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TUAW's Daily App: SimCity
I probably don't need to explain SimCity to you; it's one of the most classic PC games of all time, and Electronic Arts released it for the iPhone a while go. It's the same game you've played before; you can mark out zones in your city, draw out roads and buildings, and slowly build up your population as a mayor, keeping your people happy, supplied with utilities, and within reasonable distance of work and play. So, why are we spotlighting it today? Along with most of EA's iPhone titles, its price has dropped down to just 99 cents. So, if you haven't picked it up yet, now's the time to do so (and it'll give you something to play on your brand new iPhone this week). Other titles to check out at just a buck, if you haven't gotten them yet, include Need for Speed, Command and Conquer, FIFA 10, Madden 10, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and the classic Dragon's Lair. Just think, buying them all will set you back $7, the same price as the full Rock Band title.
EA Sports mines your football data, and makes example out of Favre
Brett Favre is one of the all-time greats. Still, he throws one untimely interception, and that's all people talk about. Just imagine if he threw 7 and a half million! That's the number EA highlighted during its EA Sports Opener last night in an extraordinary example of the game data the company collects from its players. According to EA, Favre -- under our control -- has thrown 7,564,282 picks and counting. That's Hall of Shame material for sure. Each game of Madden played generates a single line of code, and that code gets sent to EA to the tune of over 173 million data instances every day. The company is mining all of this data in an attempt to make its Madden and NCAA Football games better every time you play them, but short of John Madden himself showing up at your door to explain what you're doing wrong, look for Favre to keep adding to the INT column. %Gallery-87893%
Interview: Greg Grunberg at the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 celebrity challenge
Lots of the celebrities at last night's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 celebrity benefit tournament didn't know much about gaming, but Greg Grunberg is the exception. Even if he can't dive deep into the differences between next-gen shooters, he at least knows the audience, having appeared on Lost and Alias and controlled minds as Matt Parkman on Heroes. He was at the benefit in West Hollywood promoting the Epilepsy Foundation (his son deals with epileptic seizures, and Grunberg has done some advocacy work on his own as well), and right before he sat down to play BFBC2 alongside Chad Ochocinco and Marshall Faulk, he sat down to chat with us. Read on to hear about what Grunny is doing for Halo: Reach, his favorite iPhone games and why he's so sure there should be one more full season of Heroes.
Madden predicts Saints win Super Bowl XLIV
If the "Madden Curse" is the unflapping revenge exacted by the fowl spirit of the Great Turducken, its devoured body unceremoniously carved up by the bare hands of John Madden on national television those many years ago (seriously, go wikipedia that joint), then the annual "Madden NFL Super Bowl Simulation" is just ... plain math. In the latest case of crunching the numbers, Madden 10 has predicted the New Orleans Saints to be winners of this Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV over the Indianapolis Colts. It was a real nail biter, EA recalls: "with minutes left in the game the duo of Joseph Addai and Peyton Manning put the Colts back on top with a go-ahead touchdown pass. With the game hanging in the balance, Drew Brees hits David Thomas for an 11-yard touchdown and the game winning score." The final: 35-31. But more intriguing than the projected outcome of a mere sporting event is EA Sports' coveted simulation formula, which has become scary good. Not only did it correctly predict the winners of the conference championship games a few Sundays ago within a three-point margin of error, according to EA Sports, the formula accurately played out last year's Super Bowl down to the final score and individual player stats, which begs the question: What can't it predict? We'd like to put a request in to EA to simulate next week's retail showdown: BioShock 2 vs. Dante's Inferno. Place your bets now! %Gallery-84606%
Madden Ultimate Team now available on Xbox 360 and PS3
If you've grown tired with tossing around the virtual pigskin for the last six months, then you may want to check out Madden NFL 10's free DLC, Madden Ultimate Team. Available as a free title update on the Xbox 360 and PS3, Madden Ultimate Team turns the football experience into a trading card game, allowing players to construct custom teams using collectible cards. Upon initial start-up, you'll receive a starter pack with one coach, some players, an offensive and defensive playbook and home and away jerseys. You can then match your constructed team up against the CPU or take on a human opponent via online, where your performance will net you coins to purchase more cards. You can check out a tutorial of the new mode above, but also feel free to get a closer glimpse at the cards and interface via the images in our gallery below. Or, you know, just boot up your copy of Madden NFL 10. %Gallery-77451%
Madden 10 has shipped 3.9 million copies
EA may be hurting, but there are still some bright spots, like when it announced Madden NFL 10's sales figures during its quarterly conference call with investors. The publisher revealed that the company "sold" 3.9 million copies globally, which isn't entirely accurate, as we've learned those are "sell-in" figures -- a fancy way of saying "shipped." EA's John Schappert stated that Madden had a rough start in August, with sales down 19 percent from the prior year, but that it rallied up eight percent year-over-year in September, thanks to the PS3 price drop. The company claims that Madden 10 has sold five percent more than last year's iteration on PS3 and Xbox 360 combined, as of the end of September. Not shabby for a down economy!
Dragon Quest IX is Q3's top-selling game
Despite the handicap of not being for sale in most of the world, Dragon Quest IX for the DS sold more copies than any other game in the world between July and September of this year, according to a Top Global Markets report. With 3,925,000 copies sold in Japan, it outsold the number two best-selling game for that period, Wii Sports Resort, by almost 1,000,000 copies -- and that game was available worldwide. Following Wii Sports Resort in the top five: Madden NFL 2010 at 2,612,000, Pokemon HeartGold And SoulSilver at 2,068,000, and Halo 3: ODST, which was only out for a week in Q3, at 1,847,000 copies. All these games have plenty more sales ahead of them as the holidays approach!
Card-based Madden Ultimate Team mode coming in January
Click to open the foil wrapper on a giant version. Well, this is a rarity: A sports game mode that's too nerdy even for us. When "Madden Ultimate Team" mode comes to Madden 10 on 360 and PS3 for free in January, you'll collect packs of cards (or buy them via the in-game store) and use those cards to compose a fantasy team, customizing everything from your head coach and stadium to your plays and players. You can then pit your ultimate team against those of other players or the CPU. Think fantasy football mixed with ... well, let's be honest, Pokemon. Wow guys, really? Collectible card game battling? We thought Madden players were supposed to be the cool ones, but you're getting into some really noogie-prone territory here. %Gallery-77451%
EEDAR: Game sales slowdown turned around in September
2009 hasn't been the best year for the games industry. Month after month, we hear reports of reduced sales figures, company closures, and layoffs. Things may be turning around, though, as EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich believes software sales during September 2009 have actually gone up from 2008, the first time in seven months thanks to strong sales of Halo 3: ODST, Wii Sports Resort, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Madden NFL 10 and Batman: Arkham Asylum. All in all, software sales should come in at $715 million, a 16% increase over last year.The music genre may be slowing down, but Divnich notes that "both Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band have performed at levels ahead of retail expectations," with sales predicted at 800k and 1 million units respectively. The same analyst at EEDAR previously predicted that Guitar Hero 5 would outsell The Beatles 2:1. With NPD sales results dropping next week, we'll soon see how accurate Divnich's latest analysis is.
Reebok goes Madden, gives free PS3 DLC
Hopefully, this redemption works a bit easier for you than today's LittleBigPlanet offer. Reebok is offering PS3 owners free DLC for Madden 10. The AFL Legacy Pack, which originally costs $7, adds eight original AFL teams and 15 AFL Legacy Game matchups. American PlayStation Network users will be able to register for this Reebok contest and get a free DLC code.Enjoy![Via Slickdeals]
You bet the 'Madden curse' will strike again
No seriously, that's what you do on PlayBlackjack.com. For those not in the know, the Madden "curse" has afflicted every athlete featured on the cover of a Madden game. These pros get injured in some way through the course of the season, forcing them to miss a few games. When one of the two Madden 10 athletes, Troy Polamalu, suffered an injury to his left knee, many wondered if Larry Fitzgerald would follow. Well, at least one site is planning on turning that inquisitiveness into a real gambling operation.To enter the pool, players will have to successfully guess which week Fitzgerald will get injured, with 9:1 odds offered for each possible game. With quite a number of games still left to play, the odds are definitely not in your favor. However, should Fitzergald manage to dodge a bullet, all bets will be called off. "If Fitzgerald does not get struck by the curse and remains healthy all regular season the bets will be graded as no-action and all money bet will be returned to the bettor."It's certainly a morbid concept to spend money on. We wonder if Madden curse victim Michael Vick is getting in on the action ...
Analyst: Madden 10 Wii didn't sell because of ... Madden 09 Wii
Yesterday, Electronic Arts CEO John Ricitiello pointed to a downward turn in game sales this summer as a prime culprit in what he called a "discouraging" August kickoff for one of the "highest-rated and best-marketed Madden titles in years." Still, that didn't explain the 42 percent decline in sales for the franchise on Nintendo's console. So, we spoke with Jesse Divnich, games market analyst at EEDAR, to get his thoughts on the fairly "oh, wow"-worthy revelation.More than anything, Divnich believes that gamers' experience with last year's game on Wii influenced their decision to not give the franchise a second shot on the system. "I believe many diehard Madden fans, who transitioned from the PS2 to the Wii, made their yearly Madden purchase in 2008 and realized that the Wii could not offer the same experience they have grown accustom to (online play, realistic graphics, in-depth team management)," he told Joystiq.The game's motion control gameplay features -- versus the familiar DualShock 2 -- might also have been a turn-off, Divnich said, likening it to the slow acceptance of console controllers for use in first-person shooters. "Anyone introduced to the FPS category through the keyboard/mouse combination even still today refuses to accept the analog controllers as a legitimate FPS controller," he remarked.Ultimately, though, Divnich came back to the PS2-to-Wii user's experience with last year's Madden. "Avid Madden fans have the curse of knowledge ... and they know that Madden cannot offer the same experience on the Wii as it did for the PS2."
Madden curse strikes back, Polamalu suffers knee injury in season opener
Steelers fans witnessed a horrifying scene during last night's season-opening matchup against the Tennessee Titans -- while trying to recover a blocked field goal in the first half, Steelers safety Troy Polamalu sustained an injury to his left knee, preventing him from playing out the rest of the game. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Polamalu was featured on the cover of Madden 10 -- a promotion that has proven to be troubling for NFL players due to the titular "Madden curse." Polamalu is expected to be out for 3 - 6 weeks, making this one of the least severe examples of cosmic retribution dished out by the curse to date. However, that could just be because said retribution has to be shared between two players this year. For the sake of our fantasy football standings, we urge Larry Fitzgerald to take every safety precaution imaginable during these trying times.
Madden 10 for Wii sold only 67K copies in August, EA calls overall sales 'discouraging'
We first caught wind that an imperfect storm was brewing for this season's Madden offering shortly after kickoff in mid-August. Now we know that not only has Madden 10 for Wii been sacked at retail, but EA is less than happy with the performance of the franchise as a whole thus far in '09.IndustryGamers received word from NPD that Madden NFL 10 for Wii -- a game touted as being rebuilt from the ground up for Nintendo's console this year, in part to improve sales -- sold only 67,000 copies in the month of August. In comparison, the PS2 version sold 160K copies, with the Xbox 360 SKU selling the best at 928K. This time last year, the Wii installment of Madden 09 sold ... just about 116K copies.In the same afternoon, Bloomberg reported that EA CEO John Ricitiello emailed his employees a memo that stated, in part, "It is discouraging that one of our highest-rated and best-marketed Madden titles in years is facing strong headwinds." Ricitiello clearly wasn't faulting quality, but rather downward industry sales trends which he admitted "present a challenge." That may be the case, but it doesn't explain the Wii version's shockingly low sales, especially for a franchise that's about as mainstream as they come.Source -- Madden Wii Sells Just 67K Copies [IndustryGamers]Source -- Electronic Arts Says 'Madden,' Industry Sales Drop [Bloomberg]
August NPD: PS3 sales soar as gamers go batty for Arkham Asylum in a Madden world
This year's August NPD sales numbers were, as usual, dominated by EA's monolithic Madden franchise -- but who's that creeping out of the shadows? "I'm Batman." Rocksteady, Warner Bros. and Eidos officially have themselves a critical and commercial hit in Batman: Arkham Asylum, with the game having sold more than half a million copies across PS3 and 360 in its first week on sale. Even the Joker can't laugh at sales like that.Hardware saw a slight increase for the month, with the exception of PS3, which saw an impressive 72% jump in sales, no doubt due to early sales of the lower-priced 120GB slim SKU. Wii is still the best-selling home console, but its numbers are gradually dipping down into "maybe we should consider a price cut, too" territory. Here's how sales of the stuff we play are games on stacked up: -DS: 553K14K (+2%)-Wii: 277K24K (+9%)-360: 215K12K (+6%)-PS3: 210K88K (+72%)-PSP: 140K17K (+13%)-PS2: 106K2K (-2%Check out the software sales chart after the break.
Madden 10 AFL Legacy Pack takes the field Sept. 24
Madden 10 rolls back the decades with the release of the "AFL Legacy Pack" DLC on September 24 for Xbox 360 and PS3. The DLC presents the game as if it were the 1960s, with referees in orange striped uniforms, "retro football card-like user interface" and a film grain broadcast camera look. The eight original AFL teams will be presented with their original uniforms and the 15 AFL Legacy Game matchups in the regular season can be presented in Legacy mode during the offline Franchise mode, Play Now and Superstar modes. The pack costs 560 ($7) on Xbox 360 and $6.99 on PS3. %Gallery-72264%
Madden 10 tackles the iPhone
click for Madden 10 iPhone gallery There's an old (albeit imaginary) adage in the game's industry: If it can play games, Madden will undoubtedly follow. EA Sports is rushing Apple's App Store with a brand new game that takes full advantage of the iPhone's (and iPod's) touch screen. Unlike the console variants, the handheld Madden 10 experience is more accessible to the casual player. Beginners will be able to get by without thinking about the playbook, as the game automatically recommends appropriate plays. The action slows down when the quarterback has the ball, and color-coded icons appear on the screen, indicating the likelihood of making a completion. In our brief time with the game, it was clear that EA Mobile placed a lot of effort into ensuring Madden could be played in short bursts: not only does the game launch within seconds from the iPhone menu, the game auto-saves after every play, allowing players to stop and resume a match any time they want. Hardcore football fans are likely to appreciate the added depth that casual gamers wil avoid: there are 2000 players in the game, voiced (tinny) commentary from John Madden, and a feature called "Hot Route" which allows players to manually draw plays to carry out. A ridiculous number of stats are also tracked by the game with full sorting, so you can know exactly who has the highest 3rd down conversion ratio in the league. The game will be available for $9.99 in the App Store, though you can snag it for a discounted $7.99 today. We've been told that multiplayer is being worked on, as well as DLC, such as roster updates and "authentic jerseys." %Gallery-72206%
Analyst: Madden 10 sales 'slightly' below expectations
According to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian, as reported by IndustryGamers, sales of Madden NFL 10 have been "slightly below" EA's plan for the title. Based on Lazard's retail data, Sebastian says he believes the lower than expected sales are the result of fewer purchases by mainstream gamers. Specialty game retailers seem to be having no trouble selling Madden, which indicates that "core game fans appear to be somewhat more resilient than mainstream shoppers," according to Sebastian. Not to worry though, as Sebastian believes the recent PS3 price cut, along with an expected 360 price cut and the beginning of the back-to-school season "could provide a later lift" for the game. We hope so -- because we're really hoping for a sequel.
Trophies: Madden 10
1 Platinum6 Gold16 Silver12 Bronze Difficulty: DifficultOnline Trophies? Yes Time to Completion: 10 hoursDLC Trophies? Yes**Trophies requiring DLC are highlighted in yellow. View Trophy List Read More About the Game %Gallery-50174%
Xbox Live Top 10: Nazi zombies run amok
Guys, do you ever play anything aside from four games? Major Nelson reports that last week's Xbox Live activity was very much the same as the week before ... and the week before that. Taking top spot was none other than Call of Duty: World at War, followed by usual suspects Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War 2. Madden 10 took last place, which isn't much of a surprise considering it released on Friday. Come next week, we're sure you'll be hearing more about that one.On the XBLA side, it was all about Trials HD, as the title earned top honors. Turtles in Time Re-Shelled managed to shell shock the competition by taking second and DICE's Battlefield 1943 continues its sad story of decline, falling to third. Well, okay -- maybe it's not a sad story, per se.
