Amazon released a new trailer for its upcoming Madden documentary series, and it looks like the studio’s plans for it go beyond just telling how EA made a sports game. There’s nothing wrong with a good making-of story, of course, but a strong documentary – especially one from a studio with Amazon’s resources – should make a bit more effort to explain why it’s a story worth telling.

Bear in mind this is a separate Madden project from the Madden film with Nicolas Cage and apparently not Will Ferrell after all.

For Amazon’s Madden series, it turns out that reason is explaining how EA Sports’ efforts with Madden transformed the wider video games industry, not just arcade sports. The series follows EA’s struggles to create the game, including a breaking point where it seemed like the first Madden might never make it to the public, and how everything changed when commentator and sports personality John Madden came on board.

Madden, so the trailer shows us, demanded a level of realism and quality that exceeded what he believed was present in the games market at the time, and those expectations – plus the realization that they were achievable – influenced studios across the world.

The series also explores Madden’s influence on culture more broadly, from encouraging non-gamers to pick up one of EA’s yearly installments to the intense, often volatile reactions to yearly Madden ratings. EA and Amazon are telling these stories with input not just from the developers themselves, but also from prominent figures in the NFL. It’s a lot to dig into in just four episodes, but we don’t have long to wait to see how well Amazon can pull it off. The Madden documentary series airs on November 26, 2024.