibilities as the host of NFL RedZone for what will be his 17th season this coming year.

This is a model that football video game fans have perhaps seen in the past, with longtime ESPN studio host Chris Berman in the former ESPN NFL 2K video game series, which has been discontinued since EA Sports and the NFL came to an exclusive licensing agreement in 2004.

Whether Hanson’s role will look exactly like Berman’s or not remains to be seen. But last month, Hanson offered a bit of insight into what EA Sports was asking of him in his role on the upcoming game.

“Madden is the definitive sports video game, certainly the definitive football video game,” Hanson told On3 Sports. “It seemed to be a natural fit to take the greatest football video game of all time, and me being the voice of people’s NFL Sundays, or what they say, the voice of people’s Sundays, and put it together.

“I hope that video game fans enjoy the work that we’re doing right now in the studio. I’m already recording right now to come out in the game. I can’t give you more than that, though, because they haven’t put out the whole thing yet, but it will be fun. If you would’ve told 20-year-old Scott Hanson back in my college apartment when I was playing Madden, that I would be in Madden as one of the announcers, I would’ve passed out from excitement.”

In addition to the press release on some of the new features in Madden NFL 26, EA Sports shared their first trailer for the upcoming game on social media, which has already reached 2.8 million views and counting.

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley