Madden NFL 10 Pre-Sales Tracking Ahead of 09, says Peter Moore

In a conference call following Electronic Arts' first-quarter fiscal results, EA Sports president Peter Moore briefly addressed the impending launch of Madden NFL 10, which hits retailers in just 10 days (August 14). The launch of Madden each year is almost an event unto itself, and it's one of those titles that even people who only purchase 4-5 games a year tend to pick up.

"I just got the latest pre-sales numbers for Madden... and we're now marginally ahead year-on-year with about ten days to go," said Moore on the call. "Last year on this call we talked about pre-sales and whether they were really a key indicator anymore for what the strength of the title is going to be out of the blocks... but we're marginally ahead and the buzz we're now starting to feel for the title is starting to build."

Marketers could probably spend hours talking about EA's various strategies over the years for promoting Madden, and this year EA has once again switched things up. "Interestingly, we're shipping on a Friday, and we're capitalizing on a pre-season game on Thursday night between the Steelers and the Cardinals, which of course is a recap of the Super Bowl," said Moore. "There will be a tremendous amount of marketing both at half-time and in and around the game on that, so hopefully we'll have a very strong launch at 12:01AM on August 14th. All the metrics are very, very positive right now for Madden."

In related news, Moore also announced on the call that EA Sports is working on a downloadable pick-up-and-play version of Madden called Madden Arcade. The game is slated for release this holiday and should be somewhat similar to EA's 3 on 3 NHL Arcade, which is an action-oriented online hockey title. Further details will likely come in the near future once EA sends out an official announcement.