Damn he really got the creator of EA too speak on how awful madden is 😂😂😂

I remember playing Madden in the 05-08 era and thinking, "WOW, imagine where this game will be in 10 years." I weep for the past ...

Man this is so depressing, the whole industry has taken a turn for the worst

The people behind the original concept of simulation sport games would definitely be angry at EA for twisting that concept into a money machine they never hoped for. And this is not just EA, 2K games and other game companies that are money-hungry have followed the EA trend. Aggressive monetization schemes have been a plague in video games in recent years since the early 2010s. From stripped content sold separately, restrictive gameplay mechanics like “wait walls” (wait up or pay up), season passes, loot boxes, and live services/games-as-a-service. It's like the game industry have lost its soul, it is now a shell filled with nothing but greed.

Us: They need to fix the AI in NHL. EA: Here's Snoop Dogg 🤪🤪

EA Sports: It’s in the greed.

I'm glad NASCAR was included in this. The early 2000s were the best period of NASCAR games. You had EA's NASCAR, Papyrus's NASCAR Racing, and Monster's NASCAR Heat. All these games were battling and taking up different niches with Papyrus going after the sim racing, EA focusing on career modes, and Monster trying to be the bridge in the middle. It resulted in the best 3 NASCAR games we got coming within a year of each other with NASCAR Racing 2003 Season (a game that is still highly played and supported by the modding community to this day), NASCAR Dirt to Daytona, and NASCAR Thunder 2004. Then EA gained exclusive rights, and then EA's NASCAR immediately declined. 2005: Chase for the Cup immediately had features removed but was still great, but by NASCAR 08, the game no longer even had manufacturers and just a generic Car of Tomorrow generation car. In just four years, EA's NASCAR games went from having four different race series with Cup, Nationwide, Trucks, and Featherlite to only having Cup and not even having manufacturers for it. Their last NASCAR game wasn't even a NASCAR game, it was a kart racer for the Wii. They bought out the rights to NASCAR games, then budget cut the games to where they couldn't even make a NASCAR game anymore, and then sold the rights because no one was buying them. Since EA lost the rights, NASCAR games have been on the rise again. Monster has reclaimed the NASCAR license and restarted their Heat series which had a rocky start but is now getting close to its former glory. Papyrus had to close shop, but they went on to start iRacing using nr2003's source code, and now NASCAR simulation is the best it's ever been. Exclusive rights given to big triple-A publishers is always a mistake. Proved again and again with Madden, and since EA stopped making NBA games, now 2k is slowing down their innovation with their games. You can't give exclusive rights to big publishers where the executives only goal is to make as much money for shareholders as they can which is typically done through making products look nice and shiny from the outside and budget cutting everything on the inside that isn't a money making machine. And if they margins aren't big enough, they just get rid of those executives and hire ones to make it bigger.

I loved playing the 03-07 Maddens/NCAA games with my dad growing up. Always created a new team before every game, and made my dad annoyed waiting for me to finish. Nostalgia, man.

This is going to be the magnum opus of softdrinktv

The NFL is just as guilty as EA Sports and the NFL is just as greedy as EA Sports. Smh

You can't add something as beautiful as Hit Stick in a football game...and then take it away. That one feature hurt my soul when it was removed. And also being able to control your O-Line blockers when your running as the Running Back

Maddens decline is killing my interest in the NFL altogether

Love it! This was made with 100 times the care and quality than Madden the past 8 years.

EA Sports: Its in the loot crate

The Ps2, XBox, GCN era of sports games was the best bar none. Actual detail in different modes, engaging gameplay, great graphics for the time. Shit y'all remember NHL Hitz??? Only possible in that era.

I feel for the founder cuz he sounds so hurt seeing his creation lived long enough to become the villain

Who else refreshed 50 times to get it lol

Hale Yeah

This was the BEST EA Documentary ever made! Need more like this someone needs to Buy EA and make it what it used to be Bring those 19 Titles and make 4 Different Games from each a year that means Madden will be once a year Live would be NASCAR, etc!

My Dad and I bond over gaming too. In fact he actually got a PS3 one time just to attempt to play online with me. For years we would always play some type of sports game Football, Basketball a little bit of Boxing and even Baseball one time. Normally I would get absolutely BODIED by him but as years went on we would start having more even games even going into overtime before

EA: "It's difficult to get the physics right." Me: "Have you tried asking NFL2K how to do it?"

Thank you so much for having me on!

Thank you for this! I think some people need to understand and see where this company is going. To hear the former employees and the founder of EA explain how this is going down hill, I feel that to the core. My first game was Madden 02. My dad had it for PS2 and that’s where sports games started for me. Madden back in the early 00s, was the best series game to date. They had so many features! Create your team, create your stadium, create your player, create a fan, create your routes, mini-camps and franchise was second to none! Now to see madden just ripping off consumers to get money for MUT, is just a copy and paste type of deal every year. I don’t think they’ll return to the basics of what it used to be, unless something drastic happens to them. The higher ups need to let the developers create and let them bring in people that actually want to see features that haven’t been in the game for years. Madden 21 is truly the worst game ever and just by seeing the reviews, I’ll stick with my ps2 and play the classic madden games. This documentary is really an eye opener for me seeing where it all started and now being a witness to seeing the game change over the years of me playing it. EA will continue to fail if they don’t listen to fans that actually love the game it used to be and let the developers have full control of the creative work that’s going on.

I miss that classic ”EOA” logo, man!

"I had to quit playing for my own mental health." When Drew Gooden said that, I felt it in my soul. Exactly why I quit. All the reasons he gave, honestly.

I miss EA:Big. Whenever that logo came in before a sports game, you *KNEW* it was going to be great!!

Madden '04 or '05 is my favorite football game, at the end of the PS2 era. They are just so much better and a way more complete football package. Franchise mode in them were fantastic.

EA used to be the sh*t. I couldn’t wait to hear that “ it’s in the game “ intro. Now, dog sh*t.

EA will never care until they lose profit and we all have the power to do that by not buying any EA games at all

One day after you win a award I’m say I remember him doing documentaries on KZfaq congrats on this

Meanwhile, at the EA investor call... Investor: It broke sales records again? That's fantastic! Rep: There's been some concerns over the critical reception... Investor: *shouting faintly off-mic* Do they jewel-encrust Bentleys? *returns to mic* I have to go, great work!

Underrated channel. Hard to believe that a channel of your quality and upload frequency doesn’t even have 100k

EA should be ashamed of themselves

Ps2 era madden still feels like it has a more advanced physics engine to me that ps4 madden.

I miss playing NCAA 14 that was a fun game

NCAA and Fight night (preferably together ) would revive ea sports if released today

We got a documentary thank you SoftDrink

Sad how he birthed something from a pure love of sports to it being about microtransactions. Madden has been ruined by greed

Awesome, extremely well done, and well-researched videos. Props man. Makes me so sad to really see how far most sports video games have fallen off, especially EA titles.

great video! thanks for putting in all that effort to create a video u r passionate about

I’m still pissed that 2K lost the NFL license. The 2K series just felt more like football than madden ever did

As someone who truly loves sports it's been heartbreaking to see the complete bastardization of all sports games over the last decade. It's all about maximization of profit instead of creating fun, immersive game modes. Such a shame

Your videos are always great but this one is unbelievable. The interviews with so many pillars of the community blended with your narration was such a great way to tell the story. 2 years late but bravo

Great video, mid sentence ad's were horrific though

Massive W

Def the best video you’ve made by far. Felt like I was watching a documentary. Great job and keep it up!

YES YOU COVERED THE NASCAR BRANCH OF THIS!!!! (I'm only at the first mentions of it so idk how much further it goes but NASCAR so often gets overlooked by other major sports and major sports youtubers so I ALWAYS voice my appreciation when someone gives us a shout.) OH AND THE INCLUSION OF NASCAR KZfaqRS 👌🏻 I just love it

This is one of the best videos I've ever seen on KZfaq. Great stuff!

27:32 Philadelphia Foreskin. Quality team name.

It’s depressing watching these clips of old Maddens and seeing how much more fluid the movement used to be. Great content though man.

Great Video! I'm surprised that Deuce Douglas wasn't in this, he's always banging on about madden and franchise mode lol

Really digging theses videos bro I would like them to change all these game modes but I still really love the other game modes also so thank you for pushing this

Thé problem to me is lack of competition. When the NFL and NHL only give out once license... no motivation to make it better.

"The devs aren't to blame!" "It's the suits!" "Give the devs the freedom!" All of these things are said by people who NEVER worked there. I worked on Madden. None of those things are true. People need to get it through their heads: the people making Madden do not understand simulation and I know from having arguments with producers there daily as they added nonsense and told me to my face about my ideas "oh, that's too real, that wouldn't be fun". Look at some of the types of people they hire, people off message boards with no experience in AAA gaming. Do you really think EA Sports understands how carefully sims have to be made when they hire people like that? The executives aren't standing over anybody telling them to make players warp, shift, make bad blocks, blow simple assignments, not react, soccer kick balls, etc. These things are happening because of years of poorly written and poorly managed code and developers who don't understand how real football works. Lastly, MUT is not the reason! Madden has had a ton of problems long before MUT showed up in Madden NFL 10. Yes, blame the people writing the rat's nest of code that has brought this game to ruin, and blame the producers who've mismanaged it all for nearly two decades. They're not good at what they do, that's why I got the hell out of there!

I’ve always felt UFC went down when EA took over. I was really excited for UFC 4 and bought it on release only to be disappointed with the career story mode. They made it sound like you would start out fighting in back yards but no. The gameplay is pretty good and I feel like it’s improved but the ground game, clinch, take downs, and submissions is just a little confusing. It has gotten better but I wish the career was better. The tweeting aspect is stupid IMO. I get how it helps sell PPV. I’ll still play but a little disappointed overall

This is a great video btw. You put some serious work into this

EA: Hello I like money Reporter: What inspired you to make the same game every year EA: Money

I miss the old EA games :(

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. I’m a long time fan of the NHL series and over the last couple of years the pandemic gave me a chance to really dive back in it. I love the BAP and CHEL modes! They’re fantastic but would hope to see more details and interactive aspects aside from setting some values to stats with your up and down control pad. I hope that now that the company has a solid revenue structure on their HUT modes (of which I’ve never taken part in or liked) they can really listen to the long time fans and investors in their product to shape something that could become far more immersive and true to life (beyond the graphical elements). Again, thanks

Love the videos, i really hope it brings as much attention the the sport games issue these days with EA. Keep up the great work

The Frostbite engine was the beginning of the end.

Been waiting on this !

I was 11 years old when I played my first EA sports game.. Madden '02 with Daunte Culpepper, quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, on the cover. I just remember being so blown away with the how realistic it looked to me back then, seemingly seamless gameplay and mini camp modes kept me locked in for months.. Fast forward to 23 and it just upsets me to put a Madden or 2k game in, I own both and have played each a total of 3 times. I've been playing MLB 23 and having a pretty good time

Wow dude this video was sooo on point. Brought back so many memories of how Madden use to be 😔kinda sad knowing its never gonna be the same

I wish John Madden would realize what's been going on and pull his name from the game. That would be Wake up call hopefully

Finally! I haven’t seen the whole video but know SDTV, it’s gonna be a BANGER

The internet has both been the greatest and the absolute destruction of gaming. EA Sports is probably the best example how online access has ruined games.

Thank you for this fantastic video!!

Damn this was like watching a legit documentary produced by HBO.

13:54 that old nascar looks very good for being early 2000s

This was a good video and really took me back. Played “Jordan vs Bird”, bulls vs lakers, madden, live, nascar, nhl, etc. The best year for me was Madden 2004 which is the infamous unstoppable Vick who can only be contained by the Bucs that year. It’s also around the time 2k really started to make a dent in the football market and EA panicked.

Wow very well done! Bravo, great video. Its sad to see what sports games have become they used to be a lot more fun. EA should watch this and really take these things into consideration.

Did you get Trip Hawkins of EA to Interview you? Amazing. He's more reasonable than those eggheads at EA today. I used to play some EA Games as a kid including Madden, but it's not the same old EA that I played on the Nintendo Gamecube.

EA Sports: It's just a shame.

Thank you!!! This video was very informative.

did not expect to find Drew Gooden here. props to Drew for being a great comedian AND a well-informed sports fan enthusiast.

EA Sports: it's in the drain!

This man created a documentary style video for free entertainment! You are a legend.

I remember back when Madden 12 was new and thought that was the best one made aside from 06 and 08. I said to myself "I can't wait to see how madden will look in 2020!", boy, I would never have seen this coming, how bad it would be. This is why i still play Madden 12 on my 360 to this day, better gameplay, more in depth FRANCHISE MODE, SOMETHING MADDENS OF MODERN TIME LACK!!!!!!!!!!

Also - the death of the Street series is a real shame! 😖 All NBA and NFL Street games for the PS2 were fantastic!

This may be dramatic but this actually breaks my heart. I’m the perfect age to have grown up being able to play and remember almost every game featured here. Madden in particular. Really hurts.

From one content creator to another, this is one of the best documentaries made by a KZfaqr that I've seen. High quality work. Great attention to detail. Wonderful footage shown. I love everyone featured. Ultimately, I'm left with one word while watching this 'heartbreaking'. We all have those special moments with this game. Mine was 2004 (I had been playing Madden for years) but was on my third year of Football. I remember playing this with fellow teammates. It was special. It isn't special anymore. It's really frustrating. For all the issues 2K has with NBA (and there are plenty) the game still has a deep GM mode and features that make it worth paying (on top of the gazillion micro-transactions). I hope this brings some added light to the situation. - Mr. Tot

I remember the sports games from 2003 to 2010 the insane amount of features, depth, and things to do in them.

Amazing video I watched every second

Please colab with Ryan Moody for your Madden 21 review. Cus I have a weird feeling that Madden 21 is gonna suck. U guys are there best Madden youtubers tho.

wow this needs to be put on ESPN or NFL Network This Is Strong Truly amazing.

Am I the only one getting emotional watching this? I can remember a million scenes of video game sports greatness with my friends provided by EAsports through them great years, I think of my friends who have passed on and ones I still know and some I don't see anymore the times we had playing any of that classic EAgames line up was really some special times. Seeing all these scenes the uploader dug up from all them classic games just brought all them moments back. All the tournaments all the little championship belts we would make and the champ would hold the belt and would bring it over days we would play and you had bragging rights. All the impossible shots or incredible touchdowns.All the half court shots that stunned your homies.dude. Just brings a tear to my eye, never see times like that again. Madden and EAsports may suck now, But the squad back then at EAsports I'd like to tell them thanks for giving me good memories and some of the best times of my life.

This was so depressing, I used to genuinely be excited for a new madden or ncaa. I can still remember playing the first madden and was blown away. These days are sadly gone. But I still play the classics to get my nostalgia fix.

I never clicked and liked so fast

Everyone associated with EA having the licenses needs to see this

I loved Chris Borlan as a Badger fan but I can relate to Chris on a personal level. I had a really bad concussion in 8th grade that took me out the whole season. In my freshman year I had a concussion on a routine play in the first practice with pads. I didn't tell the trainers til the next day. And again, I could never get cleared and was put the whole season. I loved football so much and was so looking forward to playing in Highschool. I had to make the most difficult discussion of my life to stop playing. I still love the game to this day and would do anything to go back and relive my youth playing.

It's two things that's baffling me about this video first there's 146 dislikes on this video🤔 second how's has this video not push or surpassing over 500,000 views.. Smh I've been a loyal Madden fan since Madden 92 Anyway Good job SDTV people like you and Ryan Moody speak my language keep opening the eyes of the blind✌

I binged watched dozens of this dude’s videos today after watching this amazing piece of art. Hearing this dude and Moody21 shit on Madden is like legit therapy for guys like me born in the 80’s that actually got to play legit football games growing up. It’s so depressing that we can’t get better than the current Madden smh. DO NOT BUY MADDEN 21!!!

NBA live:on life support madden:trash and will never be good again NHL: doing okay FIFA: same thing as madden

Amazing documentary Blown away that you actually got Trip Hawkins to participate. Well done.

When anyone has presented a whole 50 minutes of evidence that a gaming company is done I’ve got to watch it

I've been waiting on this for sooooo long you have no idea

2K and San Diego Studios need to give EA some serious competition

Man this was great. Amazing job dude!! Also, I forget who said it in the video but he made the point that before online gaming EA had to provide quality depth so players would keep playing the game in earlier generations, like the PS2. I thought that was a really good point, as MUT and online is just arcade gaming basically. It gets people to come back again and again to buy more “coins” so to speak so they can keep playing. Another factor in how EA values profit as opposed to some sort of creative achievement in how well their game plays AND satisfies the football community. Sad.

Great video! I was hoping you would talk about the fps & resolution of the releases YoY.. but.. as the saying goes.. "you can't have everything in life" EA is planning a major expansion at its Burnaby (Vancouver, BC) office campus. Guess they need help porting, the already ported to this gen, NHL on Next Gen? 'Legacy Bugs' need to be addressed across all ea sports titles