EA Sports Madden NFL 20 is one of the best versions of the game ever created. Today EA Sports, the NFL and NFLPA announced a $1.5 Billion five-year extension that could turn into 6 years if certain revenue matrix are met. An additional $500 million in marketing commitments was also reached. The new deal will run through the 2025 season. During this Pandemic several sports fans including the Editor-in-Chief of the Gamebutler my 9-year-old son has been playing Madden NFL 20 on a daily basis with his friends. He has created super teams and has become a fan of my favorite team the Dallas Cowboys.
Madden was created in 1989 and has been the leader of the NFL gaming pack for over two decades. Acclaim gave them a run with Quarterback Club, Sega gave them a run with NFL 2K and Sony gave them a run with GameDay. Even ESPN tried their hand with ESPN NFL 2K5 and that game had a Canadian connection with Radical Entertainment partnering with ESPN, but
that proved to be a disaster. Not since Gordon Bellamy and Michael Rubinelli ran the Madden show for EA sports with the “Dog Pound” of programming and game play heavy lifters. They
made the series what it is today. Both Rubinelli and Bellamy should not only be in the Game Developers Hall of Fame, they should be in the NFL Hall of Fame in the builder’s category. Madden single-handedly introduced the game to three generations of gamers who became fans of the NFL because of the game.
The Madden Bowl is a staple of Super Bowl week and celebrities like Snoop Dogg and other high-profile celebrities take the tournament very seriously. Snoop often Tweets when the Madden servers are down, so much so that you would think he ran out of weed instead of not being able to play Madden. This game is great and is almost a 10 out of 10 in every category across the board. The only thing that it needs to finish the competition is a way to take your selected “Fantasy Team” or teams and put them into the game and play a full season against other Madden players. They could even charge $10 for this feature.
I have reviewed every version of Madden and I helped EA Sports get out of a huge jam back in the day. Acclaim sued Electronic Arts and EA Sports for using the NFL team colors and city names. Acclaim had the official NFL and NFL Players Association licenses for NFL Quarterback Club. The suit was huge and when I walked into the EA offices it felt like a morgue. I asked them what was happening, and they explained.
I flew back to Chicago and the Electronic Gaming Monthly offices and put together a package of Troy Aikman Football, Tecmo Bowl, Baseball 2020, and a few other games that used the professional team’s jersey colours and city names. The judge in the case threw it out and EA Sports lived to play another day.
Electronic Arts is a great company and no I don’t own any stock. But Bing Gordon and DonTranseth and other industry visionaries took the company to great heights. What people don’t know about Madden is that Visual Concepts now 2K Sports actually worked on a version of Madden back in the 1990’s. Electronic Arts wasn’t happy with the quality of the game, so they didn’t release it. That allowed Sony to release NFL Game Day and get a leg up on EA Sports. But that leg up didn’t last long.
That single confrontation in gaming history spawned the feud between Visual Concepts, 2K Sports and EA.
That rivalry has spiled over to the NBA. NBA Live used to be a player in the sports basketball genre. Now 2K Sports owns the NBA and Madden owns the NFL simulation gaming space. 2K Sports is trying to wiggle its way back into the NFL. The games will be non-simulation football game experiences. Developers haven’t been announced but HB Game studios developer of PGA 2K21 and NBA Live is being rumored to be working on one of the titles. EA Sports will continue to be the dominant NFL simulation player and they deserve it!
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