It's in the Game: Madden NFL

I can't believe anyone could give this lower than a 10? I have been playing Madden and video games since the early 80's and this was a clear/informative series of all the ins and outs of the history of EA Sports/Madden video games! Not to mention the competition they faced from the other football video games ! I'm so grateful and fortunate to have such fond memories of playing their games over the years with friends and family! Stuff we still talk about years later and until we die.

Thank you EA Sports and Coach Madden for making something that makes so many people happy day after day! Football is life!

This documentary series delves into the history of the iconic Madden NFL franchise, exploring its humble beginnings and its evolution into a cultural phenomenon.

While the series may appeal more to long-time Madden fans, it's still an engaging watch for anyone interested in the history of video games and the NFL. Even if you're not a die-hard Madden fan, you'll still appreciate the series' insights into the cultural impact of the franchise and the evolution of video game technology. It's a behind-the-scenes look at how the sausage was made, and how John Madden was very much a chef in that process.

It's a fascinating look at how technology, culture, and sports have intertwined to create one of the most successful gaming franchises of all time.

First, it's worth watching and half of it is really good. The other half, however, is pure marketing BS.

I found the history, especially early history, very interesting. Unfortunately, they spent half the roughly 3 hours run time shilling Madden and promoting the series.

NFL2K was a much better series and forced EA Sports to improve their title. This series would have you believe Madden "earned " the NFL exclusive rights on merit when in reality EA purchased them, and is a real world case study on the importance of competition in economics.

Hopefully, the NFL licensing agreement will be lost and consumers can get a good competitive football sim again. For anyone who thinks that NCAA will be the catalyst, watch the story behind Joe Montana football.

It's a well made an interesting documentary. The initial episodes about the creation of the game are very interesting and it appears that people really cared about what they were building. However, when it gets into the competing games of the time it seriously suffers from only having 1 point of view. Saying that Madden was by far the better game on the market and the "closest thing to being on the field" was why the NFL wanted an exclusive agreement is a complete lie. Simply put EA just paid a huge sum to have a monopoly on the competition.

This is definitely worth a watch but take what you hear with a huge shovel of salt.

I have seen the criticism of this documentary, calling it an advertisement for the game and it makes me wonder if they even watched the full series.

The one thing that the documentary does that I didn't think they would do is criticize themselves. Everything from the failing to release Madden 96 to the death of their competition causing incompetence in the company to harsh looks in the mirror of their current state versus what they once was. I thought it was absolutely on the nose.

The documentary breaking into two parts was an interesting move. The lead up to the release of Madden 25 and the history of Madden made me in ways wish to see more of the history of Madden.

The history parts are by far the best parts of the documentary as you see all the innovations that lead to Madden being a household name. Not only do you get to see what Madden meant to the devs, but also to football culture.

A real treat for anyone who grew up playing Madden.