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Madden NFL is an American football video game developed by Electronic Arts Tiburon (EA) for EA Sports. The Madden NFL series consistently is one of the top selling video games in
North America every year. The first version of the game was released in 1989 for the PC, as "John Madden Football". The first console version for the Sega Genesis followed in 1990 with a Super Nintendo version available a year later. EA Sports has released annual updates for all versions since 1991's "John Madden Football '92". The series gained full NFL licensing and became known as "Madden NFL" with 1993's "Madden NFL '94"; NFL players licenses came two years later.
The game is currently available for Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance. EA has already released CGI renderings for Madden NFL 2006, which is scheduled to come out next year for the Xbox 2 next-generation gaming console from Microsoft.
The game is named after John Madden, a well-known football commentator and formerly a successful football coach during the 1970s. Madden insisted that he would only give his endorsement to a game that was as close to real life football as possible.
The game has grown, refined and matured over the years, adding many new features. Among these is voice commentary, allowing players or watchers to hear the game being called as if it were a real game on TV. The commentary is by John Madden teamed with his regular broadcast partner, which meant Pat Summerall until he retired; the role is now filled by Al Michaels, John's regular broadcast partner on Monday Night Football.
There are multiple modes of play, from a quick head-to-head game to running a team for a whole season or even multiple seasons. Online play, which was a new feature for Madden NFL 2003 was only available for users of the PlayStation 2 console or a Microsoft Windows PC until earlier this year. At the E3 Expo, Microsoft and EA Sports released a press statement announcing that games made from July on will now be Xbox Live-enabled. In August of 2004, EA Sports released Madden NFL 2005 and thus became a fierce competitor in the Xbox Live Community.
On December 13, 2004, EA Sports announced it had secured exclusive rights to the NFL for the subsequent five years, precluding any other game company from selling a football game using NFL players, teams, stadiums or other licenses.
Madden curse
In recent years there seems to be a "Madden curse." The curse is that the player featured on the box will get injured or simply have a weak season. The first to fall victim to this was Eddie George of the Tennessee Titans, who graced the 2001 box. The next to fall victim in 2002 was Daunte Culpepper, of the Minnesota Vikings, who had a lackluster year and feuded with his star receiver Randy Moss. Marshall Faulk, of the St. Louis Rams, who was on the 2003 box suffered an injury. Finally (to date) Michael Vick, of the Atlanta Falcons, suffered a broken fibula in a pre-season game against Baltimore. The most recent version, Madden 2005, featured Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens.
A similar curse has sometimes manifested itself in other sports franchises. For example, ESPN NFL Football 2005's cover athlete Terrell Owens appeared in a risqué commercial for the ABC show Desperate Housewives which some found to be misogynistic or even racist, and later broke his leg, making him unavailable for the playoffs.
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