Mad For Madden Football

EA's Perennial Video Game Hit Is Teaching The Next Generation About The NFL

(CBS)  When most of us were kids, we learned the rules of football in backyards and on high school fields. Today's young people are learning the game with out ever leaving the couch. As CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason reports, it's all because of a video game that's shaping a new generation of fans.

There isn't a day when Joseph Melendez and his friends aren't ready for some football, and more often than not, they'll play in his living room.

"It's as real as you can get playing football without getting hurt," Melendez said.

Joseph is hooked on Madden Football by Electronic Arts, a perennial smash that's shaping the way generation X-box relates to the NFL.

"It's something that comes out every year – dependable – is absolutely a tent pole for the industry," said Josh Larson a writer for Gamespot.com.

In the viciously competitive world of video games, the Madden Football franchise is a hall of famer. Since 1989 it's sold more than 56 million copies, and that's built Electronic Arts into a $3 billon-a-year company.

"Our biggest competition has always been the game we ship the year before," executive producer Dale Jackson said.

A dark maze of cubicles in Orlando is where Jackson and his team of twenty-somethings create Madden, obsessing over every detail. Today more digital information goes into rendering a single helmet than the entire game ten years ago.

"You can see the grommet that's holding the bolt that's holding the facemask on to the helmet," Jackson said.

He has recruited Disney animators, computer prodigies and even former college football players like Larry Reichert. He breaks down each of the 8,000 plays run in the NFL and then programs them into the game.

"We try to get our players to think the same way a real athlete would," Reichert said.

Madden's dominance has been a marketing bonanza for the NFL by creating a pipeline that supplies the league with a torrent of new fans. It's as direct as advertising can get.

"As long as we keep our focus and keep continuing to build the best game for our customers, I think we can stay on top indefinitely," Jackson said.

If they do, parents may have to rethink that age-old ban on playing ball in the house.