EA confirms console-only Madden 09

If this was Peter Moore’s idea of an April Fool’s joke, I don’t think many PC gamers found it very funny. In a post on his official blog yesterday, the EA Sports head honcho confirmed that EA will not be releasing Madden NFL 09 on the PC:

We knew that our decision to not develop this year’s Madden for the PC would be an unpopular decision in some circles. But I’ll reiterate what I said a couple of weeks ago in this space…the PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. We are committed to shipping a limited number of our games on the PC this year, but we’ve also had to cut a few of our games from the platform. We do have ideas for how to revitalize the PC for sports games and the types of games that are best suited to the platform, and we’ll continue to explore those.

Translation: the PC version sold very poorly in comparison to the console versions, so we’re scrapping it. According to an article from IGN-owned PC gaming site Voodoo Extreme, the PC version of Madden NFL 08 came in at number eight on the NPD sales charts for August 2007. It doesn’t specify the number of copies that the game sold, but whatever it is, it’s likely nothing when you look at the overall console sales — the 360 version moved nearly 900,000 units in August alone.

Though I’ve never really had a computer that was powerful enough to play games, I’ve downloaded a few demos of sports games in my time. I’m assuming that anyone who buys PC sports games has some sort of gamepad, because trying to play Madden with a keyboard and mouse is a nightmare.

Still, it’s rather alarming to see that EA is alienating an entire market of gamers. And think about it: because they have that accursed exclusivity deal with the NFL, PC-specific Madden fans now have nowhere to turn for their football fix.

[via Peter Moore Blog — thanks, power-glove and Jonathan!]