""EA is honored to team up with Deanna Favre and Target in the fight against breast cancer," says senior product manager, Anthony Stevenson. "Almost everyone has been affected by this disease in some way, so we're eager to give our passionate fans an opportunity to participate in finding a cure.""

"It may surprise you to know that Electronic Arts is releasing Madden NFL 09 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in Japan on September 25. They've done this for a couple years, actually, along with their other main sports games, but Japan isn't exactly known for being a football hotbed -- outside of some informal college leagues, there isn't much of a scene at all among native Asians, crazy manga like Eyeshield 21 notwithstanding. So what does Weekly Famitsu, Japan's most respected game magazine, think a..."

"If you’re a fan of the Madden NFL series, there is a slight chance that you already know about the Brett Favre trade this offseason. Aside from making every self-respecting NFL fan cringe at the sight of Favre in a Jets jersey with a roster update, the folks at EA Sports had to do some damage control with their Madden 09 packaging featuring Favre in his old Packers jersey. Currently, EA has a printable copy of the cover featuring the gunslinger in his new uniform available on their website."

"Some analysts and investors were concerned over lower pre-order numbers for Madden NFL 09, released this week, but first night retail checks conducted by Stern Agee showed that sell-through for the game is up "low single digits" over last year.

"If this trend holds in the near to medium term, we believe investors will view it as a positive," he said.

Bhatia said that his firm expects year-on-year sales of Madden to be down 10 percent, but he said sell-through could actually end up "flat..."

"PC
Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon, Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific Gold Edition, Sinking Island, Space Siege

PS2
Madden NFL 09

PS3
Madden NFL 09, Madden NFL 09 Collector's Edition

Xbox 360
Madden NFL 09, Madden NFL 09 Collector's Edition

Wii
Madden NFL 09 All-Play

DS
Bangai-O Spirits, Imagine Teacher, Madden NFL 09

PSP
Madden NFL 09, Madden NFL 09 PSP Entertainment Pack"

"There's a new PSP color coming soon: Metallic Blue. And it'll be available in the upcoming Madden 09 Entertainment Pack, which includes the system, the game, a NFL documentary and a code to download beats off the PS Store. According to amazon.com, the system will be available on August 12th.

Spencer from Siliconera snapped a few shots of the system in action over at San Diego Comic-Con for us (thanks!). Just like every other PSP, it has the uncanny ability to pick up fingerprints. Will you..."

"One of the complaints that gamers have regarding the Madden franchise, whether they're fans of it or not, is that the game "...is just a roster update" and never has any new features. Whether that's true or not is another debate that's largely semantic, but something that we can look at and actually analyze is how successful the features implemented in each year's version of Madden actually are. Do the new features introduced in Madden actually stick around? How often do they get retooled? By..."

"My name is Cedric Carty and I am a designer on Madden 09. I am writing this blog to give you an insight into what went into tuning the game to produce realistic statistics.

I know that one the top issues with the hardcore Madden fans has been the stats that the simulation engine generates. I was tasked to tune the stats engine on this year's product, let me tell you it was no easy task. I looked back at stats from the past 10 NFL seasons to get an idea of what looked good in the NFL. I ..."

"According to the Facebook page for Madden NFL 09, the cover athlete is expected to be announced on April 25. Moreover, a quick check of the CBS schedule for Late Show with David Letterman shows that Favre is going to appear as one of Dave's guests tonight (April 24). For the past few years, EA has used late-night shows to announce the Madden cover. Last year Jimmy Kimmel's show was used to announce Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young for Madden 08."