Madden NFL 13 is an American football video game based on the National Football League, published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. EA's Chief Creative Officer, Richard Hilleman, said that defense would receive various changes in mechanics and controls, one of the first known changes in the game.[6] The 24th installment of the Madden NFL series, the game was released in 2012. For the first time in the series, the game was officially released in Brazil, due to the explosive growth of the sport in the country.[7] This was the last Madden game released on the Wii, the first and only to be released on the Wii U and PlayStation Vita, and the final in the series to be available for non-mobile phone handhelds and Nintendo systems. It was the first game of the series since Madden NFL 2002 to not feature EA Trax and instead only had instrumental music, which was met with criticism.[8]
A 64-player fan vote tournament to determine the cover athlete began on March 7, 2012. The vote-in round matched up a pair of teammates from each of the 32 NFL teams, the winners of which were seeded in a 32-player bracket. The cover features Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions.[9