Madden Football : Evolution in Games and Effects on Pop Culture

Background InformationThirty years ago a coach named John Madden became a Super Bowl winner with his Oakland Raiders team, upon retirement he became on of the most well known and popular colour commentators for the NFL. Due to his popularity and success he was approached to become the face of a new video game using the NFL license.

Well 20 years later Madden NFL Football is one of the longest video game franchises still being distributed and is one of the highest grossing video games franchises of all time. The Madden franchise comes out with a new, innovative, and more complete game yearly and continues to push the limits on which ever system is currently on the market.

When Madden came out it was a new way we looked at football. Players were no longer just players, they had attributes and overalls and some of our favourite players on the TV were not so good in Madden. The best example for that is Brett Favre. His first appearance in the Madden game was 14 years ago and his overall at that time was a 54. Now would anyone think that 14 years later Brett Favre would be among some of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Players now these days take the Madden overalls very seriously. Player like Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald and Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck complain if they don’t think there Madden stats are high enough.

Effect on Players

Brett Favre's Overall Through the Years

52

74 71

100 98 96 97 97 9890 94 93 88 94 94

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

In 1988 the Madden game came out for the PC and due to the limitations it could only field 6 players per team. When consoles like the Genesis and SNES came out the Madden game grew and adapted to these new systems which increased the quality of the game.

It wasn’t until the new millennium when the Madden franchise blew up and became a focus for anyone who had a video game console. It was at this time more competition was being introduced with games like NFL 2K and ESPN Football. After a few years Madden became the undisputed “King” of the NFL games mainly because they bought the NFL license and all competition was eliminated.

Video Game Takeover

Player Comparison

Real Vince Young Madden 08 Vince Young

Madden 09 Sales per Console in First Month of Distribution

115,800

1,000,000643,000

424,500Wii

XBOX 360

PS3

PS2

Since players have been appearing on the cover of the Madden game that player has either suffered a season ending surgery or has had there worst season statistically as a NFL player. With Brett Favre being on this years cover it is unlikely the curse will continue mainly because Favre has never missed a game in his career and he is statistically the greatest quarterback of all time.

With things like the Madden Curse, the creation Madden Nation, and consistently creating a better game Madden football has affected the world we live in and the way people see football.

A person who knows absolutely nothing about football can pick up the game and learn the fundamentals of football and due to this it increases game attendance and audience viewing of NFL football.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Referenceshttp://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/54696

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madden_NFL

All Pictures Courtesy of Google Images

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