Playstation Football Games Lead The Industry

Once considered a failure due to slow development and limited technology for the majority of home users, Madden NFL has come a long way since its initial release in 1988. To date, the software title has sold better than 85 million copies that total will over 3 billion dollars in sales. Using the names of real players, real plays from professional play books, taking advantage of graphics capabilities and a real game feel are just a few of the reasons Madden football games have come to be one of the most popular playstation football games ever.

Madden was actually not the first professional approached by the developers of the game back in the 1980's. One of the top Quarterbacks at the time and other coaches were actually offered the opportunity but turned it down either though lack of interest or prior commitments.

The game has certainly grown in both style and features over the years. Updated features and new ones are implement with every game release. One of these was known as franchise mode. It was presented almost 10 years after the game was originally sold, and while other baseball games offered general manager features such as drafting and trades, Madden was the first football game to bring these options to the screen. More game modes were brought to the user with the release of the 2003 version. Of course a player could start the game and choose to simply play a single game, only now they had the options to play an entire season and even multiple seasons. It was in this version that online play was first offered, initially exclusive to uses of the playstation 2 console.

In the released version from 2004, online play was enhanced and a new addition called the playmaker tool was implemented. This feature gave the offense the ability to expand from only 4 audible options to the ability to change the direction of plays and assign hot routes at the line of scrimmage. This was a big step for the realism of the game. In 2005, the playmaker feature was added to the defensive side as well. This leveled the playing field between the offense and the defense and gave the defenders the ability to match audibles called by the offense. As with the 2004 release, the addition of the defensive playmaker tool did much for the realistic playing style of the game.

Later released added more new and exciting features such as the trick stick, the ability to control lead blockers for enhanced running plays, a new weapons control for superstar players, and league play. League play allowed for up to 32 people to play an entire season week by week on the internet. Newer versions are moving Madden to a true-to-life football simulation making it more than just a game.

Playstation football games have dominated for good reason and have become as much a simulation as they are a video game. Playstation 3 Madden football games have been super popular for over 20 years, and future development promise to make the simulation even more true to life.