Madden NFL 16 goes free on EA Access next week

Madden NFL 16 will be available free to EA Access subscribers in The Vault as of Feb. 2, publisher Electronic Arts announced yesterday.

Just in time for Super Bowl 50 — which will be played Feb. 7 between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos — football fans will be able to jump into the latest Madden game and try out features like the popular new Draft Champions mode.

This will be the third consecutive Madden title to be added to the EA Access Vault, following 2013's Madden NFL 25 and 2014's Madden NFL 15. But for the first time, EA is making the newest edition of Madden free before the Super Bowl. (Madden 15 didn't join The Vault until March 2015, more than a month after the end of the 2014 NFL season.)

Madden 16 will be the first game from last year's crop of EA Sports titles to appear in The Vault, which makes sense, since — with a launch in August — it takes the earliest slot in EA's annual sports schedule. Other free titles include Battlefield Hardline, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.

EA Access, which is available exclusively on Xbox One, costs $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year.