It's In The Game: Madden NFL (2024) Review

It’s in the Game: Madden NFL takes a close look at a cultural touchstone. Madden NFL has been a staple in gaming since its inception back in 1988. It has remained as one of the bestselling sports-related franchises of all time from its early days as John Madden Football, only available on home computers, to the recently released Madden NFL 25.

While there are several contributing factors to its success – the adherence to delivering a truly authentic football experience, Electronic Art’s resilient developers, an exclusive NFL license – the game’s longevity could initially be attributed to determination and pure luck. A sentiment that is showcased in Prime Video’s engaging docuseries, It’s in the Game: Madden NFL.

Presented by Prime Video and A+E Factual Studios group, It’s in the Game: Madden NFL does a sound job of presenting an abridged version of Madden NFL’s history. Each of its four roughly 50-minute episodes is jam-packed with insightful information. Important moments are depicted via never-before-seen footage, clips of various interviews, and old photos.

Key individuals are humorously candid about their experiences working on early versions of Madden. And the comparisons of previous and current iterations presented as the series transitioned between eras served as timely reminders of how the industry has changed over the years. Essentially, on the surface, there’s much for Madden fans to be excited about.

For the most part, it’s all intriguing stuff; learning that EA Founder Trip Hawkins nearly fumbled his pitch meeting with the late Pro Football Hall of Famer John Madden or that the company was reluctant to develop games for consoles are interesting bits of information. That said, It’s in the Game would have been better served if it lingered on the finer details of certain events.

For instance, it would have been great to hear more about how EA reverse-engineered the SEGA Genesis to get around a bad licensing deal. This risky move could have landed the company in court, completely derailing Madden’s move to consoles. Instead, it led to EA developing both Joe Montana and John Madden Football games for SEGA.

A similar event occurred thanks to the contributions of Gordon Bellamy. As the Assistant Producer of Madden 95, he played a key role in ensuring that Black athletes were depicted as such instead of being uniformly white like in previous games. Bellamy also shipped an altered version of the game that included players’ names before getting the green light from the NFLPA—another potential opportunity for EA to be sued into oblivion. And just like before, things worked themselves out; Madden 95 became the first in the series to have the official NFLPA license.

It’s safe to assume that this sort of high-risk, high-reward aspect of popular entertainment is par for the course. One only has to watch one of Brian Volk-Weiss’ documentaries (The Toys That Made Us) to see how normal it is to risk the demise of an entire company for the chance of success. And yet, they continue to fascinate by highlighting how ingenuity and a lucky break can make all the difference. It’s in the Game, which shares plenty of these moments but only briefly.

A large portion of the series is dedicated to making Madden NFL 25, which, outside of a few notable features – improved motion capture, Kate Scott joining the commentary teams, etc. – just wasn’t as interesting as past events.

That’s not to say that these portions weren’t notable at all. There were a few moments that should resonate with viewers. The segment that gave a peek into the work of keeping a game’s servers from crashing moments after launch was inciteful. At the very least, in dispelling the notion that developers are lazy or continually fail at anticipating just how popular their games are. A rough launch doesn’t mean that there aren’t people working around the clock to make sure things are running as smoothly as possible.

It’s in the Game does well in showcasing Madden’s ties to Sports and Black/Hip-Hop culture. It also mentions game testers and how they’re vital to the team (regardless of whether they’re full-time employees or contract-based). There are even lengthy portions dedicated to Madden’s rivals—it was nice to see NFL GameDay and NFL 2K get some much-deserved love.

Most importantly, the series gives the legendary coach and sports commentator John Madden his flowers. Younger viewers can learn a little bit about his NFL roots, while older fans are finally given the opportunity to see just how integral he was to the game’s success. From refusing to accept anything that wasn’t authentic to the sport to providing real playbooks for devs to map, Madden offered way more than just his voice and likeness.

It’s in the Game: Madden NFL is a solidly crafted, engaging docuseries about the Madden video game franchise. Each episode packs a ton of information, making for a brisk pace that sometimes eschews the more interesting historical aspects of the game in favor of promoting Madden NFL 25. That said, there is enough here for fans, new and old, to be excited about.

All episodes of It’s in the Game: Madden NFL will be streamed exclusively on Prime Video on November 26th.