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Sega Almost Had a Legit Madden Competitor — Until EA 'Sabotaged' It

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Sega Almost Had a Legit Madden Competitor — Until EA 'Sabotaged' It

A bit of games industry subterfuge you didn’t see in the Madden movie

Trip Hawkins isn’t the sort of guy who’s afraid to take a risk and bet big. He founded Electronic Arts in 1982, around the same time that Atari’s fortunes were fading — and threatening to take the entire video games industry down with it. Ever since he was a kid, he’d wanted to create his own football simulation game, first as a tabletop experience, and later as a computer game for the Apple II and Commodore 64.

Hawkins is a major character in David O. Russell’s new film Madden, which hits theaters this week. It traces the football icon’s journey from coach to commentator to video game legend. Early in the story, Hawkins (John Mulaney) approaches Madden (Nicolas Cage) at a glitzy afterparty for Super Bowl XI in 1977, moments after the Oakland Raiders clinched their first NFL championship. Hawkins eagerly pitches a football computer game, but the coach is understandably distracted by the thrill of the occasion.

Hawkins keeps trying as the years tick by, eventually getting Madden’s ear during a cross-country bus trip. ) Though the film takes some creative license with the timeline of how the game series came to life, Hawkins told Polygon in an interview ahead of Madden ’s release that it gets a lot right about his relationship with the football icon.



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