In the Madden crowd

  • Associated Press
  • Saturday, August 21, 2004 9:00pm
  • Business

MAITLAND, Fla. – There are no bright stadium lights. No lights at all, except the hazy glow from dozens of computer screens scattered around the office. No rabid fans, snarling coaches or colossal players, either.

Yet this third-floor studio, tucked away in the suburbs of central Florida, is the unquestioned Mecca for football – well, the video-game version anyway.

At the offices of EA Tiburon, the developer behind the wildly popular Madden NFL Football video game series, the pops and crashes that accompany hard hits on the field are replaced by the clicks of game controllers and the swivels of joysticks.

This is where the game’s evolution from video-geek mainstay to pop-culture phenomenon began.

The game, which debuted in 1989, has mushroomed into the best-selling video title – sports or otherwise – in the country.

Last year’s edition sold more than 5 million copies, according to the NPD Group, which tracks the retail sales of U.S. video games. The game has sold more than 37 million copies in its 15-year run. This year’s edition hit shelves Aug. 12.

The game is football-star famous. In the movie “Runaway Jury,” John Cusack’s character uses it as an excuse to get out of jury duty. “MTV Cribs” and ESPN’s “SportsCenter” make regular references to Madden.

Madden NFL Football is named after former NFL coach and current sportscaster John Madden, whose frenetic sideline antics and verbose commentary have endeared him to a generation of fans. EA, or Electronic Arts Inc., sought to capture some of Madden’s emotion for the game and signed Madden to a naming rights deal.

“In Madden, you are the coach, the players, and the spectator. You get it all,” said Andrew Reiner, executive editor of Game Informer Magazine. “While it’s hard to fathom video games as a competitive sport, that is precisely what Madden has become. … Madden is the closest most people will get to the NFL.”

When Tiburon started out as a freelance game-developer in 1994 – founded by Steven Chiang, John Schappert and Jason Anderson – Madden was already a popular title, primarily produced in-house by Redwood City, Calif.-based EA, whose revenues neared $3 billion last year.

EA initially hired Tiburon to produce Madden 96 for Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, two game systems that became outdated with the introduction of Sony’s PlayStation.

Associated Press

Steven Chiang is one of the founders of Tiburon, which was hired by Electronic Arts to produce Madden 96. Last year’s edition sold more than 5 million copies.

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