It's in the Game: Madden NFL

The documentary is a glorified PR piece not an honest examination of EA's monopoly on football video games. Since acquiring exclusive NFL rights, EA has ruined what was once a thriving, innovative gaming genre. The series has been on autopilot for years, recycling the same clunky mechanics, outdated animations, and buggy gameplay with little effort to improve. Meanwhile, the lack of competition has stifled creativity and left fans yearning for the golden days of games like NFL 2K.

This documentary conveniently sidesteps EA's role in degrading the football gaming experience, choosing instead to focus on nostalgia and surface-level praise. There's no accountability for the bare-minimum annual updates that feel more like expensive roster patches than new games. If you're hoping for an honest critique of how exclusivity has harmed the industry, you'll be sorely disappointed. Save yourself the time-this documentary is as uninspired as Madden's franchise mode has been for the past decade.

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!

Despite a lot of harsh criticism of the documentary I've been seeing, the film presents a lot of interesting perspectives and even those you wouldn't expect to see in a doc of this sort.

It's clear the team behind the project carry the same amount of love and support that fans have for the game and its long history. As someebody who constantly grew up surrounded by this series of games, I found this to be an interesting look behind the curtain that made me appreciate the games even more and want to boot up my old console and toss in the last Madden game I bought.

An overall enjoyable and informative watch that I would recommend to any fan of the game.

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.

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.