Electronic Arts has announced that it will be shutting down the servers for some of its older online sports titles. If you love playing any of the following titles with your friends, we recommend that you get some quality playing time now.

Please note that the following list contains only titles for PC, the Sony PlayStation Portable handheld gaming system and Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console. For the full list, which also includes PlayStation 2 and Xbox titles, click on the Read link below the list.

September 1, 2007

• FIFA Soccer 06 (PC, PSP, Xbox 360)
• FIFA06 (PC)
  
• FIFA World Cup 2006 (PC, PSP)
• Fight Night Round 3 (PSP)
• Madden NFL 06 (PC, PSP, Xbox 360)
• NBA Live 06 (PC, PSP, Xbox 360)
• NFL Head Coach (PC)
• NHL 06 (PC)
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (Xbox 360)

November 1, 2007 Online Service Shutdown

• Need for Speed Underground 2 (PC)
• Need for Speed Most Wanted (PSP)

Perhaps EA aren?t only after the money really do care about their customers. Since Madden NFL ?06 shipping earlier this year, there have been less than happy gamers with the PSP port. However, it seems that in a gesture of the Christmas spirit, EA is offering a solution for the Franchise Mode bug, allowing you to do a UMD swap for a (hopefully less) bug free disc, in about 10 business days.

?Per our earlier communication, we have been working on a long-term solution for the Franchise Mode bug in the PSP version of Madden NFL 06. While we know the workaround we provided earlier works, those still experiencing the issue can now get a replacement PSP disk for the one you currently own. The new disk has revised software that will solve the Franchise Mode issue. To receive a replacement disk, please send your current disk (no packaging) to the following address:

EA Customer Warranty
Attn: Madden PSP
209 Redwood Shores Parkway
Redwood City, CA 94065

Included in the package, please include a note with the following information:Your name
Address
E-mail address
Phone number?

So there ya have it, and in addition to trading UMDs, they are willing to hook you up with two coupons from their online store. The first coupon will give you $15US off of any item listed at more than $15, and another for free standard shipping on any order placed there. Now I?m no businessman, but that sounds like a good deal to me.

Source: Xboxusersgroup

ESPN has teamed up with Electronic Arts and its EA SPORTS brand to take viewers inside the world of Madden NFL 06—the nation’s top-selling sports video game—and its best players for the first video game reality series Madden Nation. Starting Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 11 and 11:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, the eight-episode series (Tuesdays at 11 and 11:30 p.m.) will pit the nation’s 13 best Madden NFL 06 gamers—along with their real-life NFL player sponsors—against each other in elimination-style tournaments on a 17-day national bus tour. NFL players Shaun Alexander, Ben Roethlisberger, Dwight Freeney and others will be featured with their corresponding player representatives during each stop of the tour. The finale, which will be aired Tuesday, Dec. 27, was shot in New York’s Times Square on the ABC Super Sign. The winner claimed a $100,000 prize.

“Madden Nation will give ESPN viewers the best of both worlds: exciting, top-level competition and some of football’s best known players in the biggest game on the market,” said John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president, content.

With scenarios designed to test the players’ skills, each tournament will make the gamers compete against each other and “free agents” they meet along the way. Tour stops include: Los Angeles; San Diego; Phoenix; Albuquerque, N.M.; Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; Minneapolis; Green Bay, Wis.; Chicago; Indianapolis; Canton, Ohio; Baltimore; Washington; Philadelphia and New York, and will take place, in part, in the NFL players’ homes. In all, the tour bus logged 4,646 miles.

“Madden Nation showcases the EA SPORTS lifestyle, giving viewers an inside look into the daily life of the biggest Madden NFL football gamers and NFL players,” said Todd Sitrin, vice president of marketing, EA-Tiburon and EA SPORTS. “ESPN is the perfect outlet to show this unique pairing of the top Madden NFL football players.”

Each gamer is matched with an NFL player and meets him along the tour. 

Gamers/Hometowns                                                    NFL Sponsors/Teams

Dan “PackWolf” Bertholomey (Portland, Ore.)                   Ashley Lelie (Denver Broncos)

Justin “Chow” Chow (Great Falls, Va.)                              Tony Gonzalez (Kansas City Chiefs)

Raymond “Shopmaster” Goode (Waldorf, Md.)                  Shaun Alexander (Seattle Seahawks)

David “Dred” Grant (St. Petersburg, Fla.)              Michael Vick (Atlanta Falcons)

Daniel “Clark Kent” Grundei (Cincinnati)                           Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh Steelers)

Kyle “The Gift” Hustek (Detroit)                                        Roy Williams (Detroit Lions)

Christopher “Action” Jackson (Atlanta)                             Byron Leftwich (Jacksonville Jaguars)

Sherman “Sherman Sticky” Jameson (Midland, Texas)      Chad Johnson (Cincinnati Bengals)

Rodney “NJMaddenBaller” Lane   (Dover, N.J.)                 Jevon Kearse (Philadelphia Eagles)

Charles “Solution” Smith (San Diego)                               Donnie Edwards (San Diego Chargers)

Rob “Duka” Taylor (Youngstown, Ohio)                             Ed Reed (Baltimore Ravens)

Antoin “Pretty Boy” Williams (San Antonio)                      Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals)

Rod “Reality” Wynn (Inglewood, Calif.)                             Dwight Freeney (Indianapolis Colts)

Source: Reuters

A video game developer has sued Electronic Arts Inc., charging that the world's biggest video game publisher stole an idea for a game feature he had and incorporated it in the popular football title "Madden NFL 06."

"We have read the complaint and the allegations are completely without merit," an EA spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday.

In his lawsuit filed Nov. 28 with the California Superior Court in San Mateo County, Virtual Jam owner Pernell Harris said he met with EA in late 2003 to discuss "Heart of a Champion," a football game he was developing in which players guide an athlete from high school to professional football.

Among other things, players pick the athlete's parents and handle all kinds of daily experiences from sports practice to school homework.

Harris said features from that game appeared in "Madden NFL 2006" when it was released earlier this year. He accused EA of breaching an "implied in fact contract" when it used those features without compensating him and said EA had violated a confidentiality agreement.

Harris is seeking unspecified damages, attorney's fees and restitution.

EA's "Maddden" franchise has been one of the best-selling video game properties ever. In 2004, the game accounted for $232 million in sales, according to data cited by brokerage Wedbush Morgan Securities.

Source: PennyArcade

PennyArcade was none too happy with the buggy, “lackluster” version of EA’s Madden ‘06 for the PSP.  Here is what they had to say:

Electronic Arts appears to have dropped the ball on the newest iteration of Madden for the PSP, what is called Madden '06, from time to time they create some kind of workaround that doesn't work around, and there is a part of me that just thinks this is what you get for playing sports games.

Now that there is a lackluster website to channel this angst, ever a sign of online momentum, I'm told that EA has actually invested in a piece of equipment to help them field calls from enraged consumers. That's what I'm told, at any rate.

You need to know something about how software authorization works. Console manufacturers each have departments that act as gatekeepers to their unsullied platform. The "Official Nintendo Seal" you have seen since the eighties is what you get when your product has bested these people in single combat or whatever arcane ritual is required. But I will tell you that if the publisher is big enough, and I don't think I need to be any more specific about the one I'm referring to, which is Electronic Arts, the rules don't always apply, and the decisions are made at a level higher than those people.

It seems strange to us, the men and women who queue at the counter for our preorders, but there are political considerations that can factor into whether or not we receive a functional piece of software. Do you want to be the company that stops the works when a behemoth like EA is trying to launch on four platforms, just to give an example? Don't you want powerful, and more importantly annual franchises like Madden on your system? Because they have those. Maybe online doesn't always work exactly right. Maybe there is a condition where it shuts off the system. If it doesn't happen beyond a certain threshold of frequency, to retail!

Do you taste that, console enthusiasts? It is that vile flavor PC stalwarts have grown so inured of that we download a patch the day we purchase a game and think "This is the way of the world.

Source: Gamespot

Though the NFL is already one-eighth through its regular season, gridiron gaming is finally fully on the move. Following Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, and mobile versions last month, Electronic Arts today announced that Madden NFL 06 for the PSP has shipped to stores, making this version the last of the portable pigskin players to hit shelves. The popular game has also shipped for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and PC, and PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions are in the works.

Source: GameSpot

GameSpot has released a preview of the incoming "Madden NFL 06":

"The Madden series has been out for nearly a month on consoles, the Nintendo DS, and the PC, but there's one gaming platform yet to go for the biggest name in sports gaming. The Sony PSP is getting a version of Madden NFL 06 all its own, and it's one that will feature some gaming twists unique to the handheld. We spent some time with the game, particularly on the franchise mode, which has been the beneficiary of some PSP-only additions that add some spice to the standard weekly franchise grind..."

You can get the full article [here].

source: gameinfowire


Ok seriously, like you didn’t know. Well, for some odd reason in case you didn’t know Madden ‘06 is in the stores today. So if you didn’t camp it like a Star Wars loon it may still be there.

“Electronic Arts announced today that Madden NFL 06, the newest iteration of the EA SPORTS best-selling football franchise with the exclusive videogame license of the NFL and PLAYERS INC, is on store shelves today. Reflecting the focus on the passing game in the NFL, Madden NFL 06 has changed passing for the first time in ten years with the all-new QB Vision Control and QB Precision Placement and introduces the all new NFL Superstar mode, where you can live the life of an NFL Superstar.

In its 16th year and with more than 43 million copies sold, Madden NFL Football continues to stand out as the most popular football videogame franchise of all time with a combination of innovative new features and the most authentic football gameplay. Developed in Orlando, FL by EA Tiburon Madden NFL 06 is now on the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox video game system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance. PC will be available August 17 and PSP launches on September 20. Madden NFL 06 is rated “E” (Everyone) by the ESRB and has an MSRP of $49.99 for the PlayStation 2 console , Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and PSP. $39.99 For PC and Nintendo DS, $29.99 for Game Boy Advance.”

For more information check out http://www.madden06.com.
You can read the full article [here]. 

Source: Forbes

Electronic Arts today revealed the highly-anticipated list of bands that will be featured in Madden NFL 06. Characterized by the same intensity and high energy of the sport, the music in Madden NFL 06 brings together the hottest artists from hard rock and hip-hop.

"Every year, the release of Madden NFL Football is a major event for gamers and music fans alike," said Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Music Marketing at EA. "Some of today's most important acts were first introduced through the game. This year's in-game soundtrack features some amazing new tracks from artists that we believe will be next year's hottest stars."

The Madden NFL Football franchise is widely recognized as a driving force behind launching new music and this year is no different. In 2006, Madden NFL Football returns with an all-star line-up of multi-platinum bands and emerging acts. Up-and-coming bands such as Nine Black Alps, Avenged Sevenfold, Finch, Hot Hot Heat and Fall Out Boy join established acts such as The All-American Rejects, Disturbed, Godsmack and Foo Fighters. Also this year, some of the most promising new hip-hop artists will make appearances in the game, including Kanye West's protegee Bump J, Spider Loc, who recently signed with 50 Cent, Sam Scarfo, who is the first act that Jay Z signed to DEF JAM, and Stat Quo, who was recently signed by Eminem. Even with all of these phenomenal songs, the crown jewel of the hip hop line-up is 'Mind On The Road' from Rev Run, who is most famous for bringing rap music to the world's stage with Run D.M.C. in the mid-1980s. These songs will raise the temperature in football stadiums nationwide this season.

Check out our previous coverage of Madden:
Madden NFL for the PSP - Screenshots 
Madden NFL 06 
E3 2005: Madden 06 PSP At E3

source: IGN




















Quote from IGN:

?"If you like football, get ready to be pale and sunless." We said that and it's on the official Madden website. Things we did not say or make but that are also on the official Madden website include movies, screenshots, links to USA Today articles, EA generated content, links to EA's fantasy leagues, and a whole lot more.?

You can read the full article [here].

The site is huge and with tons of flash, music and expandable menus. Along with fantasy leagues, message boards and contests, if you?re a big Madden fan you should check out the website [here].