“Madden NFL 25″ will hit shelves soon, but that won’t be the only NFL video game available this season. Apple announced Tuesday that “NFL Retro Bowl ’25” will release Sept. 5, the day of the 2024 season opener, as a new arcade-style offering in the Apple Arcade subscription service.
Previously available as “Retro Bowl+,” the game is NFL- and NFLPA-licensed, which means official NFL teams and players will be featured within. Inspired by the “Tecmo Bowl” series of the 1980s and 1990s, complete with a pixelated presentation, “NFL Retro Bowl ’25” allows fans to “create their own dynasty” by managing rosters and game strategies, as well as press conferences and other team-management duties.
“With authentic rosters and NFL players stylized in the game’s glorious retro style,” Apple said, “all NFL players in-game feature unique, fully realized retro art, tuned attributes, career stats, and realistic contracts.”
This isn’t the first non-“Madden” NFL venture in the video game space. The NFL also announced in April the launch of “NFL 2K Playmakers,” a mobile game featuring NFL players in a “tactical card” game, allowing fans to collect NFL player cards and then call plays or engage other arcade-style games with those players.
EA Sports, producer of the annual “Madden” series, owns exclusive rights to NFL simulation video games through at least 2025, but 2K, the creator of the “NBA 2K” franchise and the popular “ESPN NFL 2K5” NFL game, has a multiyear deal with the NFLPA to produce “non-simulation” games featuring the names, jersey numbers, images and likenesses of more than 2,000 active NFL players.
