ABSTRACT

Originally published in 1989 as John Madden Football for the Apple II, Madden is a key, exclusive licensed property for Redwood Shores, California-based Electronic Arts (with their license currently in place through 2012), a venerable force in the video games industry and one of the best-selling computer game franchises of all time. Updated year after year, the game has a rabid stable of hard-core fans and manages to bring new fans into the fold each year. With so many repeat customers, the Madden team faces a significant annual challenge to improve. The Madden franchise, perhaps better than any other, has done an outstanding job of consistently attracting new players, while at the same time retaining the core fan base who buy each new version of the game year after year upon its release.