Madden NFL 08

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dimorphic360 writes: It seems that Australia once again is getting shafted when it comes to limited edition releases of games. First Mass Effect and Devil May Cry 4 were given cut down limited edtion releases (in the case of Mass Effect we only got a small pre-order bonus) and the limited edition bundle of EA Sports Madden franchise looks like the next in line...

GotFrag.com Madden will release the second edition of its Madden Top 50 on March 1, 2008. In last year's top 50, Eric Problem Wright ranked in at No. 1 and that is not expected to change as he recently took this year's Player's Bowl in Philadelphia. However, with strong performances from Dan Truth Brown, Big Game James and other lower ranked Madden players, how will that shift the rankings?

Madden NFL 08 has passed the 2 million mark in sales and becomes the 12th Xbox 360 game to do so, increasing the consoles lead over its competitors. The Nintendo Wii currently has 9 games that have sold over 2 million, while Sony's PS3 sits a distant 3rd with only 4, and only 2 non-bundled.

Eric Problem Wright didn't skip a beat from his Madden Challenge title only months ago as he defeated Big Game James Saturday in the XBox 360 portion of the Player's Bowl.