I dug this out from our "Late Night Sunday Post" file, but figured it was random enough to post. An ESPN viewer over at Kotaku was watching Mike Pereira, the NFL's chief of officiating, on ESPN during Pereira's weekly rundown of controversial plays, when he noticed that the man was controlling all his replays with a 360 controller. Now, it's probably just a 360 controller for Windows as the producers most likely run the entire thing off a PC and that was the easiest way to control it all, but I like to think there is a bigger conspiracy here.

We've been watching a game of Madden every Sunday for the past four years. They've got a super realistic looking Madden that they've kept secret so that the NFL can make more money. See, instead of paying all the players they simply pay two people to play the game. Instant profit. When you go to a game you're just watching holographic projections of the Madden game. Thus, these replays have to be controlled from a 360 because that is what they were developed on. It makes sense people. I'm not crazy!

EA plans to release Madden NFL Arcade during Thanksgiving week.

The downloadable casual Madden experience hits the PS Store November 24th and then Xbox LIVE Arcade on the 25th. But the price of no penalties and five-on-five games isn’t free -- the game will debut at $14.99 and 1200 Microsoft Moon Dollars over the two digital download platforms.

If you’re wondering what’s up with Madden NFL Arcade, hit this literature and check out the gallery images included with it. This downloadable carries a big price, but it does look like a cute little game. We’ll see if it is rather soon.

How many of you out there are closet football fans? You try to rep hardcore nerd, but every Sunday you sneak away from the videogames and watch football for 4-10 hours straight. You make fun of all those "Madden gamers," but you know you're looking forward to seeing how good your team is every year. Don't you lie to me, I know you're out there. For you I bring news like this, so that you may know that you are not alone. There are other nerds just like you who love sports and they too find it interesting which NFL teams are the most popular on Xbox Live to download jerseys for.

Major Nelson released the top ten teams, and surprise, surprise, everyone's bandwagon favorite, the Pittsburgh Steelers, are on top. Not too many other shockers on the list, which you can read after the jump, but seeing every other NFC East team in the top ten aside from my Redskins makes my heart churn. You just wait 30-40 years for Daniel Snyder to die and a decent owner to come into town, and then we'll show all of you! And Dallas in third place!? Come on people, have some standards. Hammer is not pleased on this Hammer Day.

Update: I misread the story. These are the most popular jersey's for Avatars on Live. Post corrected, but most of what I said still stands as Dallas sucks no matter what.)

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Electronic Arts has announced that it will be bringing Madden NFL Arcade to PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Arcade "just in time for the holidays in December."

Developed by EA Tiburon, the game is designed to appeal to casual fans as well as "diehard NFL fans," with an emphasis on pick-up and play controls. Madden NFL Arcade will feature 32 NFL teams (along with their home stadiums) that compete in five-on-five games, with no penalties and no field goals. The first team to score 30 points wins, as the games are designed to be more fast-paced that traditional football titles.

EA is also tossing "power ups" to the mix, with 13 "Game Changers." You'll be able to add a bunch of linemen to get a sack, freeze a player, turn off your opponents passing icons, and other things that will generally annoy the crap out of the opposing team.

Madden NFL Arcade supports four players on a single console, features online modes, and leaderboards. All this for only $14.99 (or 1200 MS Points on Xbox 360). Somewhere right now, our Sports Editor Samit Sarkar is freaking the hell out.

Best headline ever.

Cleveland Browns fan John Thompson is known for representing his beloved football team by wearing a terrifying bulb-eyed dog mask. You'd think the man would be happy to appear in the front cover of Madden NFL 09, and maybe he is, but someone's obviously told him he could make money by taking EA to court over using his likeness without permission. 

John "Big Dawg" Thompson wants over $25,000 from Electronic Arts, as well as an injunction to stop the publisher using his "face" in future games. He is one of several plaintiffs filing suit against the company at the moment, with a former football player joining in the fun, along with the boxer licensing group we discussed a few weeks ago. 

I sometimes wonder if EA spends more time in court than in development.

Finally -- the Madden NFL 10 Online Franchise Companion App is available via the iTunes App Store. Created with the freak in mind, the Online Franchise-specific App allows players to fiddle with depth charts, propose trades, and even read the Franchises’ news while on toilet or on the road to Nashville. Think anywhere with Wi-Fi or AT&T connectivity, people!

As with most Apps, the Online Franchise Companion App requires OS 3.0 or later. It also requires at least 1.6 MB of storage, so start deleting contact pictures or a few of those rubbish KMFDM tunes to make room if space is at a premium.

This thing is currently free, so download it before it charts on iTunes just in case EA decides to bump the price to something that isn’t free.

The latest Wolfenstein release didn’t sell well during its launch week. According to the latest NPD numbers, a mere 106,000 units were sold between August 25th and August 29th. The Xbox 360 version -- which we reviewed -- accounted for 59,000 of those units, while the PS3 version carried 30,000. In short, it didn’t beat Madden.

That comparison is relevant, actually. In August, Raven Software designer Manveer Heir offered to pay consumers for every copy of Wolfenstein if it beat Madden NFL 10 in sales. But that's not going to happen. According to the NPD Group, Madden 10 sold 1.9 million across all platforms. One million of those units sold were for the Xbox 360 version, while 643,000 and 424,500 were sold for the PS3 and PS2 respectively.

A sound spanking that developer Raven -- and certainly Heir -- saw coming. As GameSpot notes in their Wolfenstein article, it seems as though the studio prepared for bad sales by handing out pink slips to some of the game's staff shortly after the game shipped.

[via GameSpot]

The debate destruction trail continues hot off the heels of Guitar Hero's corpse from last week. Another week, another homicide. This one wasn't as horrible to witness, but it still made you want to watch because you just knew it was going end bad. So why compare these kinds of series if it's expected to have a slaughterhouse score of an outcome? Because both sides are part of million dollar industries, and should have no excuses for going head to head against any of their genre's competition. Hate the games, not the game debates. Here's the autopsy from last week:

• Mario Kart series (93 votes) -- Winner!
• Gran Turismo series (28 votes) -- Banana peel!

This week brings a head-to-head debate for a full contact feud in the game industry. In this classic case of fun versus realism, we're up against the exact opposite odds of last week. Financially speaking, this time the realistic game is the profitable protagonist of its genre, with Blitz enduring the pariah plague despite knowing it will never go to the profit playoffs. All of this will be taken into consideration, but in game debates all bets are off and it's up to you to decide the winner.

Which series do you like better as a whole, and why? What aspects or individual games of the series made up your mind? Give it some serious thought, get your football gaming friends to share their opinions as well, and check back next week for the winner.

Bonus Question: What is one thing you do not enjoy about the series you voted for?

Electronic Arts delivers. Swift Michael Vick is joining the Madden NFL 10 roster after his reinstatement into the NFL. Specifically, he will wear the Kelly green, silver, and brilliant white as all members of the Philadelphia Eagles. In the gallery below you can check out a few fresh images of the quarterback in action.

Michael Vick was booted from the football league several years ago. He served a two-year prison sentence in Virginia for animal cruelty charges after it was found that the millionaire operated a dog-fighting ring. His reinstatement comes with a caveat: Vick is suspended an additional several weeks.

We haven’t taken a gander at his stats, but we’re guessing prison hasn’t boosted his accuracy rating, which was always a touchy stat when he was included in the game.

After a short run against the Washington Redskins, the dreaded notice came up: “B. [Brandon] Jacobs is going to be evaluated by team doctors.” The New York Giants subbed in their smaller, faster running back, Ahmad Bradshaw, while I sat on the edge of my seat, wondering if Jacobs was going to be okay. After two or three plays, a graphic informed me that Jacobs had suffered a strained hip, and that I could put him back in the game -- although the risk of re-injury was “medium.”

I took a chance and brought him back in. On the next play, I called an off-tackle run to the right side, figuring I’d test his hip for any adverse effects. Jacobs took the handoff from quarterback Eli Manning and ran to the right, toward the open field. A Redskins cornerback attempted to arm-tackle the big man, but Jacobs brushed off the defender and continued forward. A few yards later, two Redskins grabbed hold of him, and then another one added himself to the pile. All the while, Jacobs kept his legs churning, trying to gain a few extra yards.

The first defender lost his grasp on Jacobs; that lapse allowed the halfback to break free, and then he was off to the races. But I noticed, with a mix of amazement and concern, that Jacobs’ gait had, indeed, been affected by the strained hip. He was running like a deer that had been wounded in the leg, clutching the injured hip with his free hand while running as fast as he could down the sideline. He scored, and to celebrate, I somersaulted into the end zone. (Watch it all unfold here.)

The story that Samit just related is only possible in two places -- real life, and EA Sports’ Madden NFL 10. It proves the degree of dedication of EA Tiburon, the development team, to their motto: “if you see it on Sunday, you’ll see it in Madden NFL.” How well did they succeed? Find out below, where Brad Nicholson and Samit Sarkar review Madden NFL 10 with an assist from Destructoid’s Video Director, Rey Gutierrez. (For Samit and Brad’s initial impressions, head here.)

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It's that time of year again. Madden is out, and when Madden comes out the sports world and the game world collide for a brief moment before rebounding back to their proper places. What happens when loudmouth sports stars, the release of Madden and the ability to address the entire internet via Twitter collide? Something between hilarity and idiocy.

Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson (who legally had his name changed to Ocho Cinco) has laid down the challenge to the world via his Twitter: "Estaban 85 is my gamer tag! estaban 85, retweet to the world so I can takeover madden like pinky and the brain." Oh, it's on Estaban85, it is on! Hopefully Mr. Cinco is being a bit sarcastic about his Madden skills, but if not he's in for a sore surprise because I've got his name and I can pass the puck into a home run like none other. If you really want a laugh read back through the day's tweets as Ocho tries to set up his Xbox Live and create a Gamertag.

To make this post worthwhile I have included a video of Pinky and the Brain's opening below. They're Pinky, they're Pink and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Braaaain.

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What better way is there to spend a slow news Friday than to bring you fun and quirky stories from the world of videogame lore? Case in point: our video director R3y headed out to Wal-Mart last night at midnight to pick up his copy of Madden NFL 10. When he got to the register, he was informed that his purchase also came with one of three free items: Gillette shaving cream or deodorant (or deo-bro-dorant, as Topher calls it) or little Xbox 360 stickers that you stick under your eyes that replace those black smears you see real pros sporting. How manly!

R3y figured there was nothing better than improving your personal scent while on the go, so he went for the travel deodorant. We had a laugh about it when he arrived at work today. You guys ever get any weird of interesting promo items like this for buying a game?

This is a thing that's happening: Raven Software designer Manveer Heir has offered to pay for your copy of Wolfenstein if it outsells Electronic Arts' Madden NFL 10 in August. While the final sales will be determined by NPD numbers, Heir does point out that anyone can be reimbursed worldwide. 

"Keep your receipt," he writes. 

Let's face it -- this is a bit ridiculous. Even Heir himself says "it's not likely." As excited as we are for the game -- Wolfenstein looks like it's shaping up to be a solid shooter -- we don't expect it (or anything else for that matter) to outsell Madden NFL 10 in August. Or September. Possibly also October. 

[via Destructoid Forums]