Madden 17's live commentary tackles Kaepernick controversy

EA Sports said that with Madden 17, the goal was to create a more perfect sports simulation game and be more than just a roster update. This year, the pursuit of that goal led the team to assembling an all-new commentary duo that would record new dialogue weekly based on real-world NFL events and statistics. The goal was to create commentary that is more in line with what viewers see on TV, commentary that doesn't simply exist in a vacuum.

This design decision was made months ago, long before Colin Kaepernick began his preseason protests of the national anthem. Once that news broke, EA Sports was faced with a choice. When something controversial dominates the airwaves in sports media, what should the game's live commentary team do? Should it ignore the controversy and simply focus on on-field play, or should it engage with the issue and risk offending or alienating players?

The Madden team took a risk and chose the latter. In a statement made to GameSpot, a representative for EA Sports said that the game would bring up Kaepernick's protest in the newest commentary update in order to honor a commitment to authenticity, a drive to bring the game closer and closer to the product we see on Sunday. And while the representative mentioned that the statement would be brief, implying that the commentators will not get into the intricacies of the protest and the reactions to it, the fact remains that this is a big moment for Madden and, indeed, sports video games in general.

Something like this is truly unprecedented. Video games, by their nature, are mostly static and can only interact with and react to real-world events in very limited ways. The Madden team's willingness to bring up thorny real-world issues in the commentary of a simulation video game (even in simple, short statements outlining them) via live, weekly updates opens the door for other games, sports simulations or otherwise to do the same thing. 

The key for the Madden commentary team, much like a live NFL commentary team, is to handle these subjects with care. If EA Sports is going to make the decision to deal with these subjects, it also takes on the responsibility to deal with them in a mature way. It's a risky proposition. The commentators Charles Davis and Brandon Gaudin are tied to the Madden franchise for the foreseeable future, and EA Sports has made a large investment in them. If they say something that offends a portion of the fan base, they'll lose fans and hurt the bottom line. In fact, there's already a contingent of Madden fans on Twitter that don't appreciate EA Sports bringing up Kaepernick's protest at all.

If this is going to be EA Sports' plan moving forward with the Madden franchise, it has a very difficult line to walk, and it'll need to take cues from true NFL commentary teams in order to best learn how to respectfully bring up these issues and add authenticity to the game experience without offending fans of a game — a game that has never engaged with real-world issues in this way before.

If EA Sports walks that line, however, Madden 17 could become something truly special, a game that fulfills EA Sports' goal of giving players an authentic NFL experience, even in the face of controversial, uncomfortable situations.