Joe Montana Football

Infobox VG
title = Joe Montana Football


developer = Electronic Artscite book |ref=CITEREFKent2001 |last=Kent |first=Steven L. |authorlink=Steven L. Kent |title=The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World |year=2001 |publisher=Prima Publishing |location=Roseville, California |isbn=0-7615-3643-4 |pages=pp. 406–407]
publisher = Sega
released = vgrelease|North America|NA|January 1991
genre = Sports (American football)
series = "Joe Montana Football"
modes = Single-player Multiplayer 1-2 player(s)
platforms = Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
media = Cartridge

"Joe Montana Football" is an American football video game featuring Joe Montana, released in 1991. Since Sega did not secure the rights from the NFL, teams are generically named for US cities and the only non-fictional player in the game is Montana himself.

Development

As part of the marketing of the new Sega Genesis, Sega of America president and CEO Michael Katz planned to create a library of instantly-recognizable titles for the console by contracting with celebrities and athletes to produce games using their names and likenesses. As part of this, Sega signed a US$1.7 million five-year contract with Joe Montana, despite concerns among the Japanese executives that the game would not earn enough to cover this cost.

Since Sega of America did not at the time have a large game production facility and Sega of Japan had never designed a football game, Sega contracted with Mediagenic to develop the game for November 1989. No one at Sega was aware of the turmoil inside Mediagenic at the time; despite five months of reports that development was proceeding on schedule, Katz discovered in September or October that the game was hardly begun. To have a football game for Christmas release, Sega would have to find an already-completed game that could be converted.cite web |url=http://www.sega-16.com/feature_page.php?id=298&title=Behind%20the%20Design:%20Joe%20Montana%20Football |title=Behind the Design: Joe Montana Football |publisher=www.sega-16.com |accessdate=2008-05-11 |last=Horowitz |first=Ken |date=2007-11-20]

Sega approached Electronic Arts, developer of the "Madden NFL" series, and president Trip Hawkins agreed to help. "Joe Montana Football" missed the Christmas deadline and was released in January 1991, shortly after the Genesis version of "John Madden Football".

Reception

The finished versions of "Joe Montana Football" and "John Madden Football" were so different that few would have guessed they were made by the same company. "Madden" had realistic plays and a full roster of 28 teams, while "Montana" was a more arcade-style game with only 16 teams and a simplified, passing-intensive offense. Rumors are that Electronic Arts trimmed down "Montana" so as to not overshadow their own title.

Although not as successful as the "Madden" series, "Joe Montana Football" and the sequels (developed by BlueSky Software rather than Electronic Arts) helped establish the Genesis's reputation as the top platform for sports simulations and proved to Sega of Japan that sports games could be worthwhile investments.

References