The high-profile court case against EA Sport's "monopoly" in the NFL market took an interesting turn this week, with an economist brought in to show how much the demise of 2K's competing NFL franchise has cost sports gamers.

Despite admitting his report is based on incomplete data, University of Michigan economics professor Dr. Jeffrey Mackie-Mason has told the the U.S. District Court in San Francisco that EA's domination of the NFL video games market has cost gamers between $701 million and $926 million since 2K's NFL2K series was blocked from competing with EA.
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EA had previously requested that Judge Vaughn Walker dismiss claims by Geoffrey Pecover and Jeffrey Lawrence. The two Madden buyers, serving as named plaintiffs in the class-action suit, alleged that by eliminating competition for NFL-licensed games EA had acted in a monopolistic fashion and unjustly enriched itself at the expense of consumers. On Friday Judge Walker issued a ruling denying EA's motion. The Judge did, however, rule that only claims in California and Washington, D.C. would go forward since that is where the two named plaintiffs in the case reside.
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His days of calling NFL games on T.V. may be over, but John Madden's retirement might not be as idyllic as he had hoped.

According to a report on former Oakland Raiders lineman Dave Pear's Blog, NFL retirees are planning to go after Madden and Electronic Arts, publisher of the best-selling pro football game which bears the former coach's name.
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GamePolitics writes: "I've been complaining (some might say whining) since 2005 that EA's exclusive arrangement with the NFL is, at best, a bad deal for gamers.

At worst, it's a monopoly.

Ultimately, the Federal Trade Commission, looked at the Madden issue in relation to EA's merger dance with Take-Two Interactive. But, inasmuch as the FTC pre-approved the EA-T2 deal, its regulators apparently came down against the monopoly view."
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Sports video games are a huge business -- and for many years, it was an extremely competitive space. I remember a few years back trying to wade through half a dozen different baseball video game titles to figure out which one was worth buying. However, a few years back, video game giant EA started signing "exclusive" deals with a variety of sporting leagues, including the NFL. These "exclusive" deals supposedly meant that only EA could produce games with the names and stats of real players -- a huge selling point among most fans. And, of course, in gaining exclusivity, EA has completely cashed in. However, a bunch of angry video gamers are now suing the company for anticompetitive conduct, noting that these exclusive deals killed off all the competition, allowing EA to drastically raise its prices.
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Next-Gen.Biz writes: "The NPD Group has revealed the top 10 selling games of all time in the U.S. market.

Forbes reported earlier this week NPD Group's up-to-date top ten U.S. videogame sales figures by units, revealing a list dominated by the Grand Theft Auto and Madden NFL franchises.

As seen below, GTA: San Andreas from 2004 is the top-selling game in the U.S. with 9.43 million units sold. The franchise shows up on the top 10 three times, while Madden appears four times.

Activision had two 2007 titles already break the top 10 (Guitar Hero III and Call of Duty 4), while EA had one 2007 title on the list in the form of Madden NFL 08."
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Ripten's Chad Lakkis writes:

"We received a press release today from Electronic Arts, announcing their official prediction for this years Super Bowl, featuring the 18-0 New England Patriots and the New York Football Giants.

Lead by quarterback Eli Manning, the surging Giants aim to end the Patriots quest for a perfect 19-0 season, and take home the Lombardi Trophy in the process. However, Tom "Terrific" Brady and his talented squad of receivers see a different outcome."
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The Hollywood Reporter, by Kimberly Nordyke on Jan 16, 2008:

Gameplay HD, Rainbow Media's high-definition channel that focuses on video gaming, said Tuesday that it has teamed with Electronic Arts to create a new TV series featuring the 2007 EA Sports Madden Challenge, which took place Dec. 12-13 at Universal Studios.

The six-part series -- which premieres Feb. 2, the day before the Super Bowl -- kicks off at 1 p.m. EST with an hourlong preshow introducing each of the 24 tournament finalists, including how they qualified with regional title wins playing "Madden NFL 08."

New half-hour episodes will continue to air at 1 p.m. EST Saturdays, covering the rounds of the tournament. Episodes also will feature gamer portraits, segments on the Madden video game culture and characters and the strategic plans of all the finalists as they prepare for competition.

Gameplay HD, which is one of Rainbow's Voom HD Networks, also is producing a special hourlong episode focusing on the tournament's semifinal and final rounds.

The winner of the single-elimination, bracket-style tournament takes home cash and prizes totaling $100,000.
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Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey picks what he believes will be the biggest sellers of 2008.
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Jan. 2, 2008 -- MSNBC tallied in their Game of the Year readers' votes between December 19 and 27. "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" garnered 33 percent of the over 17,000 votes and is MSNBC Readers' Game of the Year. The runner-up was "Bioshock" at 22 percent of the votes. The second runner-up was "Mass Effect" at 10 percent.

Here are MSNBC readers' picks for the best in each genre:

¿ Best sports game: Madden NFL '08
¿ Best racing game: Project Gotham Racing 4
¿ Best casual game: Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
¿ Best family game: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
¿ Best music game: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
¿ Best handheld game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
¿ Best role-playing game: Mass Effect
¿ Best action/adventure game: Bioshock
¿ Best shooter: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

View the full report for the runners-up in each category.
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MSNBC video game section has been polling gamers about their favorite games in a number of categories, trying to narrow down the search for the Game of the Year.

On Thursday the site put up the poll to decide which of the finalists, culled from the best of each genre, should be named the game of the year.

The finalists are:
¿ Madden NFL 08
¿ Project Gotham Racing 4
¿ Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
¿ LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
¿ Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
¿ The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
¿ Mass Effect
¿ Bioshock
¿ Call of Duty 4

At the time of this writing Call of Duty 4 was leading with 31 percent of the vote. BioShock was close behind with 22 percent and Mass Effect was in a distant third with 8.6 percent.

[ Words: Kotaku's Brian Crecente ]
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Kotaku's Brian Crecente has a leaked copy of the National Institute on Media and the Family's annual Media Wise Video Game Report Card, set to be officially released tomorrow. This year's report card is broken into five parts:

¿ The MediaWise Video Game Report Card
¿ The Buying Guide
¿ The ESRB Rating System and Ratings Education Efforts
¿ The Retailer Ratings Education and Enforcement Surveys
¿ Annual MediaWise-Harris Interactive Poll of Kids and Parents

Kotaku gives a quick summary for each part.
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The best selling games in units sold, across all platforms, for the year are as follows, with more year-to-date sales data available at the source.

¿ Halo 3 - 3,700,000
¿ Madden NFL 08 - 3,200,000
¿ Guitar Hero II - 2,800,00
¿ Wii Play with Remote - 2,500,000
¿ Pokemon Diamond - 2,100,000
¿ Pokemon Pearl - 1,500,000
¿ Spider-Man 3 - 1,400,000
¿ Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock - 1,400,000
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Analysts said Tuesday that Electronic Arts is cutting prices on sports games such as "NBA Live 08," "Madden NFL 08" and "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08," which the analysts said is a bad sign going into the holiday season.
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EA's latest version of Madden is severly p***ing off gamers with a few deeming it as unplayable due to the bugs involved. The Xbox 360 and PS3 version suffer from similar bugs and even the Wii suffers from quite a long list. On the list include system freezes, online play trouble, players disappearing from the free agent pool and quarterbacks automatically throwing the ball as soon as it is hiked. Consumers are filing reports everyhere possible not to mention to the Better Business Bureau in California where EA is headquarted in which the Bureau has received 443 complaints regarding EA in the past 36 months resulting in an unsatisfactory rating.
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Following the thoroughly impressive August results from The NPD Group, Microsoft was the first of the big three console manufacturers to chime in on its performance for the month.

The main highlights were outlined by Microsoft as follows:

# Xbox 360 unit sales are up 63 percent, versus an 18 percent decline for PS3 and 5 percent decline for Wii month over month

# Xbox 360 outsells PS3 more than 2:1

# Xbox 360 software sales are more than PS3 and Wii software sales combined

# Madden NFL '08 on Xbox 360 outsold all other versions of the title, including the PS2 by more than 250,000 units, and PS3 by more than 560,000

Hit the link for more...
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With a 400k debut, Bioshock has a pretty legitimate shot at 1,000,000 units long term. For a sense of scale though - even in week two Madden (across all platforms) - outsold the game.

With the Americas data now in, it is time for the weekly look at Vgchartz sales data. For the week ending August 25, Xbox 360 saw the release of a key release - Bioshock. Additionally, numbers for Madden NFL 2008 in week two across all platforms were quite similar to the debut of Bioshock. That said, it is important to note that Xbox 360 hardware did not see a boost. For more on the current generation hardware sales (PS3,Wii, 360, DS, PSP) as compared to last week, check the chart.
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The Wii, Xbox, GC and PSP versions of Madden 08 ¿ combined - accounted for fewer than 10% of the 1.6 million units sold while 360 version sold them most and 4 times the PS3 version.

-- 8/18 ---- 8/11 ------ Net Change
NDS 131,930 / 126,277 / +3%
Wii 89,280 / 86,469 / +4%
360 59,118 / 52,484 / +13%
PSP 53,206 / 55,160 / -4%
PS3 47,928 / 41,499 / +15%
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New York City, and more specifically Times Square, is the center for hundreds of launches, parties, and events a year. Tonight however, EA Sports delivered the largest video game launch that we've ever been a part of by buying up giant billboards, holding an Ozzy Osbourne concert above the Hard Rock Cafe, and essentially shutting down a piece of the busiest city in America for a bit of the night, all for the launch of the heralded Madden 08.

Note: We've put together a more than 11 minute video of the event for you guys to check out. Click here for the goods.

We mingled and interviewed Hall of Fame NFL players at the ESPN Zone, we pulled the Prince of ******* Darkness aside after his concert to ask him a few questions about Madden 08's soundtrack, and even went out and spoke with you guys - the fans - at Toys "R" Us who had started lining up for the midnight launch as early as 2:00 PM in order to have the first copy handed to them by the beloved Tiki Barber.

We'll have tons of coverage from the event including photos, a lengthy video showcasing the aforementioned celebrity interviews, and a detailed article later in the week so keep it locked to IGN.com for all the goods.
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EA released word this afternoon that it is already planning a patch for the newly released Madden '08 on the Wii. The news came from their official website.
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