2009

There are not many video game franchises that can be called "sure things", but the "Madden" series is as close as you can get.

Since 1988, the EA's football simulator has attracted players attention and its release is considered as the flagpole event that kicks off the industry's holiday season. And it is always one of the best-selling titles this year.

With the release of Madden 18 Coins hits shelves on Friday, it smakes a shift of sorts for the titles, though. While new iterations usually have small tweaks, this year's entry in the series has one of the biggest additions of the past several years.

In addition to the game's usual pick-up-and-play and multiplayer modes, this year's "Madden" includes a track called "Longshot Mode", which is a narrative single-player game that puts players in NFL rookie shoes when he starts on the long way to becoming a star. That is a story mode in sport game, something that Madden has never done before(and few sports games have tried before Take-Two Interactive Software's "NBA 2K" series did it two years ago).

The publisher hopes that the new game elements will increase the game's immersion factors for the players - although the fans may accept this addition, it is difficult to see how they could be more immersed in the franchise.

"Madden is  a machine that keeps rolling on," says P.J. McNealy, founder and CEO of Digital World Research. "There's a dedicated fan base that loves the NFL and 'Madden' is a huge part of it."

In addition to taking a more personal view of football (which encompasses the sacrifices players make early on, the stress of going through the NFL combine to impress scouts and, ultimately, the price of celebrity and the potential downsides it can have for people around you), "Madden NFL 18" also has significantly improved graphics engine and fans will be able to play the upcoming NFL matchups with updated statistics, rosters as well as fresh in-game commentary.

"Madden" is also a family-friendly game, meaning that parents can play with their children, and then swap in "Assassin's Creed Origins" when the children go to bed.

Of course, some football enthusiasts will play "Madden" almost obsessively. The release of the game every year marks a series of super fans who are sick on the day of release. And the NFL players regularly check their in-game player rankings to see if they have enough representatives, although some (especially rookies) tend to overestimate their numbers because EA tweeted in this video leading up to the release of the game read more.