Japan "is the cradle of our industry," Moore writes, but "one of the frustrations of being an American company attempting to do business in Japan is the insularity of the industry that defends locally-made content and looks down on games from abroad."

Moore mentions his experience with Japan while at Microsoft and acknowledges that factors such as genre, gameplay and art design have been factors in making a breakthrough. But, "with simulation sports games, these issues would seem much less relevant - it's typically about the gameplay. So you can imagine my disappointment every year as we struggle to break through in Japan with our outstanding FIFA franchise."

He goes on:

It is clear we still have work to do in Japan to more fully understand what drives that gamers attraction to sports titles. Let me be clear on this. I recognize that there are many factors that contribute to a gamer's decision to purchase (or not) a particular game, I'd just hate for the gamers in Japan to not get as much enjoyment as the rest of the world out of the best sports game of this console generation.

Honestly, Moore could also be saying the same thing about FIFA's acceptance in the United States. Granted, it sells much better here, but the U.S. is also very hidebound to its domestic traditions, especially the big four of major team sports. Soccer, football, kick-ball, however you call it, is a relatively new sport to Japan no matter its popularity. The J. League (1992), Japan's top tier association, has been around about as long as the MLS (1993). Maybe an MVP Baseball for Japan's Central and Pacific Leagues? Hell, I loved MVP in the States, I'd play that.

It might be a little nearsighted to chalk this up to insularity. It could be other things, such as sports preference and the tradition sports games have in Japan with which I will confess, I don't have much familiarity. Whatever the case, it's clear EA Sports is not exempt from his company's efforts in that market.

FIFA in Japan [Peter Moore's Official Blog]

Functionally, it'll operate in much the same way as FIFA's system. Players will start the game mode with a random pack of cards. The players on those cards are the players on your team. They'll mostly be the dregs of the NFL to begin with; as you play more and earn points, you can buy better packs of cards that will feature a higher calibre of player (they'll still be random cards, just, the more expensive packs will have better players in them).

Point being it spices up online gaming a little, creating random teams (to break up the monotony of people sticking with big/good teams), with the added compulsiveness of Pokemon-esque card collecting.

I've played the FIFA version, and it was pretty neat, though the downside was that the FIFA version cost money. The Madden edition, however, will be free, so the least you can do is check it out when it's released in January.

Madden Ultimate Team First Look [GameSpot]

This package delivers Lousiville at Pitt's Petersen Events Center (Big East); Michigan State at Illinois' Assembly Hall, one of 47 such-named arenas in the Big 10; Texas at Kansas's Allen Fieldhouse representing the Big XII; Florida vs. Kentucky in Rupp Arena (SEC); Cal at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, because only in the Pac-10 do they play in pavilions; and of course, Wake Forest whistled for a charge against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium, because for no other ACC team is such a call ever made. Larry Rose must be an unlockable classic ref in this game.

The meal comes in four configurations, offers four "collector's cups" featuring NFLers rendered, interestingly, in their cartoony Madden-for-the-Wii forms. McWhertor, still nauseous from last year's unboxing of the Guitar Hero meal, assigned this to me on the pretense that as the sports writer, it was my responsibility.

I selected the five hot wings version over the two-piece grilled chicken (white or dark meat), the three chicken strips or the Twister (a wrap with lettuce). I went with the hot wings because I figured five pieces would allow me to burn 66 percent more calories reaching into the box than I would with three crispy strips, and that would be healthier than whatever I got from the Twister's vegetable matter.

The KFC Madden Box also comes in a standard $5 version and a $7 special edition that, while it doesn't include night vision goggles, is packed with enough pupil-dilating sodium you'll see in the dark on your own. I went with the $7 configuration, which is supposed to deliver an extra side item and a dessert.

But as you can see in the above unboxing, this product shipped in such an incomplete state I'm not sure any patch or update can fix it. Opening the box reveals just the five wings and the mashed potatoes and gravy - which I had declared as my extra side item. No crumbly biscuit doused in butter pheromones. No chitinous coleslaw in mayonnaise the color and consistency of watery ejaculate. In fact, since the hockey-puck brownie bites come in plastic and I poured the Diet Pepsi (oh hell yeah, I went with the diet), there are a grand total of two items here actually prepared by KFC employees, even though the loading time for this was an unacceptably slow seven minutes.

KFC #D705027, Springfield, Ore., you fail. Well, maybe you were thinking of my health by subtracting 360 needless calories. Either way, my review of this meal's components follows:

Hated (Secretly Loved):
Hot wings: These babies start slow, not really hitting you with the spice until midway through the third piece. Then it was like Cayenne Frankenstein farted in my face. Even after the meal my mouth had this residue on it that reminded me of the time I drunkenly kissed this chick who had that bee-sting toxin lip gloss to give her the Angelina Jolie pouty look. Both encounters were degrading, but this one diminished my self-esteem. Also, these are not boneless wings; I thought "wings" was an allegorical reference in lieu of "nuggets," a competitor's term, because these things were fried up to the point they no longer resembled the limbs of any known terrestrial animal. So I took a big mouthful of bone on the first attempt, and believe me, that's not a sentence I ever wanted to write. I didn't expect the amount of meat in this item to be nourishing; I did expect it to at least be filling. Rating: Anorexy.

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy: The pudding-like body of potato flour and pureed notebook was at least free of lumps or standing water. It was thoroughly mixed with the viscous tailings of cooked chicken, whose bouquet hit artful notes of obesity, unemployment, and parole. If the chicken didn't fill me, this sure did, as not soon after polishing off the MP&G it felt like my large intestine was mixing up Redi-Crete, certain to turn my commode into a birdbath. Rating: Lunchlady.

Brownie Bites: These pucklike treats came packaged in a cellophane sleeve upside down on a piece of waxed cardboard, evocative of the conveyor belt that shat them out. In March. But ultimately, they were chocolatey and thus the highlight, comparatively speaking, of this dining experience. Rating: Hockey.

Despite the grandiose packaging and $7 pricetag, even if this order had been completely filled it would still be engineered for a 15 minute experience, tops. I expected that this calorie bomb would have left me doing the old Dad thing of unbuttoning my pants and laying on the couch to watch Jeopardy and blame my farts on the dog. But all it took was one tuberculose belch-cough and I was back to full strength.

If there was $1.95 worth of actual food in this meal I'd be astonished. That, coupled with the EA Sports sponsorship, must make this cross promotion an insanely profitable no-brainer for Yum! Brands, and all but guarantees a sequel in the coming year.

KFC Madden NFL Box was developed in a conference room by marketing geniuses and produced by KFC, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. Retails for $5, $7 if you want the extra side-item and brownie bites, assuming they remember to pack all the base items. Eaten until regretted.

Furthermore, the game's suggested retail price drops another $10, to $39.99, just in time for the holiday retail season.

The DLC pack will release "early December," nothing more specific, and will be $9.99 on PlayStation Network, 800 points over Xbox Live.

New Fight Night Round 4 DLC and Price Cut Announced [IGN via VG247]

Loved
Under control: Honestly thought I'd hate the controls, considering this is five-on-five basketball with not a joystick in sight. But getting the hang of them - specifically knowing how much space your juke moves take up, so you can finish a dunk or pull-up jumper - you can run some entertaining, mostly arcade ball with occasional flourishes of realism. (Though, dunks and drives to the basic seemed to be a little too easy, allowing you to brute-force your way out of trouble most of the time.) A blue ball button controls both quick passing and your jukes (by flicking it in one of four directions) and so sometimes, you'll make a crossover when you want to kick out to the nearest man. But the offensive setup capably handles the most difficult part of video game basketball - ball distribution. Pressing and holding the blue button allows you to select a player to receive a pass, in case you have a man free on the wing and the AI isn't highlighting him. And a clipboard icon allows you to call basic plays, like a pick-and-roll or isolation. Defense, I didn't like how your man instantly became a step slower as soon as you switched over to control him. It made defending in transition - and the computer is much better running and gunning than running set plays - a total crapshoot. After a while you learn how to play a guy off the ball, get him in position, and pick up easy steals and blocks, which are your main forms of active defense as the rest is handled by AI.

The Full Package: Like Madden, EA Sports shoehorns as much of its full console experience into this device as possible. You have a season, playoffs and a quick game mode at three levels of difficulty, for both AI and how fouls and penalties are called. At the easy level, backcourt violations, going out of bounds and three-second violations are nonexistent, and they give you breathing room to run your game without turning your learning process into nonstop punishment. In season mode you can go right up to 12 minute quarters and 82 games if your commute is that long. Trades and roster management are enabled, but the former is more like "move players as you wish," because there is no trade AI. (Hello, Dwight Howard-for-Nene trade!) Three-minute quarters for me produced enough results in the 30-40 point range to be satisfying.

Hated
Some Inconsistencies: My wi-fi access is on by default, and I was struggling with some bad framerate drops until I switched it off on a hunch. That seemed to help but there are still some inexplicable lags that make this finesse game feel a little clumsy. Although this is a device and not a game limitation, it feels very cramped playing on an NBA halfcourt with 10 guys on this size of a screen, from the broadcast angle. You can switch to a baseline view that magnifies things but I found the constant camera zooming and movement to be a little dizzying. Contesting shots and going for rebounds, especially in traffic, left me wondering whether I'd grabbed the miss or recovered the ball after a block. Marv Albert's commentary isn't helpful in telling me, either, as misses are either "Comes up short!" or "Off the mark!" or "Rejected emphatically!" His presence lends authenticity but is very, very repetitive. And finally, there were some puzzling AI sequences at the lower difficulties, especially in the final possessions of a quarter, where the opposing team would do things like pass the ball between two guys, repeatedly, or hold the ball until a 24-second violation sounded the horn.

NBA Live has enough of a learning curve, and a large enough price, to be a serious purchase and not an impulse buy. Those who enjoy video game basketball can pick it up easy enough. But you should have a lot of time or desire to play it on your mobile for you to see value in the title, because it requires exploration. It's clear NBA Live on the iPhone is also meant as an entry product to get you to think about its larger sibling. Ultimately, it succeeds, and does so without resorting to fun-size cop-outs like three-on-three, or dumbed-down controls.

NBA Live by EA Sports was developed by EA Mobile published by Electronic Arts for the iPhone and iPod Touch on Oct. 23. Retails for $9.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played all game types and difficulties.)

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

"You hear that," Dougan, a producer in EA Sports' Vancouver studio, said after humming the tune "and wow - that is college basketball."

EA's college hoops title, even though it's in the second year of a competition-free, exclusive license arrangement, is taking a huge bite with this year's presentation. Full broadcast immersion - the package of real network announcers, graphics and music - has been on a sports gamer's wish list for a long time in many titles. NCAA Basketball 10 will be the first to dip its toe in the deep end of those expectations not once, but twice this year, presenting its games in the broadcast style of CBS and ESPN.

In season mode, "if your team is that good," of course, says Dougan, your weekday games will be broadcast with ESPN's Brad Nessler and Dick Vitale, using that network's signature key graphics, screen wipes, and music. Play on Saturday or Sunday, and maybe you're the over-the-air national game on CBS - called by Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery, with that network's visual package.

It gets better. If, say, you're North Carolina, playing down in the Maui Invitational, ESPN has the rights to that tournament in real life, and it'll be presented as such in this game. In the conference tournaments, you know how sometimes the broadcasts trade hands? For example, the SEC's semifinals are on ESPN but the finals are on CBS? NCAA Basketball 10 will switch accordingly. "We wouldn't be able to get approval otherwise," Dougan said, "and we wanted to do our best to make our broadcast partners happy."

It is a hell of a stab at sports immersion, taking on the guise of two real-world networks where no game has fully rendered one before. It's even ballsier considering there's no competing title, and that the Johnson-Raftery team not only had to come in to build that audio library from scratch, but the game will end up competing with itself as both will be measured against Nessler and Vitale's experience and deeper soundfile.

"To do one network's broadcast package is hard enough, and we had to do it well," Dougan said. "We're not going to be the first ones to do it for EA Sports and not nail it. We don't have that option. And here we decided to do two."

Creating the graphics wasn't as simple as dialing up a point of contact in Bristol, Conn. or New York, and asking for the network's files. "The way their systems work, their art doesn't translate well for us," Dougan said. "So we had to recreate it, based on references provided by them, or we just got it off tape. That's the overlays, the popups, the 3D screen wipes you see when they cut to a replay or the guy at the foul line."

Those wipes are both unique, not only in visual content, but in the space and time they take up on the screen. Keep in mind they're branded with the logo of the team in the game. And there are more than 300 in NCAA's Division I.

"And every broadcast package has multiple size logos. And then you have to times that by two," Dougan said. "It was a nasty challenge."

It gets so pointilistic, Dougan said, when a player comes to the line in a national broadcast, the networks usually throw up his vital stats, which include his college major. NCAA Basketball 10 had to build in a randomizer to give players a major for just such a presentation. "We've got the guys in there who are communications, or undeclared. We've got biology, performing arts," Dougan said, chuckling. (If you create a player, he will get a major but it'll be assigned by the game, you don't get to pick it.)

When tournament time comes, Dougan said, the graphics will incorporate bracket progression and other tournament specific details, entirely done in the branding of CBS, the Final Four network since 1982. And that ...

Well, that brings up the number one question:

"No, it's not in the game," Dougan said. "We do not have ‘One Shining Moment.' "

The misty-eyed melody CBS always plays at the end of the championship game, to a reel of the tournament's best highlights, is the one iconic feature of March Madness not present in this build.

"That's something we really wanted to do, but you'd be surprised how much the dude wants - or how much that song actually costs," Dougan said. "But yes, what would be the ultimate, is if we had a video highlight montage with that song."

I asked if this broadcast immersion was a proof of concept for other EA Sports titles; Dougan didn't want to speak to what other EA Sports teams were doing (though they do work together EA Tiburon helped out with the Lucas Oil Stadum build, the site of this year's Final Four in Indianapolis.)

But he made clear that, even though 2K Sports is no longer a competitor in college basketball, it doesn't mean College Basketball 2K10 has no competition. It is the last major sports title to release before the holiday season, when gift givers are considering not only which sports game to buy, but which game overall.

"You look at where we are, NCAA Basketball isn't as popular as, say, Madden," Dougan said. "But we're still competing with it. We're competing with other sports video games, or even Call of Duty. If someone only has $60 to spend on one video game, we need to give them something that's going to drive a purchase."

The double-broadcast package was arduous - taking up 60 percent of the development cycle, he guessed. But it was worth it.

"This is something we need to provide people, in order to grow our game and market."

Stick Jockey is Kotaku's column on sports video games. It appears Saturdays at 10 a.m. U.S. Mountain time.

Earlier this week, Pasta Padre found a forum post - since taken down - in which a 2K Sports representative questioned whether NBA Live 10's massive patch that went out this week deserves the praise it's getting for using community feedback. The 2K guy more or less called B.S., and said there was no way devs could have rolled out something based on community feedback and pass certification that fast, unless they were working on it prior to release. Which would imply EA Sports knew it was sending out substandard code. (Pasta Padre points out that the NBA Live 10 demo went out early, and so community feedback on the game could predate its full release.)

EA Sports has responded with an NBA Live 10 blog that features, among other things, 20 screenshots of NBA 2K10 being sold on Craigslist, all with some reference to NBA Live 10 being the better game. Other testimonials from fan email include direct shots at the competition, including this gem: "I can't stop playing this game i am hooked, good bye 2k garbage."

If Metacritic is a judge of things, the games are neck and neck - 2K10's 83 to Live's 80 - for the first time in years. And it's the first time Live has seriously challenged 2K in quality on the current generation of console. The fact this comes during NBA 2K's gala 10th anniversary year is probably frustrating to them. But he who makes the first game without framerate drop or patchable bug, throw the first stone.

While both sides might want to cool it, and focus on their own game, both of which have issues to be patched, they seem to be taking this very personally. Next year, I'm sure both shops will remember what those corksuckin' icehole bastiges on the other side said and did, and it'll be an all-out battle for the crown. That's good old-fashioned competition. Just so long as no one gets run over by the Schlitz malt liquor bull.

EA Strikes Back With New Blog [Pasta Padre]

Collinsworth (as voiced by NYC comedian Rob Lathan) has to start out somewhere, so here he begins by calling the action for Intellivision's Rural New Mexico Six-on-Six Football NFL Football (and the later All-Pro Football, with the forward pass perfected by the Mattel LED handhelds years before).

Remember, "You've never lived until one of those clowns flips you upside down." It's a sound bite you hear 48 zillion times in the most mundane Madden NFL 10 game. It'd also take up 20 times the memory of one of these ROMs.

Collinsworth NFL 10 - Rated E for Effort [YouTube, thanks Ian V.]

Dynamic DNA, now in its second season, draws on analysis provided by Synergy Sports Technology, and breaks down the trends, tendencies, streaks and performances of players across the entire league. That's be incorporated into your own NBA Live 10 gameplay, both in how these players and teams perform and how the announcing team calls the action.

Just as important, a huge patch has rolled out and is now available for for owners of the Xbox 360 version, and will be available on Thursday for PS3 players. It delivers a multitude of gameplay fixes and enhancements drawn from community feedback during the game's first month on the market.

Most notably, backdown postures have returned with a click of the right thumbstick, returning a more familiar presentation of post play to the game. A lockdown perimeter defense feature also has been added, plus better touch on keeping your defender in front of his man.

The entire list of enhancements and fixes, according to an EA Sports news release, is below.

Enhancements:

• Auto-switch to PG on defense after a made basket
• Enabled rim stuffs. Now when you try to dunk in traffic, there's a chance you'll brick the dunk.
• Tune nets to make them a bit less stiff
• Added more variation to "get back" animations after made shots. Less "skipping" back.
• Disabled the canned scenario steal that happens when you rip the ball from a player who is sizing up. Instead, we allow actual collision with the ball if the defender performs a steal while a ball handler is making a dribble move. Makes for a much more read and react, twitch game on defense.
• Improved Freestyle pass animation selection to prevent guys from bursting into a sprint while passing on the move.
• Backdown button is back. Enabled right thumbstick click to toggle between face up and backdown postures.
• Disabled the turnaround jumpshot that would play if the shooter is facing away from the hoop when outside of 18 feet. So instead of a turnaround three, players will pivot and shoot a regular jumpshot.
• Minor tuning to shot and layup percentages.
• Improved responsiveness and AI's usage of off ball cuts.
• Stop the rebounder from running up court too early after securing a rebound
• Improvements to reception logic, specifically square up catches
• Improve player reaction to loose ball situations
• Left analog passing improvements: Update analog angle metric to consider the receiver's destination so you can lead the receiver with the pass
• Improved the logic of when to play a standing reception vs. a moving reception based on the receiver's momentum and position on the court.
• Added the ability to "lockdown" perimeter ball handlers (by pressing into them) and force them into a protect dribble state.
• Ability to shoot "runners" on demand by driving toward the basket, neutralizing the left analog stick and hitting the Shot Button. Works inside of 18 feet.
• Improvements to user on ball defense. Made it easier to stay in front of the ball without "slipping off" when you move your left stick toward the ball handler.
• Anti-cheese code. Prevent users from being able to take off ball control of players and run them under the hoop for the cheap pass and dunk.
• Inbound flow improvements. Allow the inbounder to move to multiple (closer) locations along the baseline after picking up the ball.
• User control over shot contest vs. block. Tap of the Block button will always yield a contest animation. Regular press will always jump to block.
• Several improvements for end of game AI logic. When the AI is ahead, they'll do a better job at recognizing time and score and use more clock. If they're trailing, they'll accelerate the offense.
• Improve AI logic for pump fake biting. AI defenders will be smarter about defending pumpfakes according to difficulty level. Previously, the higher the level, the more often they'd bite. Also, if user is pump faking multiple times in succession, the AI will stay down.

Bug Fixes:

• Smooth out some of the gameplay by tuning blend times for passes as well as some various fixes for blend pops across the board.
• Exploit fix. Fixed bug in shot calculator that would make stepback jumpshots that crossed the 3pt line have unrealistically high FG%s.
• Fixed sliding and warping during standing rebounds
• Addressed issue where defenders would sometimes watch the ball fall off the rim. Increase the allowable distance for a teammate to come help.
• Player Lock fixed. AI teammates will now make decisions on their own when user is player locked off ball.
• Put the ball handler into protect dribble if the on ball defender attempts to crowd him. Previously, the ball handler would not recognize the defender and just expose the ball.
• "Rocket dunks" fixed. Fixed a bug that was causing dunks to speed up by 30% and added code to have dunks retain the shooter's on-ground velocity, preserving his momentum after takeoff. Also applies to layups.
• Various post play fixes, including the case where two guys would stand next to each other while one of them was posting up.
• Addressed a potential exploit where it would be too easy to pass to cutters for dunks. As part of this fix, we now allow ball collisions on passes when passing into the paint.
• AI Stagnation fixes: Ball handler would sometimes not properly pass to receivers in a play. Also, we allow the ball handler to "improvise" if we detect he's been idling for too long.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes an off ball cut animation wouldn't properly settle into the correct spot.
• Restricted the post up and under move to within 12' of the basket. No more ridiculous up and under heaves from deep.
• Fixed an issue where off ball post players would sometimes quickly go in and out of post battles, significantly cutting down on jitter.
• Fix for big men waiting too long to outlet the ball after rebounding
• Fix for fidgety box outs. They should kick in more reliably now.
• Prevent user passes to teammates who will be out of bounds or to teammates in the backcourt after they've crossed the timeline.
• Improve goaltending calls
• Fixed ball physics for blocked layups/dunks. There was a mirroring issue that was causing the ball to shoot off in the complete opposite direction of its intended path.
• Fixes for animation oscillation on defense (i.e. jittery movement)
• Fixed a bug that would cause certain off ball movement animations to not mirror properly
• Series of small fixes to prevent balls from hitting the floor during rebounds.
• Fix for shooting fouls not properly getting called on collision layups. This will yield more realistic free throw attempts for both the user and CPU.
• Put in a fix to mitigate the excessive turnovers inside the paint, specifically after pulling down an offensive rebound. Gives users a little more time to pass out or attempt a shot when they get in congested areas in the paint.
• Smoother ball handler post up entries. Sometimes guys would "pop" into place.
• Fixed issue where players would sometimes "freeze" in an off ball post battle before receiving a pass.
• Fixed bug where the "check assignment indicator" would draw on one of your own teammates in LIVE RUN games.

At the PLAY Conference this past weekend, I got to watch the man at work during "The Monetization Game" panel, which also featured Kai Huang — one of Guitar Hero's masterminds — and ngmoco CEO Neil Young. Moore had most of the crowd-pleasing moments and more than a few fair points. But here's a round-up of some of the things these guys said to get the crowd going:

Point One: Plastic and Digital
A big part of the talk centered around plastic peripherals. After all, if the fate of video games is to go all digital download, what's going to happen to all those games that rely on plastic instruments?

At some point during the talk, the moderator asked if the market was saturated with plastic peripherals.

Moore answered, "We're at the point of how much do you want to pay. How many people bought the maracas for Samba de Amigo? [Two people raise their hands]. But if you look at the ability of the industry to sustain the big box mentality — Guitar Hero, Rock Band — it's going to be a challenge. The first time somebody puts a skateboard through their television set... To what extent is the user willing to pay?"

Then he took a dig at Wii Fit's "bathroom scales" as compared to EA Sports Active's awesomeness that doesn't require an expensive peripheral. Later he went after Activision head Bobby Kotick about how if people stop buying Guitar Hero, he'll be sitting on half the world's plastic.

Fair point, but how are you going to get a guitar in the hands of everybody who wants to play Guitar Hero? Face it, cell phone interfaces just aren't the same.

Point Two: Word of mouth marketing
The talk touched on marketing the multiple iterations of Guitar Hero. Huang explained that before the world was used to music video games, the franchise needed a lot of marketing to get people used to the idea of using a plastic guitar. But despite all the dollars dropped on celebrity commercials, it was word of mouth that got games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero into the mainstream.

Here's how Young put it: "There's two types of games. There are games you launch, [sell well], and then they go down. The second type of game just kind of chugs along, does a hundred downloads the first hour. Then a hundred and twenty-five the second hour, a hundred and forty the third hour. What you're seeing is word of mouth happening in front of you."

But Young develops games for the iPhone that publish updates to your Facebook where you're one click away from downloading the game demo for yourself. So maybe word-of-mouth marketing works better for him because it's all digital.

Ask yourself if you're more likely to buy Uncharted 2 after reading Kotaku's review of the game, or after reading Brian Crecente's Facebook status updates about it.

Point Three: Dude, Where's Your Xbox?
Early on in the talk, Moore mentioned that he recently bought a ROKU box to download movies at home. During the Q&A, a Microsoft employee got up and asked him — quite rightly — what happened to his Xbox 360? Then he asked a real question about how soon we could expect to be rid of physical media.

Young answered the first part for Moore: "It red-ringed."

Then Moore said, "[The industry is] at least a decade away from saying goodbye to a physical disc. The more important question is what does the next generation of console look like?" Will it have a disc drive or just anInternet connection? Whatever it is, says Moore, it'll probably be Microsoft that makes the jump first.

Well played, Moore.

Final Point: Chicks and Madden
Moore said that 85% of Madden users (note: not buyers) are male and 65% of EA Sports Active users are female. EA Sports wants to level these numbers out in terms of gender equality, but it's not quite sure how to.

Ladies, any suggestions?

Image Cred

Huang, co-founder of Red Octane and parent of the Guitar Hero franchise, went so far as to predict that this generation would be the last to own physical media. In five or 10 years, he said, everything would be digital download-based.

Moore — current head of EA Sports and former overseer of all things Xbox — agreed for the most part. He said that the console model of video games (where you get one complete game on a disc for $60) was a "burning platform." As in, do you stand on a burning platform and face certain death or jump into the waters of digital distribution and face probable death?

Clearly, you want the digital distribution. Right?

Despite Moore and Huang's faith in the future of digital distribution, however, both developers are releasing three to four disc-based games on console a year. Complete with plastic peripherals which cost even more money to manufacture than video game software, mind you.

Huang explained Red Octane's Activision's motivation behind ubiquitous releases as accessibility. "We need to give [our users] channels to access additional content," he said. Not everybody is ready for the DLC revolution, apparently, so they have to keep putting out physical media for the next five to 10 years. Or however long it takes for my physical-media-dependent generation to die out and accept digital everything.

Young had a slightly different take on the digital future. He would, because he develops games almost exclusively for the iPhone like Rolando and Eliminate. Young said episodic content doesn't work because you can't chop a complete game into tiny pieces. Rather, said Young, game makers should be looking at ways to monetize usage. To him, this means making a game that's free to play and then finding ways to trick you into microtransactions. Like shelling out for extremely nerdy clothing for your virtual avatar in a free-to-play role-playing game.

It all comes down to the fact that the video games industry is risk-averse. If console makers believe that the next generation of gamer won't shell out for $60 for a disc that gets scratched up eventually anyway, then we can expect the next iteration of console to not have a disc tray. And when that happens, maybe we can all stop shelling out for plastic guitars and a new copy of what's essentially the same football game every year.

No word on when this patch goes live, but when it arrives, the development team has promised defensive tweaks that improve the chances you record a sack (rather than the CPU quarterback throwing the ball away), improving defenders' pursuit angles, and improving the coverage of the flats. Better simmed stats in franchise mode also are coming, as well as other unspecificed uniform and presentation changes. The official blog post on the patch reminds that the list of fixes and updates is not final.

Madden NFL 10 - 2nd title Update Preliminary Details [Inside EA Sports Blog via Pasta Padre]

Two weeks ago The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported that Thompson's lawyers had canceled a procedural conference because the case is in the process of being dismissed. Thompson, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's "Hall of Fans," who wears a bug-eyed dog mask, hard hat and waves a bone, had sued EA for a similar character appearing in Madden NFL 2005.

The Plain Dealer's Oct. 5 report said the suit was expected to be resolved in three weeks. His suit sought at least $25,000 and a promise from EA to no longer use his image.

Browns Superfan John 'Big Dawg' Thompson's Case Against Game Maker Likely to be Resolved [Cleveland.com via Gamasutra]

Unfortunately, CBS's Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery are a bit thin and generic in their commentary - but in their first year, it's to be expected, as they don't benefit from the kind of dialogue library built up that Brad Nessler and Dick Vitale have. This is too bad because Gus in real life is constantly talking, making his bursts of excitement not as jarring as they are here. And from what I can hear, Raftery's adding personality and not much more.

As far as the play itself goes, player movement seems fluid and natural, although there is a conspicuous slide-repositioning of defenders during the free throws. The passing system seems to involve the off-the-ball player control introduced in this year's NBA Live 10 - or at least I hope it does. It was one of that game's stronger points.

Of course the graphics packages look great, picture-perfect with both ESPN and CBS's broadcast presentation. Plus, I like watching Al Skinner throw a temper tantrum as Michigan starts putting it to Boston College.

NCAA Basketball 10 First Gameplay Videos [Pasta Padre via GameSpot

More than just table overlays and title graphics, EA Sports is including signature wipes and other elements specific to both networks.

Our lead screen artist had to create 2 sets of broadcast specific logo sets (that are used in different overlays and wipes) for every team in the game. That's over 600+ unique pieces of art for logos alone! You'll see these logos in various overlays like National Top 25, player stat pop ups and team/player montage wipes (to name a few).

So, you can see this was nowhere near as simple as swapping colors or logos.

People who watch college basketball are used to seeing and extracting info out of the score overlays and montages during the games they watch on ESPN and CBS Sports. We had to nail this functionality and be true to the broadcast in order to make it authentic and easy to gather info and make changes based on that information. It is also a lot of fun knowing that the stats showing up in the ESPN or CBS Sports broadcasted game you are playing are a direct result of you playing a game or working through a dynasty. ESPN and CBS Sports are recording and surfacing YOUR stats, YOUR team's averages, YOUR work.

NCAA Basketball 10 - CBS and ESPN Presentation Packages [Inside EA Sports via Pasta Padre]

Last year's version of NBA Live finally helped the franchise pick itself off the mat in the next generation of consoles, where barely acceptable offerings had trailed NBA 2K10's best-in-class effort for years. This year EA Sports Vancouver pushed the focus to team play rather than flashy individual performances and animations. The product is a clean, accessible game with a strong underpinning of realism, and a level of player control that sets it apart.

Edit: In the interest of accuracy, the opening sequence does not use the word "revival." Instead it's "arrival." However, the sentiment stands. It's a revival of the franchise.

Loved
Everyone's under control: Whatever your style of play, the ability to custom-move off-ball player with a trigger-button-stick combination is a strong positive. This isn't a command to an AI, this is you physically moving one player while another has the ball. It creates lots of catch-and-shoot opportunities at the perimeter and do-it-yourself plays that are more technically satisfying than run-and-gun basketball. They're also more efficient - sometimes a little too efficient - than some of the set plays you draw up. You also have the "dynamic quick play" button which basically tells your hottest (or nearest) scorer at the moment "get open." These wielded in combination with the quick pick-and-roll's improved control, give you an impressive sense of power getting the ball in the basket, without ever beating your man off the dribble or going one-on-one. It rebalances the focus on team play and easily does the most to recommend this game.

Fancy passing is no passing fancy: In addition to the above, freestyle passing allows you greater directional control over where you whip the ball, even in traffic, rather than hoping the game AI doesn't send it to an unintended man covered up on the play. With this and the trigger/button direct-pass mechanism, there's almost never a reason to flick A/X unless you're just bringing the ball up. Like Magic and Bird, the controls make the assist cool again. Hell, it makes the outlet pass cool. More importantly, with a clampdown on speed and what you can get away with taking the ball to the hole, NBA 10 places a greater premium on spacing and open shots, and with the passing controls, it gives you the tools to create those opportunities.

Dynamic DNA: It's back again with another layer of fine-tuning and a year's worth of data to build upon. Not only do you get players whose performance is broken down by attribute score and tendency, you're presented with a thumbnail scouting report of your AI opponent in every game and the means to go much deeper in your franchise mode. By no means do I study player or team tendencies of the NBA, but I could sense that, in certain game situations, bad teams defaulted to type, superstars tried to take over (sometimes succeeding), and many other AI choices that seemed to be based on the game's breakdown of players, and not a coaching directive. You get the Lakers down by eight late in the game and Kobe's going to start bombing away, I assure you. Yeah, that's an easy call for any AI to make, but I swear that players who would prefer drives to one direction would hit a point in the game where they would take whatever was in front of them, suddenly defense got a lot easier, and that point at which every team in the NBA makes its run had passed.

Dynamic Season: This is fast becoming all the rage in games, and I don't know who exactly innovated it. But once the season gets going NBA Live 10 will allow you to drop back in time and replay any game on the schedule. That's different and that's a plus. Right out of the box you can pick key moments from the 2008-2009 regular and postseason, and almost immediately I started playing the epic Bulls-Celtics opening round series from the playoffs. It's not integrated into Dynasty Mode; but diehards can play along with their favorite team and change history for any disappointing result in real life.

Hated
Tone-deaf defense: Compared to 2K10, there's less subtlety in the distance your player covers when you move the stick even minutely, and playing man-to-man defense really exposes this. I overran a lot of plays and couldn't quite find the touch necessary to keep from being beaten off the dribble constantly. The standard ball-you-man fundamental, to cut off passing lanes, is hampered by an imprecise way to engage and stick to your man. In defending a shot, getting your hands up seems to have no effect, unless you keep them down, in which case you can count that bucket. It's the cross borne by defense in a game style that largely entertains with scoring, but the defensive controls doesn't feel as responsive as the offense. As such, it is more work and less fun in NBA Live 10.

Setting boundaries:: Again, pointing to the lack of finesse in player motion, there seemed to be some real AI issues with the boundary lines. Passes to the corner can be a faith-based affair, because your man will sometimes set up with a foot over the line and sit there. It does not happen all the time, but it's often enough to be unacceptable. There were also some backcourt violations that defied reality - I had a player run back across the timeline to take a pass in a kind of reset-the-offense way, even though we'd already inbounded the ball to that side of the court. The upside, I guess, is you can work this to your advantage. Sideline traps work often enough to feel like an exploit. Just call a double team, get the hands up and wait for the opposing ballhandler to step out of bounds. I got to the point where I did it on three straight possessions in a Finals game.

Who's (play) calling?: If you're not familiar with what basketball looks like beyond screens, picks, and drive-and-kick, calling set plays in this game will still be a puzzle for you. I'd order a play that had Nene posting up and he'd stand there, facing the basket, while Chris Andersen was backing down his guy and everyone had a full-color pass icon overhead. So I'd wonder if I was supposed to start the play by passing to someone else first and if so, who. Some icons are grayed, some are not. Pretty sure this exposes my lack of proficiency and familiarity with the game, but hey, I don't study the triangle-and-two in my spare time. The game touts playcalling that was advised by NBA scouts for added realism, but the execution was nowhere near as intuitive as NBA 2K10's, where icons on the floor direct you every step of the way. Plus, there's no practice mode in Live to try this out. Your games are your practice.

Postal Disservice: Down on the blocks you are on your own this year, big fella. The trigger/right-stick combos that formed your post-up offense are gone and replaced by ... nothing actually, which is a curious choice for a game featuring Dwight Howard on the cover. It's now entirely handled by the CPU whether your player posts up or not, and much like defensive engagement, I never got a feel for what automatically got me backing my guy down, ass to the basket. My advice is to wait for your swingman to do it on his own and then pass to him, maybe even direct him there with the off-ball control. But taking away post-up is going to leave some feeling really exposed, especially since the game's tightened up on what you can get away with in the lane and in traffic this year. Without the assuredness that you will actually stick your big ass into the defender and not face him head on and start running, interior play feels arbitrary and can make you look silly at times.

Sure, that's a lot of red ink up there, but on the whole, these are problems you can overcome or work through. NBA Live 10 is still a very inviting game. The crowd reaction is exceptional and the atmospheric difference between a regular season tilt - even a tight one - and the drama of the playoffs or the Finals, is quite palpable. To motion your man to the top of the key, shedding his defender as if you'd called for a screen, and then bury an overtime jumper provides a cathartic feeling of satisfaction. And the ability to order up this emotion in a quick play game is a definite plus, indulging the prototypical hoop dream of playing for the title, even when all you want to do is just play one game.

NBA Live 10 will deliver great moments and, especially with Dynamic Season, the individual games you want to play. The long haul of a season's worth of play is a different measure. With a direct competitor in 2K10 the first, if not only question for many is simply which one wins this year. But it is not a zero-sum proposition. I do consider NBA 2K10 to be the better package of the two, but NBA Live 10 is no less a worthy and enjoyable game in the presence of competition than it would be in the absence of it. It may not be a triumph over its rival. But in delivering a strong game for a second straight year, NBA Live is seeing the revival EA Sports wants it to be.

NBA Live 10 was developed by EA Vancouver and published by Electronic Arts for Xbox 360 and PS3 on Oct. 6. Retails for $59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played all game types in singleplayer mode and tested online multiplayer.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

This I honestly did not know. EA Sports is bringing in two different major networks' signature voice talents and graphics packages for a single title. Color me impressed. That's seriously delivering it's-in-the-game verisimilitude. If they have a DLC package of Jim Thacker and Billy Packer and the old Jefferson Pilot ACC broadcast graphics from 1978, I'll go camp out for my copy like it's January back on Tobacco Road. Now I'm humming the jingle again ... Sail with the Pilot ...

EA is rolling out the review scores and posting big numbers as it celebrates the success of FIFA 10 in Europe, calling it the fastest selling sports game of all time. Italy's Official Xbox Magazine calls it "the best football game ever." ConsolPlus Germany is calling it "the best football game the world has ever seen." Our own Luke Plunkett said it "comes close (damn close) to both feeling – and, for spectators, looking - like the real thing." While our U.S. readers try to figure out why they keep calling it a football game, we turn to EA Sports president Peter Moore.

"We were confident that FIFA 10 would be a hit, and this week fans across Europe have shown just how much they love this game," said Peter Moore, President of EA SPORTS. "We are incredibly proud of FIFA 10 and this kick-off for great, authentic football competition."

Since the game launched, more than 10 million sessions have been played online, with more than 155,000 players online simultaneously during peak hours. Quite impressive!

FIFA 10 hits North America on October 20th, with sales numbers that are sure to be far less impressive.

Of course, in the real Final Four, you're hearing Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg. But Raftery and Gus Johnson supply more than their share of verisimilitude for EA's upcoming college hoops title.

By the way, Gus. "Survive and advance"? That also was coined by Jim Valvano in the same year.

Superficially, it appears it's done very little, especially when compared to the drastic overhaul that's been made to Pro Evo's visuals. But then, superficially doesn't count for squat around here.

Loved
Loose as a Goose – For the first time ever in a FIFA game, your players aren't restricted to eight-directional movement. There's true, 360-degree recognition of where you're pointing them, allowing for incredibly fluid control over where your player is headed. It sounds like your standard back-of-the-box bullet point, but in reality, it's as fundamental and impressive an improvement as a new graphics engine.

Ball Control – The same fluidity now carries over into ball control as well. When receiving the ball and running onto it, it no longer appears pre-programmed to simply attach itself to their feet. It truly has a life of its own, making the whole game flow naturally, and appear almost lifelike. Another plus is that, aside from a single routine where the keeper punches a corner to the same spot every time, there's no sense that the ball is following a pre-determined route. It just feels... random. Unpredictable. Just like a football on the loose should be.

Jumpers For Goalposts – FIFA has long had the finest commentary of any sports game on the market, and FIFA 10 is no exception. Remarkably, Martin Tyler and Andy Gray have been dragged back into the recording studio and, atop lines we've heard in previous examples, recorded a ton of new chit-chat as well, bringing the volume and quality of commentary closer to that you'd expect from a real broadcast than any sports game I've ever seen. Well, heard.

Training Days – The training ground makes a welcome return to FIFA 10, allowing players to get a handle on certain settings and concepts while fine-tuning tricky moves like set pieces. It was a nightmare trying to learn all this in-game, where some games you may not even get a decent set piece to practice, so having the chance to test it outside of game day—it's activated on the main screen's "arena mode"—is appreciated.

Role-Playing Game - You remember that stuff I was on about in a recent feature, talking about sports games incorporating RPG elements? FIFA 10 doesn't incorporate elements, it is an RPG, thanks to the new "Virtual Pro" mode. There's now an option to create a player that is "stuck" in the game's roster database, and can be used in "Be A Pro", single-player, season, multiplayer, the works. Every game you play, every goal you score or tackle you make in any game mode improves their stats, with progress milestones rewarded with attribute upgrades and trinkets like celebrations and better boots. It's a captivating addition to the game, and one which will surely become the focal point of the entire thing for many people.

Hated
Fix Up, Look Sharper – While significant improvements have been made to the nuts and bolts of the game, FIFA 10's more visual aspects are starting to show their age. There's been little improvement to the cartoonish stock player models (which are trumped this year by a resurgent, gorgeous Pro Evo), and it's a shame to be stuck with the same menu system for what is at least the third year running.

You know, when you play a team sports game, you're expected to lower your expectations of what you're about to see "simulated". That what you're about to experience is a game based on a sport, and not the sport itself.

But thanks to the greater sense of fluidity in FIFA 10, both from the players and from their control and movement of the ball, FIFA 10 comes close (damn close) to both feeling – and, for spectators, looking - like the real thing. And there's no higher compliment for a sports game than that.

FIFA 10 was developed by EA Canada, and published by EA Sports for the Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PC & iPhone. Released in Europe on October 2, in North America on October 20. Retails for $59.99. Played all game modes in single-player, and several matches in multiplayer, both locally and online.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

EA Sports Creative Director Jason Barnes is obviously in on it. When Miller sees his low fighter skill rating and poor footwork attributes, he unleashes his F-bombs in everyone's general direction but goes after Barnes when he, in a quite choreographed way, tries to calm Miller down. Then Miller's in Hydar's face. "Did you f—-in do this?!" he

"No disrespect, no disrespect," says Hydar, the EA Sports head developer, using verbal judo straight from the manual of "How to Lose as Few Teeth as Possible in a Roid Rage Encounter." Miller then, fortunately, springs the joke and there's big manhugs to be had.

MMA Fighter Mayhem Miller Flips Out on EA Sports MMA Programmers [AllElbows.Com]

All three have filed suits over the unauthorized use of likenesses in EA Sports titles. Byron Bishop ended his injury-filled career with the Tar Heels last year, but has sued the NCAA, which licensed EA Sports NCAA 10 game, because a player with the same number, state of birth, appearance and position also appeared on the roster in that series. Like the former, and more noteworthy, player Sam Keller, Bishop seeks a class-action status in his suit.

The sports management group Fighters Inc. claims EA put boxers it represents into Fight Night Round 4, flouting exclusive licensing agreements the group says it had with the fighters. Further, Fighters Inc says EA Sports continued to pursue boxers under its brand, signing them for downlowdable content packs. Fighters Inc. isn't messing around, they want $25 million in actual damages, plus punitive on top of that.

But the best is John Big Dawg Thompson, one of the inaugural members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's "Hall of Fans" class. Thompson, who changed his middle-name to Big Dawg, is the bug-eyed, hard-hatted, dawg-mask wearing denizen of Cleveland's notorious east end zone stands. He contends that a "Big Dawg" fan character in Madden NFL 09, similar except for jersey uniform number (92 instead of Thompson's 98), is an unauthorized use of his image. He wants 25 grand.

The good news is, by no longer making a baseball game, EA Sports can't be sued by every douche who sits behind home plate talking on his cell phone and waving at the camera.

EA Tackled by More Sports License Suits [GameSpot]

EA's full simulation of the season apparently ended with the Pens winning 4 games to 2 over the Chicago Blackhawks, but don't take those sim results too seriously. EA Sports' NHL 09 called the Boston Bruins to take home the cup this year, defeating the Blackhawks in the finals in six games. The real contest was between Pittsburgh and Detroit, showing just how accurate these things are.

Hey, it's the future. EA can only do so much.

After Capcom, EA Sports is the second publisher to get its own PlayStation Store section. Some retailers in Japan do something similar for Square Enix, labeling all the Square Enix titles and grouping them together — and for brands like Capcom or EA Sports (and even Square Enix!), it does make sense to give them their own space.

The brands are strong enough that customers might have an easier time finding what they're looking for if all the titles are clumped together. As game site PlayStation LifeStyle points out, to view this EA Sports store, go to Games > Publisher > EA Sports within the PlayStation Store.

EA Sports: It's In the… PlayStation Store [PlayStation LifeStyle Thanks Anthony!]

Loved
Come-Back Story: Unlike NFL 2010, which kicked you back to the beginning of the current quarter, in iPhone Madden you may leave a game at any point - whether or not you select pause from its menu - and come back to it exactly at that point. This alone makes it the football sim to buy for your Apple mobile.

A Monster in Your Pants: For such a pocket-sized download (102.3 megabytes) this still delivers the core gameplay and presentation one uses and expects through 90 percent of a console Madden experience. Most notably, you get roster management - including trades - within your full season simulation. The real-life stadia are used; booth commentators Tom Hammond, Cris Collinsworth and (a bit obtrusively, however) John Madden himself supply analysis. The stadia you play in are the ones you see on Sunday, not generic clones. And most of all, the framerate and camera remained reasonably smooth and definitely well positioned. The game definitely exceeded what I expected to find in a Madden port to this platform.

Hated
The Clock Stops You: Madden, like NFL 2010, employs a bullet-time mechanic to let you pull off running back jukes, punishing hits, and timely pass breakups. The good news is in Madden, you have a manual trigger, and don't have to rely upon the game to slow down time for you, which sometimes never came. The bad news is it's one more part of the screen to touch, and fat-fingered button-spamming spazzes (*raises fat-fingered hand*) will face an inscrutable learning curve as to when to key this feature, and even hitting it correctly. I want to be clear, my quibble is only with the trigger; bullet-time itself is the best solution to performing finesse moves on this platform, and once I figured it out, I was springing runs of 12 and 20 yards, and more. It's the only shortcoming of what is, overall, a very solid control scheme given the platform. I loved drawing the custom receiver hot routes with a flick of my finger, and being able to touch any player on the screen and take over his control, rather than cycle through them with a pre-snap icon.

Now I can see why Gameloft hustled NFL 2010 out the door for the iPhone. They won the race to be first, but not to be best, and its offering shows glaring weaknesses against what Madden 10 on the iPhone brings to the table, even at double the price. You're still playing a complex game with a virtual stick and buttons - but once you grow accustomed to that, it easily becomes a football experience that fulfills both the Madden brand and the promise of mobile gaming.

Madden NFL 10 was developed and published by Electronic Arts for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Released to the iTunes App Store on Sept. 3. Retails for $9.99 USD. Reviewed on an iPhone 3G. Played through play-now and season modes.

On Wednesday, a federal district court in Los Angeles dismissed Brown's claim against Electronic Arts for the use of his image in its Madden NFL series. Judge Florence Marie-Cooper essentially found that video games are "expressive works, akin to an expressive painting that depicts celebrity athletes of past and present in a realistic sporting environment." Such works are protected by the First Amendment.

This would cover the use of Jim Brown's likeness - that of a living person, remember - in a commercial work. Lawyers for Sam Keller, the NCAA footballer who sued over the use of his likeness in EA Sports' NCAA football franchise, say that this ruling has no bearing on their suit. Indeed, it's at the federal district level and may be appealed. But a judge interpreting the First Amendment to protect video games in this way is certainly noteworthy.

Brown wants to file a friend-of-the-court brief in Keller's case, which is before federal court in California's Northern District, up in Oakland. Brown's attorney is also the same one who represented retired player Herb Adderley - the lead plaintiff in a successful $26 million class action lawsuit against the NFL Players Association over its licensing of retired players' likenesses to EA Sports for the Madden series.

Ronald Katz, the lawyer representing Adderley and Brown, wrote in a filing Monday that allowing EA Sports to profit from the use of athletes' likenesses without their permission means "EA could use for free the identity of thousands of present and former collegiate and professional athletes, eliminating any legal reasons for EA to continue any licensing, and giving it a windfall worth hundreds of millions of dollars."

A judge in California's Northern District will hear arguments on the Keller case on Nov. 17.

Again, this is a district-level ruling that has not been appealed. Bigger picture, the "expressive works" finding, if upheld, could have significantly larger implications for video games, well beyond sports titles.

Retired NFL Players Seek to Join EA Lawsuit [Associated Press via Game Politics]

A Costa Rica casino is now taking proposition bets on when the Madden Curse strikes Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals, Troy Polamalu's cover co-star. Polamalu was sidelined for three to six weeks after spraining ligaments in his knee in week one. This, of course, was attributed to the Madden cover jinx, which has dinged pretty much everyone except Marshall Faulk (2003) since they started putting athletes on the cover.

Playblackjack.com is giving 9:1 odds (bet $100, win $900) on each of Fitzgerald's remaining 15 games. Basically, the terms are that Fitzgerald gets injured for at least one game - not the kind of season-ending, career death spiral the Curse is cracked up to be. He needs to be listed on the Cardinals' official injury report for that game to win the bet, says the casino.

Larry Fitzgerald must be listed on the Arizona Cardinals official injury report for a bet to be graded as a winner. If he's injured during practice or outside practice, the upcoming game is the wining game. If he stays healthy throughout the year, all bets are off and all money is returned.

You can see where this is headed. First, a player can be listed on an official injury report and still play the entire game. See Patriots, New England, whose coach has listed Tom Brady as "probable" since scouts watched Brady play for Michigan. Second, it suggests that Fitzgerald could get both legs broken in the first quarter of, say, week four, but the winning game is actually week five. Third, it leaves open the possibility that Fitzgerald gets a hangnail in weeks two through 17 and every game is a winner.

Betting on a specific player's injury? What a fantastic idea! If only there were some way to affect the outcome. Like, if only the people who organized such an honest gambling business also had professional relationships with people whose job it was to injure others ...

Will the Madden Curse strike again? Bet on it! [PlayBlackjack.com via Go Nintendo]

"I'd say, ‘I guess I didn't get that memo,'" said Anderson, CEO of Quick Hit Football, which will ramp up for the public as a free online game in October, advertising a combination of MMO and fantasy sports traits, and plant a flag in what Anderson considers huge customer territory, all without a full NFL license.

Foxborough, Mass.-based Quick Hit is a notable example of where the competition has flowed, like water finding gaps in the floorboards, in the fifth year of EA Sports' exclusive - and commonly reviled - licensing arrangement with the NFL. Quick Hit's zero-cost web-based game confronts EA Sports' Madden NFL franchise as a competitor where it suits them - price, download/file size, flat or unimpressive sales or platform absence. And in areas where Madden purely outclasses the startup - reputation, console presence or gameplay depth - Quick Hit then repositions itself as simply a free and casual alternative.

That said, "the NFL does add an air of authenticity," Anderson conceded. And were the opportunity available, his business would definitely be on the phone with the league. However, market research done by his company in its 18 months of existence found that fully-licensed authenticity does matter, but it is not a deal-killer, provided a challenger defines and pursues the territory correctly.

Anderson, in his forties, is the former CEO of the studio Turbine, and brings experience in dealing with high profile IPs. He said Quick Hit did two studies, of 1,000 guys each, about a year ago. "Both studied males in the 14 to 40 age range," Anderson said, "and we asked those questions, ‘Is the NFL important? How important are the players?'" Also, a few months back they put their product in front of a focus group and asked if it noticed the lack of real teams or licensing.

"We were surprised that there wasn't that sort of response," Anderson said. "We expected 90 percent to say, ‘You have to have the NFL.' It turned out to be a much lower number."

Anderson declined to say what percentage wanted the NFL, or if it was a majority. But it was low enough that his company went forward. "What we took away is that it's a valuable part, but it was not something that had to be included," he said, "and that's partly because we are not trying to appeal to the hardcore demographic. We're not trying to replace Madden as a product. But also, on the PC, they're not there."

Brandon Justice, the Quick Hit director of design and a veteran of Visual Concepts to 2005 and a producer in the Madden franchise to 2007, likens this to a pre-game matchup. No undersized team would run straight at a brick-wall defense up the middle. And yet no juggernaut can cover every gap.

But the objective is still there - end zone or audience - and then however it can be monetized. So a full license is a powerful means, but not the end, Anderson says. His company figures the casual/fantasy football crowd, multiples larger than a hardcore Madden installation base, is where the growth is. And he's running hard for it, in a free-to-play Web-based arena.

This is unlike many competitors in the Madden-exclusive era, which have gone after a slice of the console market, failed conspicuously, and have been all but driven into the wilderness. Midway's Blitz: The League, and its sequel, relied on outrageous subplots and scrotum-rupturing renegade appeal. Visual Concepts, the studio behind the much lamented ESPN NFL 2K5 - the last fully licensed title to compete with Madden - tried to hang in later with retired heroes John Elway, Barry Sanders and Jerry Rice in All Pro Football 2K8. All went straight into the value bin, and All-Pro closed after one year.

All-Pro Football 2K8 tried negotiating with retired players for their likeness on a one-on-one basis, to replace a standard roster. It was a Pyrrhic victory, paying a premium for Hall of Famers while telling customers they were getting yesterday's stars. Quick Hit went after current players on a one-by-one basis but found that such negotiations were capped by the NFL Players Association - they couldn't pursue individual deals with everyone, even if they had the time or money - so the company focused on licensing five current performers at commonly understood skill positions, offense and defense.

Another 100 all-time greats -outside the NFLPA's scope - round-out the lineup of likenesses. And like All-Pro 2K8, each deal had to be done individually, Anderson said, another opportunity cost posed by the lack of the license enjoyed by EA Sports. But unlike the console game, Justice argued this can still fit within Quick Hit's game design.

A fully draftable league could put superstars at every position and distort competitive balance, he said. Seeding a team with two all-pros or hall of famers and randomizing the rest of the lineup, according to team tendency, places more of a premium on playcalling, he said. and it encourages leveling up, either investing in players you have or discarding underachievers for ones with better potential. Plus, it keeps a diehard fan from being married to his franchise's awful history.

"If you're a Bengals fan, as I am," said Justice, the design chief, "they're terrible year in and out. On a console game, I can't make them into the team I want because of the roster they have at the beginning of the year."

Thus Quick Hit, whose closed beta is underway, focuses less on action and more on strategy, hoping to siphon from the millions in the fantasy football market who know more how to draft an elite running back but less how to weave him through the line off-tackle with a PS3 controller in Madden 2010. Games are won and lost against other players, or coaching AIs, according to a familiar fantasy-football scoring formula. Points earned from that can level up both players and the coach. Progress is maintained in a persistent league, somewhat like an MMO. If any of this fails to catch, here's the bottom line - Quick Hit tries to give a graphical representation to fantasy football, with play-calling thrown in.

The problem, of course, is Quick Hit seeks to do this without a full, accurate league roster, a fundamental of fantasy football. But Anderson and Justice are betting that the millions of hardcore NFL fans who play fantasy sports, and have no problem drafting superior players on competing teams, likewise won't balk at populating their squads with anonymous players with strong numbers.

All of this is conjecture. The casual, free-to-play market in the United States might present enormous growth but it is relatively unexplored - especially in sports - and is routinely shouted down by core players of any genre. Any game offered for free trails the assumption that it's not worth money, and therefore, not worth your time.

But in football, compared with a $60 title on a console, it's all you've got for now.

Stick Jockey is Kotaku's column on sports video games. It appears Saturdays at 10 a.m. U.S. Mountain time.

According to comments made by EA Sports boss Peter Moore to VG247, it sounds like the company is holding off on the PS3/360 versions of its tennis game until Project Natal and Sony's unnamed motion controller hit. The reason being that the Wii MotionPlus control was just too good.

Moore says that the one-to-one control MotionPlus add-on "ruined" traditional controls for the Wimbledon-licensed game, that it became "glaringly obvious" that waggle was the way to go for the sports game.

Since we don't have firm dates for Sony and Microsoft's motion control offerings, that indefinite delay to the game makes a lot more sense now. What we're looking forward to most is Sony putting a name to its PlayStation Eye-powered wand, so we can stop saying "Sony's unnamed motion controller."

Moore – 360 and PS3 Grand Slam Tennis will be released, will use motion tech [VG247]

This is just another one of those silly little coincidences that has nothing at all to do with supernatural powers working behind the scenes. This sort of thing happens all the time. Polamalu was doing great, with six tackles and a one-handed interception, until a scrum just before the end of the first half left him with a sprained medial collateral ligament. It's perfectly normal injury that will have him on the sidelines for 3-6 weeks. Big deal! It's not like Pittsburgh needs him! They've still got....um. It'll come to me.

Note how I didn't say Madden curse. I don't believe in the Madden curse, and won't unless something horrible happens to Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald, the other athlete on the Madden 10 cover. Arizona plays San Francisco this Sunday, so you might want to set your DVR, just in case Fitzgerald spontaneously combusts.

Steelers Notebook: Knee injury to sideline Polamalu [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

According to an internal communication intercepted by Bloomberg, Riccitiello appears disappointed that "one of our highest-rated and best-marketed ‘Madden' titles in years is facing strong headwinds" in its debut month. The NPD Group is expected to release its August sales figure estimates later today.

Riccitiello noted that Madden sales were down in line with the trend of declining game sales.

Last year, Madden NFL 09 sold well over 2.2 million copies in its first month on the market across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii platforms. EA Sports head honcho Peter Moore pegged sales of last year's edition at $133.5 million during its first month on the market, a 6% increase from the year prior.

As of October 30, 2008, Madden NFL 09 had sold 4.5 million copies, according to NPD data offered by EA.

While this year's edition of the football game appeared to have been doing well on the pre-order front, it's doubtful that Riccitiello would send such a memo if things were as positive on the actual sales front.

We've asked EA for comment and a copy of the memo from Riccitiello for better context, but reps did not respond to requests.

Update: The Wall Street Journal has printed Riccitiello's memo in full.

Electronic Arts Says ‘Madden,' Industry Sales Drop (Update3) [Bloomberg]

The AFL gave the NFL a run for its money back in the 1960's, stealing top players left and right up until 1970, when a merger between the two resulted in the formation of the NFC and AFC. EA Sports celebrates the AFL on September 24th with the release of the AFL Legacy pack, which takes players back to a time when there wasn't nearly as much color in football.

Along with the eight original AFL teams - the Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs (as the Dallas Texans), New England Patriots (as the Boston Patriots), New York Jets (as the Titans of New York), Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and Tennessee Titans (as the Houston Oilers) - the AFL Legacy pack also introduces 1960's-style presentation elements, with a film-grain camera, orange-striped AFL referees, and official AFL markings on the field.

All of this plus new trophies and achievements for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3. Look for the AFL Legacy Pack to go on sale September 24th for 560 Microsoft points or $6.99.

To give you a taste of the changes included in this year's update - most important of which is full 360-degree dribbling - EA Sports will be releasing in Europe a demo of the game on Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network and PC later this week (September 10).

North Americans, you have to wait a week, as your demo will be here on September 17.

You'll have six teams to choose from, those being Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Marseille and...Chicago Fire. What, no Villa? No Sydney FC? Disappointing, EA, disappointing.

"There are no plans right now for NASCAR from EA," Moore told GameSpot. Moore said the people who worked on EA's NASCAR titles in the past had to be sent over to to work on another project. He adds:

Unfortunately … we had to make some tough trade-offs. We've had to redeploy some of those folks. A number of the NASCAR team has moved over now to EA Sports MMA, which will be shipping next year. [We're] still a huge fan of NASCAR, but no plans right now to develop any further games for NASCAR from EA Sports.

So, NASCAR fans, you may blame MMA fans. There are two constituencies I'd love to see go at it. Hell, make that into a video game.

EA: 'No Plans' for New NASCAR Game [GameSpot via G4]

EA Sports' Dave Littman - producer on NHL at EA Canada - has told us that "The average EA SPORTS gamer spends 200 to 300 hours playing their favorite sports game each year". That figure is a combination of both online and offline play. And is for just one game.

Can't think of too many games outside of WoW, Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 where we'd be looking at figures like that. And those are one-off games, not regular, annual occurrences.

Sounds absolutely bonkers, I know, but as someone who probably sinks 50-100 hours or so into FIFA each year (amidst having to play pretty much everything else as well), it also sounds entirely plausible. It might be a stretch saying the "average" gamer spends that long, but with many sports games fans picking up one game and one game only (they're a Madden guy, or an NBA guy, etc), then playing that game for nearly 12 months, there'd still be a sizeable number of people out there racking up hundreds of hours on a single game.

EA first gave the set to gaming/hip-hop site The Koalition. And with Snoop, Mos Def, David Banner and the Beastie Boys, you've also got Mickey Factz and Mick Boogie. So here's your menu music while you're busy forcing through that Renaldo Balkman-for-Chris Paul trade, or whatever cheese you pull in franchise mode. Don't act like you don't do it, either.

• 88 Keys feat. Colin Munroe – Wake Up Call
• Afrika Bambaataa feat. Why G, Mickey Factz &The Fort Knox Five – Zulu!(We Don't Stop Yawl)
• B.o.B. – Champion
• Beastie Boys – Pop Your Balloon
• David Banner & GQ – S.P.I.T.
• De La Soul – La La La
• Dead Prez – Still Bigga Than
• Embassy Music Board – Overtime
• Grand Puba – Get It
• Laza – Crank It Up
• Matt & Kim feat. De La Soul – Daylight (Troublemaker Remix)
• Matt & Kim – Daylight
• Mick Boogie feat. Kidz In The Hall, Donnis & Daytona – Class Of Our Own
• Mickey Factz & B.o.B. – Mind Got Blown
• Mos Def feat. Talib Kweli – History
• Murs feat. Kurupt & Jay Rock – We Ballin'
• Pete Rock – When I Need It
• Reflection Eternal – Get Lite
• Rye Rye feat. Busy Signal – Get Like This
• Snoop Dogg – Lodi Dodi (LIVE 10)
• Wale feat. Jazmine Sullivan – World Tour
• Wyclef Jean feat. Haitian Fresh – Ballin'
• Xzibit feat. BJ The Chicago Kid & Poo Bear – Fanatic
• Young Dre The Truth & 2Pac feat. BJ The Chicago Kid – All Eyez On Me (The Truth)
• Zion I – Go Hard

NBA Live Tracklist Revealed [The Koalition]

According to a Jacksonville cop report. a robber went into a Gamestop on Monday night, pretended like he wanted a 360, and then produced a firearm as his method of payment. He demanded copies of Madden NFL 10, and then any Xbox 360 games, presumably declining any NHL 2K10 pre-order solicitations.

Local TV news crusading truth avenger WJXT-TV said the robber made off with 23 games valued at $1,300 total, plus $600 and two 360s. Cash and prizes, the hood's $2,500 richer. But in doing that shoeleather reporting of the mood of the street, the quotes WJXT got sound a little worshipful, and fairly reek of viral marketing, except for the fact filing a false report is also a crime.

"I just heard it was good," video gamer Brian Fletcher said. "I mean, Madden's Madden. Come on. Everybody loves Madden. Can't beat it."

"It's very realistic, followed by you get to create your own teams and rosters and do all sorts of things," video gamer C.J. McCloud added.

Jax cops, however, said the circumstances mimic those of an earlier robbery elsewhere in the city.

Robber Demands Madden NFL Video Game [WJXT-TV via Evil Avatar]