Scott Orr - The Creation of Madden NFL

The Creation of Madden NFL

In 1990 EA producer Richard Hilleman hired Orr to re-design John Madden Football, then a disappointing Apple II game, for the fast-growing Sega Genesis. Orr and Hilleman together developed the game that we still recognize today as Madden Football, the best-selling title in the history of games in North America. Orr focused, as he had at GameStar, on producing a great head-to-head 2-player game with an intuitive interface, and with responsive controls. Hilleman and Orr played each other continually, honing the design. When the game shipped it was almost immediately a major hit.

Orr joined EA full-time in 1991 after the success of Madden on the Genesis, and began a ten-year period of his career when he personally supervised the production of Madden Football. During this time he and his EA team also created the following EA Sports hits, each of which was updated annually:

• NHLPA Hockey
• NCAA Football
• Andretti Racing
• NASCAR Racing (later called NASCAR Thunder)
• Knockout Kings

He continued to work with Hilleman during much of this period, and both were promoted to corporate VP and senior management roles in EA product development.

During this time Orr also produced two educational titles for EA Kids, a division later renamed Creative Wonders:

• Eagle Eye Mysteries, which featured The first use of motion control photography in video games, by Stormfront Studios.
• Eagle Eye Mysteries in London