It’s in the game

A new documentary on the birth of the Madden video game franchise released last week on Amazon Prime. Find out more about its rocky road to the top. Also, a top PlayStation executive steps down and all the latest gaming news. Let’s go!

A Madden-ing experience

The Madden NFL football franchise recently turned 30 and is one of the most popular sports games ever. However, a new documentary on Amazon Prime tells how it almost fell apart multiple times. 

It’s In The Game: Madden NFL is a four-part series released last week on Prime which looks at the highs and lows of the series. Rolling Stone sat down with the documentary’s producer FredAnthony Smith. From the interview:

“Growing up as a kid, you don’t really think about these things, but the fact is that Madden wasn’t inevitable,” Smith says. “There was Joe Montana Football, there was Tecmo Super Bowl, there were other football games there in the beginning and that have come since like NFL 2K, so it wasn’t inevitable that Madden was going to be the one that was left standing.”

“So many people grow up on the video game, and they have no idea that [Madden] had this long legacy in the game of football,” Smith says. “That legacy is why his being attached to this video game really elevated it; it gave the video game a sense of authenticity, especially since he wasn’t just signing his name on something that somebody else was doing. He was in the weeds in the meetings, walking the programmers through how to make it as authentic as possible.”

You can watch the documentary now on Prime Video.

Shuhei Yoshida is leaving Sony

Shuhei Yoshida said this week in an interview on the PlayStation Blog that he is leaving Sony in January. Yoshida started working for PlayStation before the release of their first console. He led PlayStation’s first-party development for over a decade before most recently becoming the head of PlayStation Indies. 

"I've been with PlayStation from the beginning, and this is my 31st year with PlayStation. And when I hit 30 years, I was thinking, hmm, it may be about time for me to move on. You know, the company's been doing great," said Yoshida.

Despite stepping down from PlayStation, Yoshida says he might not be done working in the games industry.

Yoshida is responsible for one of the most memorable moments during the launch of the PlayStation 4. After Xbox initially announced owners of the system would not be able to share game discs on the Xbox One, Yoshida and Sony released the following video on how easy it is to share games on PlayStation.

Xbox later reversed their stance on game sharing, but the damage to their brand was already done. PlayStation 4 would significantly outsell Xbox One. Other Sony news:

• A black version of the PlayStation Portal is reportedly coming soon.
• Sony launched a new site to celebrate 30 years of the PlayStation.

Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

🏴‍☠️ Nintendo continues to crack down on piracy, subpoenaing Google, Discord, Reddit and more for user information on popular piracy hangouts. 

✖️ The Xbox Avatar Editor app is closing early next year “due to low engagement.”

🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏽 More than 14 million people joined Fortnite’s Remix: The Finale event, setting an attendance record for the game. 

👋🏼 The 2K launcher is being “removed from every game that used it on Epic and Steam.”

🏅 Helldivers 2 won Game of the Year at the TIGA Awards, a ceremony that celebrates creative, technological and business brilliance in games businesses of all sizes. See the full list of winners. 

🏎️ All NASCAR video games will be delisted from digital storefronts at the end of December.

🥽 Thieves stole $1.5 million worth of Oculus virtual reality headsets.

👋 MMA star Conor McGregor was pulled from the Hitman game after he was found liable for sexual assault. 

📺 A Silent Hill 2 player discovered a creepy message hidden in TV static. 

🍿 Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has over 4 hours of cutscenes. 

✖️ Xbox says Google is still blocking its Android app from selling and launching games on the Android.

🎚️ Recording artist Deadmau5 launched a World of Tanks Blitz in-game holiday event with a new song called Familiars.

🎴 A group of Pokemon fans opened 20,000 cards in 24 hours to break a Guinness World Record.

✊🏿 Motion capture workers at 2K successfully voted to unionize.

💸 Kotaku reports on how Trump's tariffs could cost gamers billions. 

♟️ Valued at $13 billion in 2023, the board game market is booming.

📈 Round numbers: Dave the Diver sold 5 million copies, Cyberpunk 2077 sold 30 million copies, Balatro has sold over $4 million on mobile devices and Star Citizen funding reached over $750 million. 

🤥 Players are accusing Tencent‘s latest game Light of Motiram of copying Sony’s Horizon series. 

⌛ Nintendo added Echoes of Wisdom to the official Zelda timeline, in an alternate reality setup by Ocarina of Time. 

🎸 Post Malone is getting his own Hunt: Showdown season where he plays a cursed circus ringmaster.

🕹️ The Atari 7800+ is a no-frills glimpse into a forgotten gaming era.

New Releases this week:

12/5: Delta Force (PC)
12/5: Fantasian Neo Dimension (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
12/5: Highway Police Simulator (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
12/6: Marvel Rivals (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
12/6: Path of Exile 2 (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)

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