NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Electronic Arts Inc.'s (ERTS) Madden brand has fended
off a blitz of pro football videogame challengers.
EA, based in Redwood City, Calif., has sold more than 32 million copies of its
football franchise since "Madden NFL Football" debuted in 1989. Although
competition in the market has increased with titles including Sega Corp.'s
(7964.TO) "ESPN NFL Football," Sony Corp.'s (SNE) "NFL GameDay 2004" and
Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) "NFL Fever 2004," "Madden " remains for now the
dominant title.
PlayStation 2 sales of "Madden NFL 2004" - the latest update in the annual
series - generated more revenue in August than all other console games in the
top 10 combined, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel.
The game is popular with NFL players. "Everybody is playing 'Madden' around
the league," New York Giants safety Shaun Williams says. Ray Mickens, a
cornerback for the New York Jets, says he plays "Madden " at least two or three
times a week. Mickens occasionally uses the game's online feature, logging on
anonymously and taking on any gamers willing to challenge him.
John Madden, the game's namesake and currently an analyst for Monday Night
Football, made his mark as a coach, guiding the Oakland Raiders to victory in
Super Bowl XI. Madden , 67 years old, recently talked to the Online Journal
about how the "Madden " game has evolved -- and whether he's any good at it.
WSJ.com: What was your vision when you originally got involved with the
development of a football videogame?
A: My vision (in the early '80s) was to make a football educational tool for
computers. I just got out of coaching and I was teaching classes for football -
football for fans. I was thinking that this was the way to go. Computers were
coming in. We'll start to get football on computers. People can do things with
the players, move them around. Maybe use it as a coaching tool...The idea when
we started this was, it was going to be a game, but it was going to be more of
an educational game for computers, because this was really before videogames.
So, where we started and where we ended up were two totally different things.
Q: How realistic has the game become?
A: When I first started with this, I wanted it to be as realistic as you can
make it. So, every year, the goal is to become more realistic. One of the first
things I said was that we would have to have 11 men on a team. And they said,
"Oh no." But I said, then it's not a football game. If you have five
guys...that's not football. And since my background is really NFL and pro
football, it had to be an NFL pro football type of game. So, getting the
linemen in there. It took years to do this. Getting defense and being able to
control defense. And all these types of things. And that's what I look for now.
We have a saying, "If it's in the game, it's in the game." So whatever happens
during the season in a game, I make sure it gets in the videogame.
When teams use multiple formations: two tight-ends, two wide receivers, three
wide receivers, four wide receivers, empty backfields - all those types of
things - blitzes, we got them in the game. So, you don't watch one game on
television or in person and then play another game in the videogame.
I remember when we first started, we wanted our game to look like television.
And a couple years ago, when I was at Fox, we had a meeting, and they are
saying, we've got to get a videogame look about our game. (Laughs.) And I'm
thinking, we've gone full circle now.
Q: What aspect of the game is the most difficult to replicate?
A: All of the movement...We are talking about a process now of 15 or 20 years.
We were able to get speed going straight up the field. But not the same speed
across the field. Now we have speed across the field and up the field. Being
able to blitz and get the blitzes blocked. Being able to get the different
formations in and adjust to those formations.
Q: How accurate of a simulation has the game become? What is the next step?
A: Well, it's very accurate. And my test of accuracy has always been the
number of players in the NFL that play it. And that's a big thing. This isn't
something that kids start playing when they are six or seven years old and play
until they turn 12. They start at six, seven, eight years old and they play in
college and they are still playing when they get out of college. Or if they go
into pro football, they still play. We have some of them that are just great
players. I was reading where Dante Hall, the punt returner for the Kansas City
Chiefs, who has those four returns for touchdowns, was saying he scored four or
five returns in Madden football. So, he's doing the same thing in the videogame
and then he does it on the field. And to me, that's a statement.
Q: What type of reaction have you gotten from the players?
A: The players all have the same complaint. That they don't have enough juice.
In fact, I got a complaint from Dante Hall during the preseason. I was at their
training camp, and he came over to me and said that he didn't have enough
speed. That he's faster than that. That's the biggest complaint. They are
always faster than you put them and they are always faster than some other guy.
These guys are so competitive as players, that they know how fast they run and
they know how fast someone else runs, and if you have someone else faster than
them, that they are faster than, they will tell you about it. I've only had one
player that's ever told me that he's not as good in real life as he is in the
videogame, and that was Emmitt Smith. Emmitt Smith, when he was down in Dallas,
this was five or six years ago, came up to me and said "You got me too good in
the game. I'm not that good. I can't play that well." But every other guy
complains. And the complaint is always about the same thing - speed.
Q: How involved in the (player) ratings are you?
A: I'm very involved. That's the whole thing. I'm involved in all the football
and all the rankings...The thing we have to work on is, the guy that is going
to be faster, can't always be faster. In other words, we have Mike Vick, and
he's injured right now for the Atlanta Falcons. He's the fastest quarterback in
football. One of the fastest players in football. But you have to put a
percentage on it and make it where he's not always the fastest. You have to be
able to contain him. To stop him. That's the thing. You can't just put a speed
rating on a guy and every time he gets the ball, just outrun everyone. So there
has to be those things, those probabilities have to be put into it.
Q: How would you like to see the game improved?
A: Just staying up with the game as it's played. That's the advantage that we
have. The NFL changes all the time, and it changes personnel. So you have to
stay up with that. If a player played for one team one year and you come out
the next year, you have to have him on the new team he is playing for...because
gamers understand that. If there is a new rule, it has to be in the game. If
there is a new thing that they are doing, it has to be in the game. Like I
said, you have to have empty backfields, you have to have shotguns, you have to
be able to do those things. And to me, the way to improve it is just to stay up
with it. Tampa Bay, last year, started the bunch formation, so you've got to
get that into the game.
And then, better graphics. I remember one time, walking into a meeting and
(there was a picture of Jerry Rice on a monitor)...and I thought that it was a
television picture where they just froze Jerry Rice, but that was Jerry Rice in
the (video) game. Complete with the Breathe Right thing on his nose. It looks
more like him than he looks. We've come so far in graphics.
Q: Do you ever play "Madden " yourself?
A: Yeah, I play. But I'm not really that good. I never was very good. I never
started out playing very well. But what I do is, I learn more from having a
person playing against the computer and watching them, or having two players
play one another, that are close in skill levels, and watch them play, kind of
like how I would watch a game on television or tape and see what's right or
wrong. And when I get together with EA guys, and they play, I watch how they
play and what they do. My input comes more from watching good players play, and
then saying this is what we have to do. This is what we have to change. Rather
than playing the game myself. Because to be honest, I know the game and I know
what you have to do and what the game is trying to do, but I'm not up there
where I'm a good enough player.
off a blitz of pro football videogame challengers.
EA, based in Redwood City, Calif., has sold more than 32 million copies of its
football franchise since "Madden NFL Football" debuted in 1989. Although
competition in the market has increased with titles including Sega Corp.'s
(7964.TO) "ESPN NFL Football," Sony Corp.'s (SNE) "NFL GameDay 2004" and
Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) "NFL Fever 2004," "Madden " remains for now the
dominant title.
PlayStation 2 sales of "Madden NFL 2004" - the latest update in the annual
series - generated more revenue in August than all other console games in the
top 10 combined, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel.
The game is popular with NFL players. "Everybody is playing 'Madden' around
the league," New York Giants safety Shaun Williams says. Ray Mickens, a
cornerback for the New York Jets, says he plays "Madden " at least two or three
times a week. Mickens occasionally uses the game's online feature, logging on
anonymously and taking on any gamers willing to challenge him.
John Madden, the game's namesake and currently an analyst for Monday Night
Football, made his mark as a coach, guiding the Oakland Raiders to victory in
Super Bowl XI. Madden , 67 years old, recently talked to the Online Journal
about how the "Madden " game has evolved -- and whether he's any good at it.
WSJ.com: What was your vision when you originally got involved with the
development of a football videogame?
A: My vision (in the early '80s) was to make a football educational tool for
computers. I just got out of coaching and I was teaching classes for football -
football for fans. I was thinking that this was the way to go. Computers were
coming in. We'll start to get football on computers. People can do things with
the players, move them around. Maybe use it as a coaching tool...The idea when
we started this was, it was going to be a game, but it was going to be more of
an educational game for computers, because this was really before videogames.
So, where we started and where we ended up were two totally different things.
Q: How realistic has the game become?
A: When I first started with this, I wanted it to be as realistic as you can
make it. So, every year, the goal is to become more realistic. One of the first
things I said was that we would have to have 11 men on a team. And they said,
"Oh no." But I said, then it's not a football game. If you have five
guys...that's not football. And since my background is really NFL and pro
football, it had to be an NFL pro football type of game. So, getting the
linemen in there. It took years to do this. Getting defense and being able to
control defense. And all these types of things. And that's what I look for now.
We have a saying, "If it's in the game, it's in the game." So whatever happens
during the season in a game, I make sure it gets in the videogame.
When teams use multiple formations: two tight-ends, two wide receivers, three
wide receivers, four wide receivers, empty backfields - all those types of
things - blitzes, we got them in the game. So, you don't watch one game on
television or in person and then play another game in the videogame.
I remember when we first started, we wanted our game to look like television.
And a couple years ago, when I was at Fox, we had a meeting, and they are
saying, we've got to get a videogame look about our game. (Laughs.) And I'm
thinking, we've gone full circle now.
Q: What aspect of the game is the most difficult to replicate?
A: All of the movement...We are talking about a process now of 15 or 20 years.
We were able to get speed going straight up the field. But not the same speed
across the field. Now we have speed across the field and up the field. Being
able to blitz and get the blitzes blocked. Being able to get the different
formations in and adjust to those formations.
Q: How accurate of a simulation has the game become? What is the next step?
A: Well, it's very accurate. And my test of accuracy has always been the
number of players in the NFL that play it. And that's a big thing. This isn't
something that kids start playing when they are six or seven years old and play
until they turn 12. They start at six, seven, eight years old and they play in
college and they are still playing when they get out of college. Or if they go
into pro football, they still play. We have some of them that are just great
players. I was reading where Dante Hall, the punt returner for the Kansas City
Chiefs, who has those four returns for touchdowns, was saying he scored four or
five returns in Madden football. So, he's doing the same thing in the videogame
and then he does it on the field. And to me, that's a statement.
Q: What type of reaction have you gotten from the players?
A: The players all have the same complaint. That they don't have enough juice.
In fact, I got a complaint from Dante Hall during the preseason. I was at their
training camp, and he came over to me and said that he didn't have enough
speed. That he's faster than that. That's the biggest complaint. They are
always faster than you put them and they are always faster than some other guy.
These guys are so competitive as players, that they know how fast they run and
they know how fast someone else runs, and if you have someone else faster than
them, that they are faster than, they will tell you about it. I've only had one
player that's ever told me that he's not as good in real life as he is in the
videogame, and that was Emmitt Smith. Emmitt Smith, when he was down in Dallas,
this was five or six years ago, came up to me and said "You got me too good in
the game. I'm not that good. I can't play that well." But every other guy
complains. And the complaint is always about the same thing - speed.
Q: How involved in the (player) ratings are you?
A: I'm very involved. That's the whole thing. I'm involved in all the football
and all the rankings...The thing we have to work on is, the guy that is going
to be faster, can't always be faster. In other words, we have Mike Vick, and
he's injured right now for the Atlanta Falcons. He's the fastest quarterback in
football. One of the fastest players in football. But you have to put a
percentage on it and make it where he's not always the fastest. You have to be
able to contain him. To stop him. That's the thing. You can't just put a speed
rating on a guy and every time he gets the ball, just outrun everyone. So there
has to be those things, those probabilities have to be put into it.
Q: How would you like to see the game improved?
A: Just staying up with the game as it's played. That's the advantage that we
have. The NFL changes all the time, and it changes personnel. So you have to
stay up with that. If a player played for one team one year and you come out
the next year, you have to have him on the new team he is playing for...because
gamers understand that. If there is a new rule, it has to be in the game. If
there is a new thing that they are doing, it has to be in the game. Like I
said, you have to have empty backfields, you have to have shotguns, you have to
be able to do those things. And to me, the way to improve it is just to stay up
with it. Tampa Bay, last year, started the bunch formation, so you've got to
get that into the game.
And then, better graphics. I remember one time, walking into a meeting and
(there was a picture of Jerry Rice on a monitor)...and I thought that it was a
television picture where they just froze Jerry Rice, but that was Jerry Rice in
the (video) game. Complete with the Breathe Right thing on his nose. It looks
more like him than he looks. We've come so far in graphics.
Q: Do you ever play "Madden " yourself?
A: Yeah, I play. But I'm not really that good. I never was very good. I never
started out playing very well. But what I do is, I learn more from having a
person playing against the computer and watching them, or having two players
play one another, that are close in skill levels, and watch them play, kind of
like how I would watch a game on television or tape and see what's right or
wrong. And when I get together with EA guys, and they play, I watch how they
play and what they do. My input comes more from watching good players play, and
then saying this is what we have to do. This is what we have to change. Rather
than playing the game myself. Because to be honest, I know the game and I know
what you have to do and what the game is trying to do, but I'm not up there
where I'm a good enough player.
