Skip to footer

Grand Theft Auto and the biggest moments in video game history

Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA V) made headlines as the biggest video game release of all time, selling more than $1 billion worth of copies in three days. But GTA V didn't get to this landmark moment by itself. Find out more moments that changed the course of video game history in this list, from most recent to the beginning of (video game) time.

9. Madden NFL brings sports to gaming

John Madden had an illustrious football career, making it to the Hall of Fame and coaching the Super Bowl-winning Oakland Raiders. But to gamers, his name is synonymous with one thing: Madden NFL.

Originally, Entertainment Arts (EA) founder Trip Hawkins wanted football hero Joe Montana to be the face of his football simulation video game, but when Montana said he already had a deal with Atari, Hawkins went to NFL legend and football broadcaster John Madden. Going to Madden ended up prolonging the release, as Madden insisted that if his name was on the product it would have to be realistic (and re-creating professional football on late 1980s gaming technology was no easy task). After three years of development, the first Madden NFL game was released in 1988.

Since then, the series has sold more than 85 million copies and released more than 29 variations. Critics have acclaimed the series for its increasingly realistic graphics and smooth play, and competitors have created sports simulation games for every sport from soccer to tennis. It’s a good thing that Madden said what he did when Hawkins initially showed him his basic design in the mid-'80s: “Hey, if there aren't 11 players, it isn't real football."

9 of 12
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.