It’s been twenty-five years since the first iteration of John Madden Football that released on the Apple II, MS-DOS and Commodore platforms. Midi-sound and 2D graphics were all the rage in those days.
Through the years, the game franchise has survived the Madden Curse, endured various lawsuits, secured NFL exclusivity eliminating, and competition and has been available on every major platform to date – from those with just a few megabytes of memory, to today’s super systems with Seagate drives inside.
The yearly iteration of Madden NFL (which it was renamed from John Madden Football around ’93) brought about new gameplay changes, updated rosters or uniforms, and as online play became more popular, many enhancements to make a robust game system worthy of the price tag. Or was it?
Many within the gaming community feel that the yearly updates to Madden NFL could have been handled through downloadable content (DLC) and didn’t see the value in having to buy a new disc year over year. But that’s not the moral of this story.
What is the moral is, however, is that time has been very kind to Madden NFL. Other NFL titles (NFL 2K, NFL Blitz, Tecmo Bowl, and more) have all fallen to the wayside for various reasons – that whole NFL exclusive thing being one of them.
For a product to endure twenty-five years is no easy feat, especially for one that has had to evolve as the times have evolved. Just imagine data accrued over the years, the design changes that have happened from 1988 to present day and the countless meetings for the next iteration that probably start weeks after a product has launched. Having worked at EA in a past life, I’ve been there.
Congratulations, EA Tiburon, for reaching this milestone. Happy anniversary, and I’m looking forward to another twenty-five years.
Madden NFL 25 is available now so check the official site for purchase options.
Leave A Comment